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MEDIEVAL ROYAL AND EPISCOPAL BURIALS IN WINCHESTER CATHEDRAL

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 October 2021

John Crook
John Crook*
Affiliation:
Hillside, Brede, TN31 6EJ, UK. Email: [email protected]
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Abstract

The Chapter of Winchester Cathedral, in conjunction with biological anthropologists and other specialists, are currently studying the contents of the cathedral’s well-known ‘mortuary chests’. It is clear that they contain the jumbled remains of many more people than the eleven kings and bishops named on the surviving chests, which date from c 1525 and the 1660s. In this paper the archaeological and documentary evidence for earlier arrangements for housing the cathedral’s royal and episcopal bones is examined, identifying up to twenty-five possible occupants of the chests. This will establish the context for the continuing analysis and identification of the skeletal material.

Keywords

Winchester Cathedralpre-Conquest royal burialsmedieval tombsmortuary chests
Type
Research paper
Information
The Antiquaries Journal , Volume 102 , September 2022 , pp. 134 - 162
Copyright
© The Author(s), 2021. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of The Society of Antiquaries of London

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