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> archaeologists working on a 17th-century cemetery Maybe it is just me, but 17th century seems way too recent to be digging people up. I’m into family history
by irrational 3y ago
> archaeologists working on a 17th-century cemetery
Maybe it is just me, but 17th century seems way too recent to be digging people up. I’m into family history and I know who a lot of my ancestors were back to the 1500s and even into the 1400s. There are surely people alive right now who could trace their family lines back to some of the people being dug up.
- Swizec 3y ago> but 17th century seems way too recent to be digging people up My SO recently visited her family tomb in France. It was gone. Lease lapsed, no more tomb. Last person was buried there some 40 years ago. Church didn’t know who to contact to renew the lease, good bye.
- irrational 3y agoThat’s crazy! What do they do with the bodies?
- Swizec 3y agoOssuary. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ossuary https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ossuary I think this is fairly standard practice in much of Europe where space is scarce. Moreso in larger towns and cities than rural villages. It’s also why family tombs are common in the first place. My grandpa’s family, for example, has shared the same cemetery plot since before ww1. That’s how you fit a whole village into one little tiny church cemetery.