History | Posted on June 10th, 2024 | return to news
Medieval grave slabs recovered from the bottom of Studland Bay
Bournemouth University archaeologists have recovered two marble slabs that have been lost for nearly 800 years.
Two medieval grave slabs that were lost at sea nearly 800 years ago have been recovered by Maritime archaeologists from Bournemouth University.
The slabs, carved from Purbeck marble, were cargo on a ship that sank off the Dorset coast during the 1200s and have laid at the bottom of Studland Bay ever since. The site of the shipwreck has been dubbed the ‘Mortar Wreck’, on account of the large number of grinding mortars also found among the cargo.
It took the team of divers and archaeologists two hours to bring the stones up from a depth of seven metres during the operation on 4 June.
One of the slabs remains intact and preserved, and measures 1.5m long and weighs an estimated 70kg. The other, larger slab had broken into two pieces, with a combined length of two metres and a weight of around 200kg.
Researchers believe the slabs, which feature carvings of Christian crosses, were intended to be coffin lids or crypt monuments for high status individuals in the clergy.
Tom Cousins, a maritime archaeologist at Bournemouth University, said: “The wreck went down in the height of the Purbeck stone industry and the grave slabs we have here were a very popular monument for bishops and archbishops across all the cathedrals and monasteries in England at the time.”
The Bournemouth team will conserve the slabs until they can be put on public display in the new Shipwreck Gallery when Poole Museum reopens next year. In the meantime, the slabs will allow the team to learn more about medieval life and ancient methods of stonemasonry.
Tom adds: “Although Purbeck marble was quarried near Corfe Castle there has always been a debate about how much work was done here and how much was done in London.
“Now we know they were definitely carving them here, but they hadn’t been polished into the usual shiny finish at the time they sank so there is still more we can learn.”
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