Bodies Found In Medieval Well Probably Victims Of An Anti-Semitic Massacre

The bones have been identified as Ashkenazi Jews, and this discovery overturns thinking about Jewish history.

STEPHEN LUNTZ
Freelance Writer

Aug 30, 2022 10:33 AM

Scientists have used DNA from bones found in Norwich to not only reconstruct who they came from and how they probably came to be there, but to change the thinking on an important event for understanding human genetics. Ironically, the researchers were only able to get the results they did because when they started, they didn’t know what they were examining.

The 2004 discovery of human bodies at the bottom of a medieval well naturally attracted archaeological interest. However, with no records and little context, the chances of unraveling their story seemed slim. Nevertheless, the fact that parts of at least six adults and 11 children were mixed together hinted this was no ordinary burial, indeed the bodies appeared to have been thrown head-first into the well at the same time.

As the capacity to extract DNA from old bones has improved, a team led by Professor Ian Barnes of the Natural History Museum, London, has gained some answers. In Current Biology, they report that six individuals, from whom high coverage DNA was sequenced, carried several genetic disorders, specifically those that today are far more common among Ashkenazi Jews than among Shephardi Jews or any non-Jewish population. A distant ancestry in the Middle East was also detectable.

Given the method of disposal and the individuals’ ethnicity, the chances are high that these were victims of the 1190 Norwich massacre of Jews by crusaders. They could also be from another of the late 12th Century pogroms that never made it into the history books.

More:
https://www.iflscience.com/bodies-found-in-medieval-well-probably-victims-of-an-anti-semitic-massacre-65111