Did Zombies Roam Medieval Ireland - strange & unusual archaeology & bizarre theories

CDfm

Here is something I saw on reddit that featured on Discovery News.

Did Zombies Roam Medieval Ireland?

Two 8th-century skeletons with stones shoved in their mouths suggest that the people of the time thought so.



THE GIST

• Archaeologists in Ireland have unearthed two 8th-century skeletons buried with stones stuck into their mouths.
• They believe this could have been a way to ensure the dead did not rise up like zombies.
• Bodies identified as revenants or the "walking dead" tended to be people who had lived as outsiders.

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This 8th-century skeleton was found in Ireland recently with a large stone shoved in its mouth. Click to enlarge this image.
Chris Read



Two early medieval skeletons were unearthed recently in Ireland with large stones wedged into their mouths -- evidence, archaeologists say, that it was feared the individuals would rise from their graves like zombies.
The skeletons, which were featured in a British documentary last week, emerged during a series of digs carried out between 2005 and 2009 at Kilteasheen, near Loch Key in Ireland by a team of archaeologists led by Chris Read from the Institute of Technology in Sligo, Ireland and Thomas Finan from the University of St. Louis.
The project recovered a total of 137 skeletons, although archaeologists believe that some 3,000 skeletons spanning from 700 to 1400 are still buried at the site.
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The "deviant burials" were comprised of two men who were buried there at different times in the 700s.
One of the men was between 40 and 60 years old, and the other was a young adult, probably between 20 and 30 years old. The two men were laid side by side and each had a baseball-sized rock shoved in his mouth.
"One of them was lying with his head looking straight up. A large black stone had been deliberately thrust into his mouth," Chris Read, head of Applied Archaeology at IT Sligo, said.
"The other had his head turned to the side and had an even larger stone wedged quite violently into his mouth so that his jaws were almost dislocated," he added.
Initially, Read and colleagues thought they had found a Black Death-related burial ground. Remains of individuals buried at the end of the Middle Ages with stones stuck in their mouths have hinted at vampire-slaying rituals.

It was believed that these "vampire" individuals spread the plague by chewing on their shrouds after dying. In a time before germ theory, the stone in the mouth was then used as a disease-blocking trick.
Since the vampire phenomenon didn't emerge in European folklore until the 1500's, the archaeologists ruled out this theory for the 8th century skeletons.
"In this case, the stones in the mouth might have acted as a barrier to stop revenants from coming back from their graves," Read told Discovery News.
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Revenants or the "walking dead" tended to be people who lived as outsiders in society, according to Read.
The two Irish men could have been considered potentially dangerous people, such as enemies, murderers, rapists or they could have been ordinary individuals who died suddenly from a strange illness or murder.
Anything outside the norm would have caused the community to fear that these people could have come back to life to harass their loved ones or others against whom they had a grudge.
The mouth was seen as a key part of the body for such a transformation.
"It was viewed as the main portal for the soul to leave the body upon death. Sometimes, the soul could come back to the body and re-animate it or else an evil spirit could enter the body through the mouth and bring it back to life," Read said.
According to Kristina Killgrove, a biological anthropologist at the University of North Carolina, the burials' dating is particularly interesting as it appears to predate historical records on revenants.
"I'm also intrigued by the fact that the two males were not buried at the same time but were nonetheless buried side-by-side in this non-traditional manner, which suggests these burials were not accidental or careless," Killgrove told Discovery News.


http://news.discovery.com/history/zombie-skeletons-ireland-grave-110916.html

Now I know its been given the Discovery Channel treatment but witches etc were not really part of Gaelic culture.

And, there were no catholic graveyards in modern times until 1830 or so. I remenber hearing that in Kerry people were buried standing up.

I just wondered what type of other finds are out there and even from prehistory, battles, famines etc.

R.Dub.Fusilier

if this helps the only time i ever heard about about "zombies" in Ireland was in a book , i cant remember the name of it,but it came to the conclusion that it was people with cancer.

CDfm

R.Dub.Fusilier wrote: »

if this helps the only time i ever heard about about "zombies" in Ireland was in a book , i cant remember the name of it,but it came to the conclusion that it was people with cancer.

