Excavated bones can reveal age and disease

GORINCHEM – The bones that are being excavated this week in the slot at the Great Tower in Gorinchem will be further investigated in the coming months. A physical anthropologist will try to determine the age of the persons buried at the church. Further investigation may also clarify whether the person in question suffered from a certain disease. This follow-up investigation will take several months. 

The excavations are being carried out after many more bone remains than expected were discovered earlier this year during the installation of a pipe for the fire extinguishing system in the tower. That the area around the church between the 13^de century and 1830 was used as a cemetery, was already known. The bones found will be reburied at the General Cemetery in Gorinchem after the completion of the follow-up research. If it concerns entire or large parts of the same skeleton, they will be given an individual number when reburied. The municipality of Gorinchem has set aside an amount of 40.000 euros for the archaeological research. The excavation must be completed this week. After that, the pipe for the fire extinguishing system will be installed and the trench can be paved again.

Lots of bones, but few jewels

This week, archaeologists are mapping what is found in the soil around the Gorcumse Grote Toren. Until 1830, people were allowed to be buried there. Many bones are found. The by-catch in the form of shards or jewelry is minimal. After some careful digging, archaeologist Sjeng Dautzenberg pulls a skull out of the mud. “Clearly a man. You can see that from the robust head. Jaap Stam type, so to speak. If it is a bit less clear, you can often see it from the shape of the bone edge of the eyebrows. They continue a bit further towards the nose. In men, that is more robust, to carry the strong neck muscles. If a corresponding pelvis is also found with the skull, you have a 95 percent certainty about the sex of the skeleton. Because you have men with a female head and vice versa. When determining the sex, you have twelve facets on which you can determine a score.” The skull in question lies next to another skull. According to Dautzenberg, this is a kind of bone pit. “I think that digging was done here at some point, for example to plant a tree. All the bones they found at the time were apparently thrown together in a pile. Sanded over them and that’s it.” Elsewhere in the trench, the bones are still arranged in such a way that you can clearly see a human skeleton in them. The archaeologists carefully remove the mud with hand brushes and scrapers. The remains that were found in early January were temporarily covered at the time, so that city archaeologist Eliza van Rooijen had time to draw up a good plan of action for further investigation. Van Rooijen: “We knew that the area around the church had been used as a cemetery. That happened everywhere. They started in the church, then outside.

Since 1830, burials have been required outside the city limits.” During their excavations, archaeologists find new graves under every skeleton they find. These are left untouched. Van Rooijen: “We dig to the depth required to install the fire extinguisher. We map everything we find in that layer. Sometimes they are almost complete skeletons, still lying as they were once laid down. Neatly folded with their hands on their pelvis. In other places, everything is completely mixed up, probably due to previous excavations. What is striking is that all the bodies are lying in an east-west direction. This was done so that when the last day dawned, those who came back to life would face east. So the feet are east, the skulls west.” Van Rooijen notices that so few potsherds and jewellery are found. “I don’t really have an explanation for that yet. Apparently, little went into the grave. We do find wooden remains of coffins. These can be used in the follow-up research to determine how old a skeleton is. Some bones of animal skeletons are also found. But they could also have ended up there with groundwork.” Van Rooijen expects that the standard report on the excavation will be ready in about three months.

Volunteer on her knees five hours a day

Toos Busch of the Gorcumse Werkgroep Archeologie is working as a volunteer this week for about five hours a day in the trench at the Grote Toren. Under the supervision of Hollandia Archeologists, she is searching for the remains at the old cemetery. “It is great fun to do, especially because it is in your own city. I also helped with research in Dordrecht, at the location where the Health Centre was built. But that feels different, it is further away from you. I help here with tracking down the bones and skeletons, but also with measuring everything we find.”