Issue 117

Mar / Apr 2011

Contents

news

All the latest archaeology news from around the country

on the web

Historical recipies to tempt the taste buds

requiem

Our tribute to the losses of 2010

my archaeology

rancis Pryor on his accidental career

spoilheap

Why study archaeology, and can it reveal the past?

letters

Your views and responses

features

10 big questions archaeology must answer

What can archaeology do for us?

THE BIG DIG: Winchester

St Mary Magdalen Hospital, with evidence of leprosy, TB and that Romans treated wounded soldiers

Return to La Cotte

Neanderthal butchering at this Jersey cave site

Dear Lord Chancellor

The human remains "crisis" continues, and children thank organisers

The one with archaeological evidence to support it

How the Stonehenge megaliths might have been moved

The Varmints Show

In the Varmints' fifth exploration of music and archaeology, we look at the 1990s Seattle grunge music scene.

ISSN 1357-4442

Editor Mike Pitts

feature

THE BIG DIG: St Mary Magdalen Hospital, Winchester

The Roman army looked after its men, and excavated remains suggest the disabled and elderly were cared for in early medieval times. But hospitals – medical institutions for the ill and infirm – came to Britain with the new monastic orders after the Norman conquest. Or so it was thought. Excavations by Simon Roffey and Phil Marter near Winchester are challenging this version of history.

Photomicrograph of Mycobacterium leprae taken from a leprosy skin lesion

The Department of Archaeology at the University of Winchester is studying the history and development of the medieval leper hospital and almshouse of St Mary Magdalen, Winchester, Hampshire. Like many such hospitals, the site was on the outskirts of the town suburbs, now some 1.6km (1 mile) east of the city. The land is arable, and relatively undisturbed by later urban encroachment.

We know little about early hospital foundations, and the only significant prior work at St Mary Magdalen was a small dig by Time Team for Channel 4 in 2000. Bad weather curtailed excavation, and the site's earlier history remained largely unknown. In late 2007 and early 2008 we looked at all the available evidence, and conducted a resistivity survey. This revealed foundations of several structures, including a precinct wall and earlier boundary ditches, which 18th century drawings identified as the former chapel, almshouse range, master's lodge and gatehouse and ancillary buildings. The stage was set for a planned long term excavation – the Magdalen Hill Archaeological Research Project (MHARP) – offering training for Winchester students, and directed by the authors.

After excavation between 2008 and 2010, we can now outline the site's history, from late Anglo-Saxon times to the 20th century. This is a rare opportunity to study the origins and development of institutional medical care through almost a thousand years. Particularly significant are the remains of several people who had suffered from leprosy. Here is the first apparent evidence for a hospital, for lepers, in Anglo-Saxon England.

Pious symbols

A 1780s drawing by Jacob Schnebbelie of the largely 12th century interior of the chapel of St Mary Magdalen, looking east

Medieval hospitals were religious institutions. Many were likely to have been organised along semi-monastic lines, and often specialised in distinct groups of people. One of the most common forms was the leprosaria, or "lazar house", which catered for people afflicted with leprosy. Now known as Hansen's disease, this can inflict extreme physical deformity and discomfort on its victims. In the middle ages it was linked to the sin of sexual "misconduct", and in 1175 the English Church Council at Westminster ordained that "lepers should not live among the healthy". It brought social stigma to king and peasant alike.

There are few examples of skeletal leprosy in England after 1550, and despite some evidence at Roman and early medieval sites, such as the Romano-British cemetery at Dorchester, Dorset, it is generally agreed that the late 11th to 14th centuries marked an acutely virulent phase of the disease. Almost a quarter of all hospitals were leper foundations. Often looming on the edge of towns and cities, they made a major impact on the urban landscape, physically and symbolically marking the boundaries of society. Their inmates – many of whom were given the last rites – were outcasts.

There were over 300 documented leper hospitals in medieval England, most founded before the 14th century. There are likely to have been many more smaller communities. The 13th century Life of St Hugh, for example, referred to leper communities on bishops' manors. These, mostly rural, examples would presumably leave little trace in the records.

Apart from the cemeteries, one of the most important being that excavated at the leper hospital of St James's, Chichester, West Sussex (feature, Jan/Feb 2009, no 104), evidence for the institutional context of medieval leprosy is rare.

The chapel at Stourbridge, Cambridgeshire, and the chapel and infirmary at Glastonbury, Somerset, are exceptional survivals from leper hospitals; contemporary descriptions of such buildings are few. Some early leprosaria may have been of low standard. The monk Eadmer informs us that the lepers at Harbledown, Canterbury, lived in timber buildings clustered around the chapel. Excavations at St Nicholas Farm, St Andrew's, Fife, revealed evidence for a timber structure that may have represented the first phase of the medieval hospital.