I lol'd at the Zombie spin and covered a bit of the witches thing here which seemed a saxon thing.


http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2055739655

Ostrom

This was also a common fairy (spelling?) myth for individuals stricken with mania; the idea being that the fairies had replaced the real person with a replica. Could any of that mythology fit the dating?

slowburner

Ahh yes.....a thread open to supposition and inference.

Maybe the unfortunates were sufferers of narcolepsy and the stones were put in their mouths so no one could hear their screams :eek:

I've often told the story that the last in the line of the Powerscourts was buried in a glass coffin - the reason being that when a previous burial was exhumed, the corpse was found to have worn his finger tips away from scratching at the interior of the coffin lid.
Narcolepsy ran in the family.
I have no idea where I heard the story: chances are that I've probably been retelling the plot of some obscure Hammer film I saw and forgot. Maybe there is a grain of truth in my story though - anyone know (??)

CDfm

Here is a link to near contemporary burials of vikings in Dublin

Dublin’s Viking warrior burials

June 28, 2011 Categories: Irish archaeology articles by admin 1 Comment

Recent research carried out by a number of archaeologists, especially Linzi Simpson, Dr Stephen Harrison and Raghnall Ó Floinn, has uncovered substantial evidence for early Viking warrior burials in and around Dublin city. The majority of these burials have been dated to the 9th century AD, a period when Dublin was home to a large Viking longphort. A longphort is essentially a defended base used to raid the surrounding countryside, beside which Viking fleets could be moored. The name is derived from the Irish words for ship (long) and fort (phort). The Dublin longphort was founded in AD 841 and it soon became the epicentre of Viking activity in Ireland. Large numbers of warriors passed through its gates in search of wealth and riches through force of arms. However, as the archaeological evidence now indicates, the only reward many received was a shallow grave. As pagan warriors, these casualties of the Irish campaigns were typically buried with militaristic grave goods, such as swords, spears, shields and daggers, for use in the afterlife. This marks them apart from contemporary Irish burials which respected Christian conventions and were carried out without grave goods.


http://irisharchaeology.ie/2011/06/dublins-viking-warrior-burials/

Thats hardly Zombie believing stuff .

With the colonisation of Ireland and especially the famine lots of material and folklore was lost.

Communities disapperared - like this one.

Amazing archaeological find near Ballyshannon
Medieval grave, Ballyhanna, Ballyshannon
The
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13th Century coins found at Ballyhanna
The Donegal Democrat, Letterkenny
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During test excavations in 2001 for the proposed N15 Bundoran-Ballyshannon bypass, an exciting archaeological discovery was made. Human skeletal remains were unearthed in a green field on the outskirts of Ballyshannon, in the townland of Ballyhanna. Subsequent excavation on the site revealed the foundations of a medieval church and associated cemetery on the south bank of the river Erne. The site is thought to date from between 1100-1400 AD. Local history always relies on folk memory to fill in the gaps when written records are sketchy or non-existent; however, no such folk or local tradition has been handed down in the area concerning a burial site or church at Ballyhanna.

The first local clue to the presence of a church in Ballyhanna is contained in Hugh Allingham's (half-brother to the poet, William) history of Ballyshannon 1879; he discovered a 1609 inquisition which recorded ". ……"They also saie that in the said parish of Inishmacsaint is a chapple of ease, called Ffennoare (Finner) in Macginey, unto which said chapple the vicar of the said parish is to send a curate to saie divine service; and that that in the said parish also is another chapple called Ballihanny".

In the 1950s renowned local historian, Fr Paddy Gallagher, tried to locate the chapel at Ballyhanna. In keeping with a good mystery story, part of the townland was submerged when the Erne hydro-electricity scheme was being developed; however, from his research Fr Paddy was cinfident that there was no visible trace of a church at Ballyhanna even before the flooding. During the archaeological dig, the foundations of a building were uncovered, around which some graves were gathered, and this has given rise to speculation, that the long lost chapel has been found. The evidence pointed to a graveyard for a settled community who used it over the generations. Remains were in graves dug lengthways from west to east, with the feet pointing east. This was clear evidence that these were Christina burials, as the bodies were facing the rising sun in line with Christian resurrection beliefs. Further excavations revealed two mass graves, but it is important to note that the major portion of the site showed the graves in an organised fashion as would be the practice in a normal cemetery.

