Walls made of human skulls and leg bones uncovered next to Belgian church
Many questions surrounding the 'unique find' remain unanswered, says lead archaeologist
After a year-long excavation, archeologists in Belgium have uncovered walls made of human bones and crushed skulls — and it's left them with many questions.
The discovery was made in the churchyard of Saint Bavo's Cathedral in Ghent, Belgium, which is home to the famous Ghent Altarpiece.
While Belgium has other ossuaries, this is the first time archeologists have seen walls built with this kind of precision.
Janiek De Gryse is the archeologist leading the excavation. Here is part of her conversation with As It Happens host Carol Off.
What did you think when you first saw these walls made out of bones?
We thought that maybe it was another mass grave, as we found several before. So we didn't know exactly what it was. But when we carried out the investigation, soon it became very clear that it was like real walls built out of human material. We knew that it was a very unique find.
Where are the bones and how many? What's the, kind of, look of this?
Well, we have nine walls. [They are] very small walls. But they are built from human material. And there's really a selection in the human bones they use. They use the parts of the lower limbs. We don't have parts of the upper limbs. So they used only the thigh and the shinbones.
One of the questions we ask ourselves is: Is this a practical thing? Did they build it just to build it in a very compact way — or is this also a spiritual thing. Is there a religious thing?-
And there are skulls involved as well.
Yes, there are also skulls.
The areas between the walls, there are the skulls. So you have the thigh and shinbones, and then we have the skulls.
But were they being used as building materials, or was this storage, or what?
Well, I think you have to see it in the story of the clearances of the churchyards. When the cemeteries were cleared, often it was carried out quite rapidly — quite inaccurately. So they didn't bother to collect the fragile bones. One of the questions we ask ourselves is: Is this a practical thing? Did they build it just to build it in a very compact way — or is this also a spiritual thing. Is there a religious thing?
So we hope to answer these questions.
Do you have any idea whose remains these are — how long they have been in these walls around the cathedral?
At the moment, we know that the bones are from adult men and women. There are almost no bones of children.
But there are still a lot of questions we have to answer. And we hope to answer these questions with the inventory that we are going to make in association with the University of Ghent.
When you talk about the "clearance", this would be areas where there had been previously-interred bodies that were cleared in order to do other building, is that what you mean?
Yes. The bones are from older graves. And these old graves were cleared. So the graves were removed to make space for new ones.
And the skeletons — they couldn't be thrown away. Because the faithful, they believed in the total resurrection of the body. So the bones were considered to be the most important part of the body.
OK, it's a good theory — that they're very preserved there out of reverence. But what that doesn't explain why they're only part bones there — why is only the lower limbs of bones that are saved, and not the upper ones.
That's a very good question. And we don't know the answer yet. There are all kinds of theories.
I think that maybe in a couple of months we will have more information about this subject.
But this cathedral in Ghent is famous. It's been around for a long time — very celebrated. Why do you think it's taken so long to discover these bones in the walls?
It's difficult to answer. The bones were discovered because we are investigating the area — because the archeology is part of large-scale works. It's really the first time that someone did this, because now there was an urgency to do it.
Produced by Sarah Jackson. Q&A edited for length and clarity.