Posted on 09/20/2021 6:05:00 PM PDT by marshmallow
Their grisly remains show the ugly brutality of the holy wars.
Archaeologists digging near a Middle Eastern castle have unearthed two mass graves containing the grisly remains of Christian soldiers vanquished during the medieval Crusades — and some of them could have even been personally buried by a king.
The chipped and charred bones of at least 25 young men and teenage boys were found inside the dry moat of the ruins of St. Louis Castle in Sidon, Lebanon. Radiocarbon dating suggests they were among the many Europeans who, between the 11th and the 13th centuries, were spurred by priests and rulers to take up arms in a doomed effort to reconquer the Holy Land.
Much like many who came to fight and plunder before them, the soldiers’ long and arduous journeys ended with their deaths — all as a result of wounds they received in battle. But despite the widespread casualties, mass graves from this bloody period of history are incredibly difficult to find.
"When we found so many weapon injuries on the bones as we excavated them, I knew we had made a special discovery," Richard Mikulski, an archeologist at Bournemouth University in the U.K., who excavated and analyzed the remains, said in a statement.
The archaeologists analyzed DNA alongside naturally occurring radioactive isotopes in the men’s teeth to confirm that some were born in Europe, and an analysis of different versions, or isotopes, of carbon in their bones suggests that they died sometime during the 13th century. Crusaders first captured St. Louis Castle just after the First Crusade in 1110. The invaders held onto Sidon, a key strategic port, for more than a century, but historical records show that the castle fell after it was attacked and destroyed twice — at first partially by the Mamluks.......
(Excerpt) Read more at livescience.com ...
I’m sorry but Crusaders is a politically incorrect word.
They should be called The Washington Redskins.
More evidence of how Islam is a religion of peace........../s
PING
were spurred by priests and rulers to take up arms in a doomed effort to reconquer the Holy Land.
Much like many who came to fight and plunder before them, the soldiers’ long and arduous journeys ended with their deaths — all as a result of wounds they received in battle. But despite the widespread casualties, mass graves from this bloody period of history are incredibly difficult to find.
No mention of why they were really there.
The "doomed" Crusader hold on the core of the Holy Land lasted nearly two centuries. Eventually the Turk invasion produced a unified caliphate which included N Africa w of Morocco, Egypt, the Red Sea coast of Arabia, the Levant, Anatolia, Greece, Crete, Cyprus, the entire coastline of the Black Sea, and much of the Balkans.
Yep
They were defending their town against an invasion which the original article states. Live science seems to have ignored that, didn't they.
The skeletons date from the second half of the Crusader period, when Christian-held Sidon came under direct assault from both the Mamluk Sultanate (1253 CE) and the Ilkhanate Mongols (1260 CE). It is likely that those in the mass graves died during one of these assaults.
How “grisly” can they be after being buried for 700-900 years?
Description of the find may indicate that the bodies may have just been thrown into the then moat.
On D-Day he said, " You are about to embark upon the Great Crusade, toward which we have striven these many months. The eyes of the world are upon you. The hopes and prayers of liberty-loving people everywhere march with you.
Could be the results of a mass funeral pyre. Plagues were frequent occurrences when strong-points were besieged. All of which makes me thing that mass graves being ‘difficult to find’ is complete BS. They aren’t looking hard enough, or thinking about where they would be most likely found. There are huge disincentives for ‘looking’ as construction projects are endlessly delayed.
It’s amazing how they can tell that the remains could have been buried by a king. Would that be Richard Coeur de Lion?
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