Over 1,000 remains were unearthed, but it was the discovery on a skeleton of two coins, which led to a verifiable date. These "long-cross" pennies date from the reign of Henry 111 (1251-1254) and Edward 1 (1276-1302). Also, the discovery of small pieces of quartz crystal beside some remains led to the conclusion that this was part of a religious custom. No doubt the work of the archaeological team and local historians will lead to further revelations about Ballyhanna in generations to come.*

* Article by Ballyshannon historian and former Donegal Historical Society President Anthony Begley, in "The Donegal Democrat" "Living in Ballyshannon" supplement October 2005

http://www.askaboutireland.ie/reading-room/history-heritage/heritage-towns/the-heritage-towns-of-don/ballyshannon/amazing-archaeological-fi/

slowburner

This, from CD's link above is worrying.
http://irisharchaeology.ie/2011/09/proposal-to-de-list-archaeological-and-historical-sites-that-post-date-1700/

The implications are enormous. Will there be hordes of metal detectorists on Vinegar Hill and other sites from 1798? As far as I know, if a site is not a listed national monument then metal detecting and similar activities cannot be policed effectively.

CDfm

Along with this there is evidence of defleshing.

uly 27, 2003
Ancient Irish burial rites ‘fleshed out’

Scott Millar

OUR pre-historic ancestors ceremoniously dismembered their dead, removing flesh from their bodies, before burying them in passage tombs, according to new archeological research. Body parts, notably skulls, are thought to have been kept on display for religious purposes. The gruesome findings were made by researchers at Queen’s University Belfast, who examined bones from the 4,000-year-old Millin Bay tomb in Co Down, and mirror those found by Swedish archeologists at Carrowmore in Co Sligo.
Previously it had been assumed that the remains had decomposed naturally following exposure to the elements. However the researchers identified cut marks on bones, suggesting that the corpses were dismembered and had their skin scraped off. Eileen Murphy, who worked on the research, drew on her experience at the Aymyrlyg graves excavation in Siberia. There she learnt to look for the tell-tale signs of what is thought to have been an ancient religious practice — short, fine scraping marks on the bone and cuts where tendons and ligaments were joined.
“After studying the dismembered and defleshed Russian remains, I decided to have another look at Irish neolithic bones. It is something that has been overlooked before and will now require a reassessment of our understanding of these ancient burial sites,” she said.
Ireland has more than 1,700 neolithic tombs, in some of the highest concentrations found in the world. Of these, fewer than 400 have been excavated. The most famous are those in the Boyne Valley, which include Newgrange, Knoth and Dowth.
These tombs are some of the oldest in the world and are believed to have been constructed about 3,200BC and to have been used as burial chambers for up to 1,000 years.
Gabriel Cooney, professor of archeology at University College Dublin, said: “In these tombs you rarely find single skeletons, but rather groups of cremated remains. In this way these neolithic people would seem to have been creating a new identity from their treatment of the dead.
“You also find different parts of the body treated in different ways, such as unburnt parts of the skull in with cremated remains. This would point to dismembering of the corpses.”
Human processing is believed to have been carried out to allow bodies to be transported over long distances or because certain body parts were used as religious totems.
George Eogan, an archeologist who has been involved in digs in the Boyne Valley for over 30 years, said: “Geological research, which we are currently concluding, indicates that building materials used in the Boyne Valley structures include large amounts of quartz from the Wicklow mountains and granite from the Mournes. This indicates an area of settled habitation that stretched over nearly 1,000 years and over a wide part of the country.
“Bodies may have been transported over a considerable distance to be buried in the Boyne area, which clearly had a deep religious and cultural significance that we do not fully understand.”
Defleshing and dismemberment as part of a pre-burial process is known to have occurred in a number of different cultures throughout the world. In Tibet, into even the modern period, bodies were not only dismembered but ground and fed to vultures.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/ireland/article850322.ece

I wonder was cannibalism on the menu