Generally, however, it is likely that leper hospitals were more substantial. The nature of the disease would have demanded considerable, long term accommodation. Many hospitals, founded on major roads into towns, would have presented potent, and pious, status symbols for their founders, often bishops. The buildings needed to be visually impressive and well-appointed.

The lepers on the hill

Anglo-Saxon skeleton showing advanced stages of leprosy: the whole of the upper mouth and nasal area has decayed

The site of St Mary Magdalen, Winchester, is first referred to as "the lepers on the hill" in the mid 12th century Winton Domesday. This community was likely a hospital refounded around the late 1140s by Henry de Blois, Bishop of Winchester (1129–71). It is called a leprosaria in the Bishop's Register of 1325, but by the mid 14th century the hospital was reported as being "slenderly endowed". This probably led to a refoundation and a programme of rebuilding: contemporary documents, such as wills, suggest marked lay patronage at the hospital.

In the 16th century St Mary Magdalen appears to have escaped Henry VIII's official dissolution. The hospital was still receiving endowments throughout this period, and contemporary documents indicate a reasonably healthy income. The masonry buildings were replaced with brick-built almshouses, leaving only the medieval chapel intact. By the end of the 17th century the institution had been variously used as a Civil War camp and a prison for Dutch prisoners of war, the latter forcing the permanent removal of the hospital residents and the destruction of much of the buildings.

By 1789 the remaining buildings were ruinous and were finally dismantled. Fortunately, on the eve of dismantlement the remnants of the almshouse and chapel were drawn by the English antiquarian artist Jacob Schnebbelie, and the last hospital master, William Wavell, wrote a description of the buildings. This work includes a wonderful set of illustrations revealing the chapel's late Romanesque decorated interior (see illustration previous page). The site was not to see any sustained use again until the early 20th century, when it became one of Hampshire's largest first world war bases.

Anglo-Saxon hospital

Anglo-Saxon grave with a niche for the body's head (scale 1m)

The first activity on the site is primarily represented by artefacts, pits, postholes and a large "cellared" or sunken-featured structure. Significantly this may compare to a building excavated at Bishopstone in East Sussex: part of an Anglo-Saxon high status, and possibly monastic, complex, it has recently been interpreted as the base of a timber tower. Towers were certainly features of high-status late Anglo-Saxon settlements, with Portchester, Hampshire, being another example. It is likely that a chapel, among other structures not yet fully excavated, also formed part of this early foundation.

To the east of this building were further postholes, as well as trenches and beam slots, likely indicative of another building, raising the interesting possibility of an early timber infirmary (this will form the basis for excavation in 2011). Artefacts, including writing equipment and pottery, support a pre-Norman conquest occupation. Furthermore, excavation in trench 12, in the area of the later, medieval, chapel, uncovered part of a flint and rubble wall below Norman structures. This wall lies east-west but on a different alignment to the Norman building, and may be part of an Anglo-Saxon chapel.

A large group of burials also underlies the later medieval phases, on the north side of this chapel, in trench 14. At least one of these graves (as yet unexcavated) was cut by the 12th century chapel north wall, and thus predates it. We excavated 13 of these burials. Most were male, of varied ages, with at least four females and two children. All burials were placed in body-shaped or anthropomorphic chalk-cut graves, several with ledges, perhaps for grave slabs. Few of them intercut, suggesting that they were marked, possibly by slabs or by the flints we found in some of the grave fills. Overall, it is clear that a level of care and consideration was taken over the burial of these individuals.

Initial examination of the remains, conducted by MHARP osteoarchaeologist Katie Tucker, indicates that eight individuals present signs of leprosy. The main evidence for this is in the form of a marked degeneration of the facial skeleton and destruction and wasting of the foot phalanges, as well as bony changes to the lower legs and feet. One burial with severe leprosy had lost most of the maxillary alveolar bone (on the face) and the right foot; the left leg appears to have been amputated at the level of the distal tibia and fibula. One individual may have suffered from TB, and another has signs of degenerative disease and possible chronic chest infection, in the form of loose bony plaques.

We sampled two burials with evidence for leprosy for radiocarbon analysis (SK8 and SK9). SK8 provided a 95% probability date of AD1010–1160 (with a spike in the graph around 1030–40), and SK9 gave a 65% probability of AD980–1060. Both could thus have been pre-conquest burials, that is older than 1066. A further sample from sk9 was dated with 95% probability to AD890–1040, with a clear spike in the area of AD970–1030. Both burials are several metres from the Anglo-Saxon chapel, so there is a strong possibility that those nearer the building, yet unexcavated, will prove to be earlier.

