Medieval Monastic Cemeteries of Britain (1050-1600): a digital resource and database of excavated samples
Roberta Gilchrist and Barney Sloane 2005
In 1999 the Arts and Humanities Research Board (now Council) awarded a major research grant to Prof Roberta Gilchrist at the University of Reading to direct a national survey of medieval burial practice through the detailed study of excavated cemetery samples, primarily from religious houses. This detailed survey was undertaken by Research Fellow Barney Sloane, and covered the period c 1050 - 1600 CE. All forms of religious house were considered, and some comparanda from emergency cemeteries, parochial cemeteries, cathedral cemeteries and Jewish cemeteries were also gathered. Where the data permitted, digital plans of each cemetery were compiled, and a relational database constructed to capture all variable attributes of grave cut, skeletal demography, burial container, and artefacts associated with the burial.
The digital resource presented here covers over 8000 excavated medieval burials from 70 separate cemetery excavations in England, Wales and Scotland.