Charnel practices in medieval England: new perspectives

Dawn Hadley; E Craig-Atkins; Paul Barnwell; Jenny Crangle; Allan Adams; Ian Atkins; Jessica-Rose McGinn; Alice James

doi:10.1080/13576275.2019.1585782

Charnel practices in medieval England: new perspectives

Dawn Hadley, E Craig-Atkins, Paul Barnwell, Jenny Crangle, Allan Adams (Illustrator), Ian Atkins (Illustrator), Jessica-Rose McGinn, Alice James

Archaeology

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

Abstract

Studies of English medieval funerary practice have paid limited attention to the curation of human remains in charnel houses. Yet analysis of architectural, archaeological and documentary evidence, including antiquarian accounts, suggests that charnelling was more widespread in medieval England than has hitherto been appreciated, with many charnel chapels dismantled at the sixteenth-century Reformation. The survival of a charnel house and its human remains at Rothwell, Northamptonshire permits a unique opportunity to analyse charnel practice at a medieval parish church. Employing architectural, geophysical, and osteological analysis, we present a new contextualisation of medieval charnelling. We argue that the charnel house at Rothwell, a subterranean room constructed during the thirteenth century, may have been a particularly sophisticated example of an experiment born out of beliefs surrounding Purgatory.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	145-166
Number of pages	22
Journal	Mortality
Volume	24
Issue number	2
Early online date	15 May 2019
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1080/13576275.2019.1585782
Publication status	Published - 2019

Bibliographical note

© 2019 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group. This is an author-produced version of the published paper. Uploaded in accordance with the publisher’s self-archiving policy. Further copying may not be permitted; contact the publisher for details.

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10.1080/13576275.2019.1585782

Craig-Atkins et al. Rothwell charnel chapel
© 2019 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group. This is an author-produced version of the published paper. Uploaded in accordance with the publisher’s self-archiving policy. Further copying may not be permitted; contact the publisher for details.
Accepted author manuscript, 15.4 MB

Cite this

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title = "Charnel practices in medieval England: new perspectives ",

abstract = "Studies of English medieval funerary practice have paid limited attention to the curation of human remains in charnel houses. Yet analysis of architectural, archaeological and documentary evidence, including antiquarian accounts, suggests that charnelling was more widespread in medieval England than has hitherto been appreciated, with many charnel chapels dismantled at the sixteenth-century Reformation. The survival of a charnel house and its human remains at Rothwell, Northamptonshire permits a unique opportunity to analyse charnel practice at a medieval parish church. Employing architectural, geophysical, and osteological analysis, we present a new contextualisation of medieval charnelling. We argue that the charnel house at Rothwell, a subterranean room constructed during the thirteenth century, may have been a particularly sophisticated example of an experiment born out of beliefs surrounding Purgatory.",

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