Craig-Atkins, E. orcid.org/0000-0003-2560-548X, Crangle, J., Barnwell, P.S. et al. (5 more authors) (2019) Charnel practices in medieval England: new perspectives. Mortality, 24 (2). pp. 145-166. ISSN 1357-6275
Abstract
Studies of English medieval funerary practice have paid limited attention to the curation of human remains in charnel houses. Yet analysis of architectural, archaeological and documentary evidence, including antiquarian accounts, suggests that charnelling was more widespread in medieval England than has hitherto been appreciated, with many charnel houses dismantled at the sixteenth-century Reformation. The survival of a charnel house and its human remains at Rothwell, Northamptonshire permits a unique opportunity to analyse charnel practice at a medieval parish church. Employing architectural, geophysical and osteological analysis, we present a new contextualisation of medieval charnelling. We argue that the charnel house at Rothwell, a subterranean room constructed during the thirteenth century, may have been a particularly sophisticated example of an experiment born out of beliefs surrounding Purgatory. Our approach enables re-evaluation of the surviving evidence for charnel practice in England and enhances wider narratives of medieval charnelling across Europe.
Metadata
Item Type: | Article |
---|---|
Authors/Creators: |
|
Copyright, Publisher and Additional Information: | © 2019 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group. This is an author-produced version of a paper subsequently published in Mortality. Uploaded in accordance with the publisher's self-archiving policy. |
Keywords: | Charnel; human remains; medieval; church architecture; Purgatory |
Dates: |
|
Institution: | The University of Sheffield |
Academic Units: | The University of Sheffield > Faculty of Arts and Humanities (Sheffield) > Department of Archaeology (Sheffield) |
Funding Information: | Funder Grant number THE SOCIETY FOR MEDIEVAL ARCHAEOLOGY None |
Depositing User: | Symplectic Sheffield |
Date Deposited: | 12 Mar 2019 09:42 |
Last Modified: | 15 May 2020 00:38 |
Status: | Published |
Publisher: | Taylor & Francis |
Refereed: | Yes |
Identification Number: | 10.1080/13576275.2019.1585782 |
Open Archives Initiative ID (OAI ID): | oai:eprints.whiterose.ac.uk:143539 |