Thomas Batemans Ten Years Diggings :: Archaeology Archaeological Essays

doubting Thomas Batemans Ten Years DiggingsThomas Bateman at Calver Low, Derbyshire in 1860 Having been informed, on the thirtieth of August, that some skeletons had been discovered the day before, by men baring the controversy preparatory to quarrying it, at the verge of the cliff overlooking the limekilns at Calver Low, I immediately went to the place and found that there had been five skeletons bury in a line side by side, a fewer feet apart, in graves sunk down to the rock which is there close to two feet below the turf. The bodies were all extended at length with the heads to the west, so as not merely to admit of the corpses facing the east, as is the Christian custom of burial yet observed, but in this case besides to face the village, and the pleasant valley extending towards Baslow--either motive may turn over prompted the arrangement, as there is reason to believe the interments to be of the Anglo-Saxon period, although it was suggested at the time, in one of the loca l papers, that they were remains of some who perished during the ravages of the plague at Eyam in 1666.In returning to the narrative, it will be best to describe the some(prenominal) skeletons, numbering from the north, premising that the legs of all had been cut away, owing to their being so attached the border of a cliff, which descends for a considerable distance almost perpendicularly, having commodious been quarried for lime burning.1.-A young person with very slender drum, the femur 17 1/2 inches long, undisturbed with the exception of the skull, which had been broken and robbed of the teeth old to our visit a small bit of coarse red pottery was picked up amongst the earth near the bones.2.-Removed before our arrival, but from the few bones preserved, it appears that the person was older than the first, although the femur measures 16 1/2 inches only-the skull thin, a good deal decayed and very imperfect.3.-Removed-the skull very perfect when found, since reave of the who le of the facial bones. The calvarium and lower jaw have been recovered. The former presents, when viewed from above, an ovoid outline with a very full occipital protuberance the last mentioned is well formed, and the state of the teeth indicates an early adult age. Imperfection in the thigh bones prevents measurement, they do not however appear to have been very long.