AI Image
Case of mysterious medieval skeleton buried in Roman-era sarcophagus at Westminster Abbey finally solved
Live Science • • world
Key Points:
- A mysterious sarcophagus discovered in Westminster Abbey in 1869 features an 11th-century Anglo-Saxon cross on its lid but a fourth-century Roman funeral inscription on its base, puzzling experts for nearly 150 years.
- When opened for conservation in 2016, the sarcophagus revealed a male skeleton carbon-dated between 987 and 1052, indicating the coffin was reused in the Middle Ages to bury a significant religious figure, likely an abbot.
- Archaeologist Warwick Rodwell identified two probable abbots buried there—Ælfwig or Wulfnoth—with Ælfwig favored since he was already a monk at Westminster; the lack of grave goods is attributed to early 19th-century looting.
- The reuse of a Roman sarcophagus for an 11th-century burial is highly unusual, and the origins of the coffin remain unclear, though it was made from Oxfordshire limestone and may have been relocated from a Roman mausoleum or villa near Westminster.
- The sarcophagus is now exhibited in the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee Galleries at Westminster Abbey, continuing to intrigue historians and archaeologists.