Infirmary to barracks

MHARP geophysics plot beside Schnebbelie's plan of the buildings surviving in the 18th century

These early remains are succeeded by the foundations of a substantial masonry hall, raised over the site of the "cellared" structure. This was likely the documented 12th century leper hospital infirmary. The medieval chapel to the south was built of the same material – flint-faced walls with rubble cores – and is probably roughly contemporary. In the cemetery south of the chapel were burials with evidence for leprosy.

Aisles were added to this hall, dated by a range of finds, including pottery, coins and metalwork, to the 14th century; the south aisle had been divided into cells, indicating a level of privacy. Attached to the south was a building with a central tiled hearth, perhaps a master's lodge. These extensions were likely added as part of the 14th century refoundation noted above. Graves inside the chapel at this time included a plaster-lined tomb with a Purbeck marble slab, the contents of which had been later robbed. The earliest of these graves is dated to AD1290–1410 (95% probability).

In 2008/9, we excavated the late Tudor brick-built almshouse range and an adjoining master's lodge. This revealed that the almshouses were divided into individual units, each with a rear fireplace and an internal corridor providing access. A kitchen area and base for a staircase, giving access to an upper floor, were at the western end of the building. The adjoining master's lodge presented evidence for internal partitions, a fireplace and joist beam slots for a boarded floor; to the east was a brick-lined and tiled latrine.

The chapel and master's lodge survived throughout post-medieval times, while outside a mass of prison rubbish accumulated, comprising mostly animal bones, clay pipes and broken bottles. We excavated part of a circuit wall, likely from the prison enclosure. The western end of the buildings had subsided, probably due to the earlier cellared building beneath. The almshouse range was likely taken down before the 1780s, and the chapel and master's lodge were dismantled in 1789.

Finally, excavation revealed evidence for the first world war base, including part of a stable block, wooden bases for barrack blocks and drainage trenches and gravel paths. On another area of the site, we found the brick foundations of the camp cinema-theatre.

Anglo-Saxon altruism

Nicholas Orme, professor of history at Exeter University and an expert on medieval hospitals, says an important question is whether the Normans brought the idea of hospitals with them from France, or whether they were inspired by changing conditions, such as leprosy, after about 1100. Alternatively, he continues, did the Normans simply regulate and document what already existed?

These excavations have provided a valuable insight into the buildings and layout of a medieval leper hospital and its later transformation, and raised the intriguing possibility that an institution for lepers was founded in Winchester before the Norman conquest. Radiocarbon analysis of some of the earliest human remains on the site, which present evidence for leprosy, suggest that this institution may have been in existence by at least the 10th century, and that the cemetery was still in use up to the 1060s.

Further clues may lie in the wider context of the Anglo-Saxon capital at Winchester. The late ninth and 10th centuries witnessed a religious renaissance in England. During this time we see the widespread promotion of religious life and education by King Alfred the Great (d 899) – a man who, interestingly, seemed preoccupied with illness – and the religious reforms of the dynamic Bishop Aethelwold of Winchester (d 984). It was also a time that may have seen the creation of the famous medical text, Bald's "Leechbook", possibly in Winchester itself.

In particular, these 10th century reforms, influenced by the Rule of St Benedict, and in England promulgated by Aethelwold's publication of Regularis Concordia, led to the tighter regulation of religious life, which included the enclosure of monastic spaces in the city. Such changes could have led to the foundation and enclosure of a religious community of lepers on the city outskirts. In this sense, the hospital provided a level of segregation and exclusion whilst also representing a more altruistic and socially-orientated aspect of religious reform.

However, there is yet another possible clue to the origins of the hospital at Winchester. This is a single reference in Byrhtferth's Life of St Oswald, where the young and somewhat precocious monk, Oswald, a contemporary of Aethelwold, founds "a monastery in Winchester". The location of this monastery is unknown. It may, indeed, still remain to be found, but the dates would certainly tally with that of St Mary Magdalen, and offer further intriguing possibilities for the continuing work and research at the site.

Overall, the historical context does not necessarily confirm St Mary Magdalen's precise origins, but indicates that the right social conditions were present. We hope that this important research will challenge long-held assumptions that the origins of hospitals lie in the later middle ages, and that they were introduced indirectly as a result of the Norman conquest. The work in Winchester presents a range of archaeological evidence that suggests that such institutions may have had their origins in late Anglo-Saxon society. In this sense, it is possible that St Mary Magdalen provided a model for a more altruistic aspect of 10th century religion, initiated at England's capital. Interestingly, it may also follow that such early hospitals evolved primarily as a result of the rise in leprosy.

Overall, we hope this pioneering work will inspire comparative fields of study concerning the origins of institutional care in early medieval English society, and shed light on one of Britain's most important and enduring institutions.

Simon Roffey is senior lecturer in archaeology and Phil Marter is lecturer in applied archaeology at the University of Winchester. They are co-directors of the Magdalen Hill Archaeological Research Project.

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