Roberta Gilchrist

Barney Sloane

This volume challenges previous assumptions about medieval burial through comprehensive study of excavated monastic cemeteries. Some 8000 graves are analysed from more than 70 cemeteries in England, Wales and Scotland, focusing principally on medieval religious houses (c.1050-c.1600) with comparative evidence from cathedrals, parish churches and Jewish cemeteries. The book is complemented by a fully accessible, web-mounted database archived with the Archaeology Data Service. The study offers an innovative reassessment based on a multidisciplinary framework: medieval visual and written sources are used to identify the distinct temporal and spatial contexts of medieval death. This approach emphasises the sequential nature of medieval death; from the preparation of the body, through to the construction of the grave, and the performance of commemorative rites after the burial. By highlighting the sequence of events, this volume places new emphasis on the significance of social identity, the agency of mourners, and the role of the family and community in medieval burial rituals. This close empirical study prompts greater attention to the recording and analysis of coffin and grave fills, and stimulates consideration of burial as a form of popular religious practice. For the first time it has been possible to explore medieval burial as a demonstration of private and communal belief that was expressed both diversely and intimately.

The Medieval Monastic Cemetery in Britain

Requiem

Christopher Thomas

Christopher Phillpotts

St Mary Spital, Bishopgate was founded in 1197, and grew to become one of the biggest institutions for the care of the sick in medieval London. This report details all the discoveries made during extensive excavations, from all aspects of the building materials to ceramic, pottery, glass and leather finds through to human and animal bones, and botanical and other remains. However this is an archaeological report with a difference. The editors wanted to make it as reader-friendly as possible, and the result is that all the different strands of evidence have been combined to provide a single chronological account of the priory and hospital, with current research debates covered in thematic sections. These cover topics such as as the hospital buildings, the lives of the inhabitants, and the role of St Mary's within the city of London, as well as the environmental evidence, 126 excavated human skeletons and the reuse of the site after the Dissolution of 1536. An interesting medieval site, examined in an accessible way.

Excavations at the Priory and Hospital of St Mary Spital, London

Gordon Malcolm

Several large-scale excavations by the Museum of London in the 1980s and 1990s have been combined with antiquarian surveys in this monograph to produce a remarkable picture of the priory. Founded in 1144, this highly unusual religious house evolved from a round-naved church and associated conventual buildings into one of London's premier palatial residences. It blended monastic elements, such as a large church and a cemetery, with examples of a great hall, residential ranges and service courts, found usually only at the palaces of the richest nobles.

Barney Sloane

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