The remains of 17 bodies found at the bottom of a medieval well in England could have been victims of persecution, new evidence has suggested.
The most likely explanation is that those down the well were Jewish and were probably murdered or forced to commit suicide, according to scientists who used a combination of DNA analysis, carbon dating and bone chemical studies in their investigation.
The skeletons date back to the 12th or 13th Centuries at a time when Jewish people were facing persecution throughout Europe.
They were discovered in 2004 during an excavation of a site in the centre of Norwich, ahead of construction of the Chapelfield Shopping Centre. The remains were put into storage and have only recently been the subject of investigation.
Seven skeletons were successfully tested and five of them had a DNA sequence suggesting they were likely to be members of a single Jewish family.
DNA expert Dr Ian Barnes, who carried out the tests, said: “This is a really unusual situation for us. This is a unique set of data that we have been able to get for these individuals.
“I am not aware that this has been done before – that we have been able to pin them down to this level of specificity of the ethnic group that they seem to come from.”
Join the official YWN WhatsApp status
8 Responses
why am i not surprised…
That was in general a violent time. They would need artifacts or some uniquely Jewish DNA (or at least, middle eastern DNA) to be able to assume they were Jews. Do they have any contemporary accounts of Jews being thrown down wells? A citation to a more scholarly account would be useful.
more detailed accounts at:
http://www.dundee.ac.uk/pressreleases/2011/june11/historycoldcase.htm
While the person who did the research is a very reputable forensic anthropologist, one should be wary of a scholar who works for a prime time TV show rather than publishing their findings in a scholarly journal.
Wasn’t the blood libel of William of York around that time? This is further proof that we were not treated well by the non Jews for many centuries.
These remains have been without a yiddishe kevura for hundreds of years and now for the last 7 years they’ve been sitting in some storage place. Isn’t there some wing of Misaskim in England that could speed up their proceedings and bring these remains to a proper burial?
So what about kevod hamet then???? (how much more so if they murdered al kiddush H”!)
If they are demonstrated to be Jews (who else?) perhaps it can be arranged that their remains be brought to Kever Yisroel.
I think these murders of Jews in medieval times were caused by the anger of “Israeli aggression” in 1967.
If Israel were to cede the “occupied” West Bank, then the world would love the Jews – NOT.