Excavations of the mass graves shown in progress. Screenshot stills from Durham University video. [Durham University]
Posted on 09/04/2015 11:37:14 AM PDT by SunkenCiv
In November 2013, during construction of a new café for the University's Palace Green Library, on the City's UNESCO World Heritage Site, human remains were uncovered by Durham University archaeologists who were present throughout the building work.
The jumbled skeletons of at least 17 and up to 28 individuals were subsequently excavated from two burial pits (a 29th individual was not exhumed). Since then the researchers have been carrying out a wide range of tests to establish their identities.
Experts initially considered that most of the evidence was consistent with the bodies being those of the Scottish soldiers but could not draw a firm conclusion from research conducted in 2014 because initial radiocarbon dating analysis indicated a slightly earlier date of death than the Dunbar battle.
However, further radiocarbon dating analysis of four additional samples, which were carefully selected to ensure a more precise result, in combination with the fact that some of the prisoners had smoked clay pipes -- known to be in common use in Scotland after 1620 -- has concluded that the date of death was between 1625 and 1660.
After combining the dates with the nature of the graves, the results of earlier scientific and observational tests that established the adult skeletons were all male, the fact that the skeletons were predominantly aged between 13-25 years old, and isotopic analysis showing the skeletons were of likely Scottish origin, the researchers concluded that the identification of the bodies as the Scottish soldiers from the Battle of Dunbar is the only plausible explanation.
(Excerpt) Read more at popular-archaeology.com ...
Excavations of the mass graves shown in progress. Screenshot stills from Durham University video. [Durham University]
YouTube: Scottish Soldiers Project -- Media Release
Was there any evidence of deaths due to violence suggesting they were killed in battle? The one skeleton sure had a nice set of teeth. There should have been buttons and belt buckles to help identify them within the graves. I can’t see them buried being naked.
We haven’t forgotten, laddie, and never will.
I think I read about this one when I was a kid — Cromwell was about to give up without starting combat because he didn’t have the high ground, and the Scots obliged by marching down the hill.
Cromwell (a distant relative of Thomas Cromwell, one of Henry VIII’s most trusted henchmen, until Hank had him beheaded) once said to the Presbyters, “I beseech then, in the bowels of Christ, consider that you may be mistaken.” Yeah, he had quite a way with words.
Perhaps there is such evidence, there are more articles online about it. Of course, perhaps they were stripped of everything, basically looted, after they dropped dead from the forced march.
“...isotopic analysis showing the skeletons were of likely Scottish origin”
So they can distinguish Scottish skeletal types from English, Welsh, Irish?
My ancestors left Dunbar for the Isle of Wight before heading to Maine in 1633. East Lothian is a swamp.
I’m not sure how my Scottish ancestors wound up here in America. I think of a joke, how Scots are locked in a struggle to the death with their sworn enemy, other Scots. The surprising part about the English conquest of Scotland is, why did they want it? :’)
Scots Prisoners and their Relocation to the Colonies, 1650-1654
http://www.geni.com/projects/Scots-Prisoners-and-their-Relocation-to-the-Colonies-1650-1654/3465
Scottish Prisoners of War
http://scottishprisonersofwar.com/
http://scottishprisonersofwar.com/battle-of-dunbar/
Following the trail of the 1650 Scottish Prisoners [Berwick, Maine]
http://oldberwick.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=262:following-the-trail-of-the-1650-scottish-prisoners&catid=53&Itemid=72
Miner family genealogy, Scottish Prisoners
http://minerdescent.com/2012/07/24/scottish-prisoners/
George Darling at the Battle of Dunbar
https://aaronjhill.wordpress.com/2011/05/31/george-darling-at-the-battle-of-dunbar/
Scottish Civil War: Battle of Dunbar
http://www.historynet.com/scottish-civil-war-battle-of-dunbar.htm
Durham Cathedral
https://minerdescent.files.wordpress.com/2010/08/durham-cathedral.jpg
Yes, because of the local mineral ratios, which get incorporated into the teeth and bones. It’s a nice method to use, because the minerals don’t go away; one of the prehistoric burials at Stonehenge was found to have been born on the European mainland, which is interesting.
Very interesting. Thanks.
He sure did. The speech I like, which in many ways applies to Congress, was this one:
"It is high time for me to put an end to your sitting in this place, which you have dishonored by your contempt of all virtue, and defiled by your practice of every vice.
Ye are a factious crew, and enemies to all good government.
Ye are a pack of mercenary wretches, and would like Esau sell your country for a mess of pottage, and like Judas betray your God for a few pieces of money.
Is there a single virtue now remaining amongst you? Is there one vice you do not possess?
Ye have no more religion than my horse. Gold is your God. Which of you have not bartered your conscience for bribes? Is there a man amongst you that has the least care for the good of the Commonwealth?
Ye sordid prostitutes have you not defiled this sacred place, and turned the Lord's temple into a den of thieves, by your immoral principles and wicked practices?
Ye are grown intolerably odious to the whole nation. You were deputed here by the people to get grievances redressed, are yourselves become the greatest grievance.
Your country therefore calls upon me to cleanse this Augean stable, by putting a final period to your iniquitous proceedings in this House; and which by God's help, and the strength he has given me, I am now come to do.
I command ye therefore, upon the peril of your lives, to depart immediately out of this place.
Go, get you out! Make haste! Ye venal slaves be gone! So! Take away that shining bauble there, and lock up the doors.
In the name of God, go!"
Other quotes HERE.
There being no clear favorite for some onlookers, enough to make a Feast Day of it, I hear afford themselves a wee mackeral-snapping, cheese-and-cracker sort of memorial moment.
Among those who do, there are those who order out for pizza, being so gauche about the entire affair, as to have it be one of those horrid 'Hawaiian' ham & pineapple monstrosities ---with anchovies.
Can you image such drek? To tempt the fates of indigestion in such manner. And then come wandering to these shores complaining loudly all the while of their own ongoing dyspepsia...
http://www.robertburns.org/encyclopedia/GeddesJenny.383.shtml
Go Roundheads!
Thanks Oatka. Cromwell was just an autocrat, who like Obama, used ad hominem attacks when he didn't get his way. Britain was lucky he only managed to survive nine years as the first modern dictator.
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