4,000 of London’s indigent and asylum inmates were uncovered in mass graves.
An Archaeologist for the London Rail Programme said today that thousands of bodies of London’s indigent population and asylum inmates have been uncovered during an archeological dig under London’s busiest streets.
Crossrail, Britain's largest construction project and archaeological dig in London, has been uncovering some very unusual artifacts ranging from pieces of a Roman road to solid gold Roman coins to a 2,000-year-old horseshoe. And now they have uncovered the ancient bones of Londoners, who passed away centuries ago, in what appears to be a mass grave.
Some of the archaeologists' most delicate and time consuming work involves removing and preserving the remains from the Bedlam burial ground, established in the 16th century underneath where Liverpool Street Station now stands. This latest finding is the second unearthing of skeletal bones in less than a year.
Thousands of Londoners were commonly buried in the grounds for a period of about 150 years. The decedents were mostly the indigent who could not afford proper funeral services. Others buried here were religious non-conformists and patients from the adjacent Bedlam Hospital, the world's first psychiatric asylum. Its’ name, a corruption of the word Bethlehem, became a synonym for chaos.
Second dig to uncover mass graves
Crossrail's lead Archaeologist, Jay Carver, said the project would eventually involve disinterring the remains of about over 4,000 people, a laborious task.
"This site is a rare, perhaps unprecedented opportunity," said Nick Elsden from the Museum of London.Earlier this year, the dig unearthed skeletons belonging to victims of the Black Death, the plague that wiped out half of London's population in 1348.Uncovering these skeletons gives us a rare glimpse into the lives of Londoners and their burial customs dating back thousands of years.
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