Wharram Percy

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Ruins of St Martin's Church

Wharram Percy is a deserted area on the western edge of the Yorkshire Wolds in North Yorkshire , England . It is approximately 1 mile south of Wharram-le-Street . Wharram Percy was in the East Riding of Yorkshire until the 1974 border changes . Wharram Percy is a well-explored and very well-preserved desert, although there are other desertions in similar condition.

history

Even if the place seems to have been inhabited since prehistoric times , its main settlement period may have been between the 10th and 12th centuries. The Domesday Book lists it as a Warran or Warron . The addition Percy comes from a noble family who owned the surrounding area in the Middle Ages.

The Black Death from 1348 to 1349 does not seem to have contributed significantly to Wharram Percy's abandonment, although the depopulation of the period led to a move to larger settlements.

In 1402 or 1403 the Percy family exchanged their property in the area with the Hylton family . Changes in prices and wages in the 15th century made pasture farming (especially sheep breeding ) more productive than grain cultivation . Over the centuries the Hylton family used more land to raise sheep and farm laborers became less employed. In the early 16th century, the last of the residents were evicted and the buildings demolished to leave more land for sheep farming.

The place's earthworks were long known and the outlines of houses were included in the first Ordnance Survey Map of Yorkshire in 1854. The site was explored by teams of archaeologists , historians and botanists every summer from 1950 to 1990 , after it was mentioned in 1948 by Professor Maurice Beresford of the University of Leeds .

present

Looking north over the fish pond and the desert

The place is now looked after by Historic England . Even if the ruins of the church are clearly visible, more of the place can be seen in the vicinity. English Heritage has put up information boards. An audio tour in MP3 format is available on the English Heritage website.

The Yorkshire Wolds Way National Trail runs through the village. The Centenary Way, another long-distance hiking trail , runs to the east of the village.

Investigation of archaeological skeletal finds

A 2004 scientific study of skeletal finds records details of the illnesses, diets and causes of death in residents.

In 2017, a study of skeletons was presented that had already been found in the 1960s but had not been examined initially. Cuts, fractures of long bones, and marks of burns were found on the remains of the dead. The investigation showed that these traces cannot be explained by the use of force on living people. The thesis that they are strangers could be ruled out by analyzing the teeth. Possible explanations for the tracking cannibalism and the attempt to remain in front of revenants ( "Undead", Engl. Revenants to protect).

Cannibalism was not uncommon in times of famine. The fractures of the long bones, which could have served to extract the marrow , support this thesis . On the other hand, the position of most incisions in the neck, head and chest area and not - as is otherwise to be expected - in the joints, speaks against it.

The popular belief that the dead rose from the graves and spread disease or attacked the living is supported by medieval sources as well as the recommendation to behead and burn the dead. The traces on Wharram Percy's skeleton finds could be explained by the fact that the bodies were beheaded, dismembered and burned soon after death to prevent the dead from rising from the grave. Against this thesis, however, speaks that the find also contains bones of women and children, but the medieval sources only tell of male revenants. The removal of the body parts in a pit near the apartment buildings also seems inconsistent with the fear of revenants. The authors of the study do not consider the evidence to be clear enough to unequivocally favor one of the two explanatory models, but finally emphasize the thesis that it could have been a question of protection against revenants as entirely possible. The Wharram Percy find may therefore represent the first archaeological evidence of this practice.

Publications

  • Susan Wrathmell: Wharram Percy: Deserted Medieval Village. English Heritage, London 1996, ISBN 1-85074-620-6 .
  • Kenneth Thompkins: Wharram Percy. The Lost Medieval Village. The Richard Stockton College, New Jersey OCLC 44355319 ( loki.stockton.edu from the director of the excavations at Beresford).

Web links

Commons : Wharram Percy  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ JM Eaton: An Archaeological History of Britain: Continuity and Change from Prehistory to the Present. 2014, p. 151 (English: books.google.de ).
  2. ↑ OS Yorkshire Sheet 143, 6 ″ = 1 mile, measured: 1850–51, published: 1854.
  3. ^ M. Aston: Interpreting the Landscape: Landscape Archeology and Local History. 1985, p. 67 (English: books.google.de ).
  4. ^ Simon Mays: Human Osteology at Wharram Percy: Life and death in a medieval village. in: Historic England Conservation Bulletin, Issue 45, Spring 2004, pp. 22-23 ( english-heritage.org.uk PDF).
  5. ↑ Barbara Brodman and James E. Doan: The Universal Vampire: Origins and Evolution of a Legend . Fairleigh Dickinson, March 8, 2013, ISBN 978-1-61147-581-4 , p. 161.
  6. ^ S. Mays, R. Fryer, AWG Pike, MJ Cooper, P. Marshall: A multidisciplinary study of a burnt and mutilated assemblage of human remains from a deserted Mediaeval village in England. In: Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports. Published online April 2, 2017, on Science Direct , accessed April 6, 2017
  7. ↑ Maev Kennedy: Medieval villagers mutilated the dead to stop them rising, study finds. In: The Guardian , April 3, 2017, accessed April 6, 2017

Coordinates: 54 ° 4 ′ 12.7 "  N , 0 ° 41 ′ 25.3"  W.