Like many medieval towns, Quedlinburg once had a place of execution where condemned people were hanged or executed in other ways. Excavations on the old Galgenberg have now revealed the remains of some of these execution victims – as well as some unusual finds. Among them is a dead man in a coffin who was probably not a convicted person. The skeleton of a person with heavy stones on his chest, on the other hand, could reflect the fear of “revenants”.
In the Middle Ages, death sentences for serious crimes were not uncommon and took place in public. The condemned were usually taken to a special place of execution that was located a little outside of town, but was still easily accessible for onlookers. After the execution – often by hanging from the gallows – the dead were often buried on site because they were not allowed to be buried in the consecrated ground of the cemeteries. The investigation of places of execution and the dead buried in their vicinity can therefore provide remarkable insights into penal practices in the Middle Ages and the early modern period.
The more than thousand-year-old town of Quedlinburg in Saxony-Anhalt – part of the UNESCO World Heritage Site – once had such a place of execution. It was located on the so-called Galgenberg, a hill northeast of the town. According to historical records, a gallows stood there from 1662, but it was not used again until 1809 and was dismantled. Archaeologists from the State Office for Monument Preservation and Archaeology in Saxony-Anhalt had already uncovered the bones of the dead there. This is why excavations on the Quedlinburg Galgenberg were intensified this year and last year. The archaeologists led by excavation director Marita Genesis made further discoveries.
Bone pit with the bones of executed people
The more recent discoveries include two bone pits in which the bones of several dead people were randomly stacked next to each other in several layers. As the archaeologists explain, the body parts of the hanged or broken on the wheel that had been severed during the execution or during the decomposition process were thrown into such pits by the executioners and their assistants when they were “cleaning up” the execution site. However, the archaeologists have difficulty determining how many execution victims ended up in the two bone pits in Quedlinburg and who they were.
“I cannot say that this thigh bone belongs to this skull. But I can say: I have 16 right thigh bones in this pit, so there must be at least 16 different individuals,” said anthropologist Jörg Orchiedt to MDR. In addition to human remains, remains of clothing, such as buttons and buckles, and ceramic fragments were also found in the pits. According to the archaeologists, this could indicate that the people executed in Quedlinburg were allowed to wear their own clothes. This is rather unusual because the executed were usually put to death in the most dishonorable and undignified way possible.
Suicides and revenants
Even more unusual, however, is the discovery of a coffin with a dead body carefully laid inside it at the Quedlinburg execution site. The skeleton, lying on its back in the coffin with its hands folded in the stomach area, was very well preserved. The dead man was also given a rosary chain – this testifies to an unusually dignified burial for an execution site. “These coffins, of which there are very few at execution sites, may have been used to bury suicides,” explains Marita Genesis. According to Christian dogma, anyone who chose to commit suicide in the Middle Ages was considered a sinner and was not allowed to be buried in the consecrated ground of the cemetery. This could explain why this person was buried in a normal coffin but in the rather inglorious surroundings of the execution site.
Also unusual is the discovery of a dead man who was buried lying on his back with heavy stones on his chest. Archaeologists suspect that this could be a so-called “revenant grave”. In the Middle Ages, people who had died in a particularly cruel way or without being baptized were considered to be potentially walking dead. “Sometimes it says in historical sources: they walk around until their time comes,” Genesis explains to MDR. “To prevent this, some people were weighed down with these stones.”
Due to the numerous findings and discoveries, the investigations will be continued and intensified this year by the State Office for Monument Preservation and Archaeology of Saxony-Anhalt.
Source: State Office for Monument Preservation and Archaeology Saxony-Anhalt