[ad_1]
Archaeologists digging near a Middle Eastern castle have unearthed two mass graves containing the gruesome remains of Christian soldiers defeated during the medieval crusades – and some of them may have even been buried personally by a king.
The chipped and charred bones of at least 25 young men and adolescents have been found in the dry moat of the ruins of Chateau Saint-Louis in Sidon, Lebanon. Radiocarbon dating suggests they were among the many Europeans who, between the 11th and 13th centuries, were prompted by priests and rulers to take up arms in a doomed effort to reclaim the Holy Land.
Like many who came to fight and loot before them, the soldiers’ long and arduous journeys ended in their deaths, all from wounds they received in battle. But despite the many casualties, the mass graves of this bloody period of history are incredibly difficult to find.
Related: Image album: A relative of a medieval knight?
“When we found so many gun wounds on the bones as we excavated them, I knew we had made a special discovery,” Richard Mikulski, archaeologist at the University of Bournemouth in the UK, who searched and analyzed the remains, said in a press release.
Archaeologists have analyzed DNA alongside naturally occurring radioactive isotopes in men’s teeth to confirm that some were born in Europe, and analysis of different versions, or isotopes, of the carbon in their bones suggests they died during the 13th century. The Crusaders first captured the Chateau de Saint-Louis just after the First Crusade in 1110. The invaders clung to Sidon, a key strategic port, for more than a century, but historical records show the castle to be fell after being attacked and destroyed twice – initially partially by the Mamluks in 1253 and later by the Mongols in 1260.
The researchers said it was “highly likely” that the soldiers perished in one of these battles, and by brutal means: the bones all bear stab wounds and wounds cut by swords and weapons. axes, as well as evidence of blunt trauma. The soldiers had more wounds on the back than on the front, suggesting that many were attacked from behind, perhaps as they were fleeing in a rout, and the distribution of these blows implies that their attackers were attacking them. loaded on horseback. A number of male remains also have blade wounds on the back of the neck, a sign that they may have been captured alive before being beheaded.
“An individual has suffered so many injuries (a minimum of 12 injuries involving a minimum of 16 skeletal elements) that it may represent an overkill incident, where much more severe blows were applied than was actually necessary for them. overcome or kill them, ”the researchers wrote in their study.
The charring of some of the bones suggests that someone tried to burn the bodies of the men as a result of their brutal deaths, after which their corpses were left to rot on the battlefield.
But the bodies were later taken to a mass grave, possibly after royal intervention. A belt buckle found among the bones indicates that the soldiers were Frankish and came from an area that included present-day Belgium and France. Their origin and the date they were killed suggest that the soldiers may have been buried by King Louis IX of France.
“Crusader records tell us that King Louis IX of France was on a crusade in the Holy Land at the time of the attack on Sidon in 1253,” said Piers Mitchell, an anthropologist at Cambridge University who was the expert of the project crusades, in the statement. “He went to town after the battle and personally helped bury the rotting corpses in mass graves like these. Wouldn’t it be surprising that King Louis himself helped bury these bodies?
The King of France, one of the most famous rulers of his time, who was later canonized as a saint, led two invasions into the Holy Land – the Seventh and Eight Crusades – after swearing to God that he would recapture the territory if he had divine assistance. recovering from malaria. Legend was that the devout king later died of the plague in 1270 while leading the Eighth Crusade, but more recent analysis indicates that he died of scurvy caused by his refusal to eat foreign food, has Live Science reported previously.
Archaeologists may never know who killed and then buried the soldiers in Sidon; but their graves offer a rare glimpse of a brutal period that is usually only described in written documents.
“So many thousands of people died on all sides during the Crusades, but it is incredibly rare for archaeologists to find the soldiers killed in these famous battles,” Mitchell said. “The wounds that covered their bodies allow us to begin to understand the horrific reality of medieval warfare.”
The results were published on August 6 in the journal PLOS ONE.
Originally posted on Live Science.
[ad_2]
Source link