See the Mysterious Medieval Porpoise Bones Found by Archaeologists
September 22, 2017—Centuries ago, a community of monks on Guernsey, an island off France's Normandy coast, placed parts of a porpoise's body into a grave-like hole buried on the grounds of their seaside retreat. Archaeologist Philip de Jersey of the University of Oxford was shocked to find such a burial at Chapelle Dom Hue—he still can't quite explain it. He speculates the porpoise may have been buried to preserve the meat or for an unknown religious purpose.
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Medieval Porpoise Burial Puzzles Scientists
Off Normandy lies the island of Guernsey,
part of neither France nor England …
but subject to Britain’s monarch,
the status a legacy of Medieval wars.
And Guernsey holds other reminders of that era.
A monastery once stood at this point.
Here, along with artifacts, archaeologists
have found an unusual grave.
In it, the skull and other bones of a porpoise.
Why would the monks have buried it?
Archaeologists can only speculate.
It may have been a religious icon, sort of like
fish imagery in other Christian sites.
(The monks probably didn't fully understand
the nature of marine mammals.)
Or maybe the friars caught the cetacean to eat,
and buried it to preserve it.
For now, the porpoise remains an emblem of a time
that still holds mysteries.
