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Skeleton of village 'witch' to be re-buried

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Adsos Letter Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Mar-03-09 01:51 AM
Original message
Skeleton of village 'witch' to be re-buried
Edited on Tue Mar-03-09 01:53 AM by Adsos Letter
Source: Kent Online
by Keyan Milanian




The medieval remains of a teenage girl who may have been suspected of witchcraft are to be given a Christian burial and funeral.

The skeleton, found by Faversham-based archaeologist Dr Paul Wilkinson, is thought to be from the 14th or 15th century.

It was found in unconsecrated ground under a holly tree, next to Hoo St Werburgh parish church, near Rochester.

The remains would normally be left in archives for future archaeological reference, but the vicar of Hoo, the Rev Andy Harding, has asked for the body to be returned so she can be re-buried in the church grounds.

http://www.kent-online.co.uk/kol08/article/default.asp?article_id=58107


So many millions of individual stories are hidden in the mists of time...
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Bicoastal Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Mar-03-09 01:59 AM
Response to Original message
1. Must...not..quote...Holy Grail...
:evilfrown:
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leftstreet Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Mar-03-09 02:01 AM
Response to Reply #1
2. (you know you want to)
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Adsos Letter Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Mar-03-09 02:07 AM
Response to Reply #1
5. Please do...
we do it in my "History of the English Civil Wars" seminar all the time... :D
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whoneedstickets Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Mar-03-09 02:03 AM
Response to Original message
3. Have the Wiccans launched a counter suit yet!?
Who's to say she wasn't a witch? Not that she should have been mistreated but perhaps the burial was fitting.
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Adsos Letter Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Mar-03-09 02:06 AM
Response to Reply #3
4. One of the mysteries of time...
unlikely to find a definitive answer to this one...but who knows?
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Hanse Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Mar-03-09 02:10 AM
Response to Reply #3
7. You mean besides that Wicca wasn't created until the mid-20th century?
I'd say Scientologists have as much claim to the remains. Or Raelians.
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whoneedstickets Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Mar-03-09 02:20 AM
Response to Reply #7
9. Darn my lack of Wicca knowledge....nt
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orleans Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Mar-03-09 02:21 AM
Response to Reply #7
10. what if she was pagan? i hear that predates christianity.
"Paganism (from Latin paganus, meaning "country dweller, rustic")<1> is the blanket term given to describe religions and spiritual practices of pre-Christian Europe
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paganism#Pagan_survivals_in_folklore
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Hanse Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Mar-03-09 02:23 AM
Response to Reply #10
11. What if she was a Scientologist?
After all, Scientology was founded 75 million years ago when Xenu flew a fleet of DC-8s to Earth.

But seriously, 14th or 15th century Britian wasn't pre-Christian. It was solidly Christian.
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orleans Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Mar-03-09 02:31 AM
Response to Reply #11
12. maybe...except for a few rebel free thinkers
one could say the county i live in was solidly republican (until recently)

yet i never joined their ranks. and neither did my parents.

aren't there always exceptions to the rules?

anyway--this story reminds me of the mormon practice of baptizing people into the mormon faith once they are dead...example: anne frank.
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Hanse Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Mar-03-09 02:33 AM
Response to Reply #12
13. I was reminded of the mormon deal as well.
The remains are almost certainly a Christian. Claims otherwise would really need some sort of evidence. Claiming she was a pagan, or a muslim, or a jew, or a scientologist is kind of like the mormons converting the holocaust victims.
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Marrah_G Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Mar-03-09 10:04 AM
Response to Reply #3
21. Nothing to sue over.
Edited on Tue Mar-03-09 10:04 AM by Marrah_G
She was buried under a sacred tree, yes. But she's been dead a long time. What they are moving is just shell.

Maybe she was Christian, maybe she was of the old ways. If it makes them feel better to bury her on their sacred ground so be it. The ground is the ground.

It's not like her bones will burst into flames or anything...........
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Beacool Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Mar-03-09 02:09 AM
Response to Original message
6. Bunch of ignorant, sexist bastards!!!
Edited on Tue Mar-03-09 02:09 AM by Beacool
Poor girl!! How many women were killed under the excuse that they were "witches". Nice way to control any unruly female.

:mad:
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Chulanowa Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Mar-03-09 02:49 AM
Response to Reply #6
15. While I don't miss your point...
I think the anger is about six centuries late.

Just for the record, a lot of men died in the same accusations. it was social control in general - kill the heretic, always a fun pastime.
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Beacool Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Mar-03-09 03:03 AM
Response to Reply #15
16. Well, I can just imagine how she must have suffered.
She was only a teenager. Was she tortured? Was she burned or drowned? None of the choices made for a quick and painless death. Yes, men were also killed, but far more women were accused of witchcraft as a means to get rid of women who spoke their mind. Similar, but a tad more civilized, was the treatment they received in Victorian times where many were deemed "hysterical" and were sent to mental asylums.

:-(
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Chulanowa Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Mar-03-09 02:38 PM
Response to Reply #16
23. It was probably worse in Victorian times
In the Dark Ages, they'd break your back on the wheel then throw you in the lake. Pretty bad, yeah, but better than a lifetime of being someone's medical experiment in an asylum, I think.
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Beacool Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Mar-03-09 04:47 PM
Response to Reply #23
24. Maybe so..............
What they did to women in Victorian times was in some ways more evil because they knew better. It was a way to control women who were no longer docile and were making demands of society. Look how the suffragettes were treated. They were arrested, sometimes beaten and forced fed. Then again, we haven't changed that much. Both Hillary and Palin were sexualized during their campaigns. I saw and heard enough sexist crap about both of them to last me a lifetime.

x(
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Chulanowa Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Mar-03-09 04:55 PM
Response to Reply #24
25. Palin sexualized herself
She very honestly had nothing else to offer voters. As for Hillary... Well, I'd say "not so much" but it was there, yeah.

I wouldn't point to either as evidence that "We haven't changed much " from the days of forced sterlization without anesthesia. I understand, it's all sexism, but there's a pretty big gulf between staring at Palin's legs like a frat boy, and carving out some chick's uterus because of her spending habits.
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Raine Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Mar-03-09 04:27 AM
Response to Reply #6
18. Also the accusation was used to steal
their property. :-(
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Beacool Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Mar-03-09 09:53 AM
Response to Reply #18
19. True..........
:-(
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ORDagnabbit Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Mar-03-09 02:17 AM
Response to Original message
8. dontcha just love what christianity does in the name of love?
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petronius Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Mar-03-09 02:39 AM
Response to Original message
14. If someone was introduced to me as "the Vicar of Hoo" I would have great difficulty
maintaining a straight face. Cool story, although they're making a lot of assumptions - for all anyone knows she was actually a sneak-thieving, cannibalistic, child-murdering psychopath instead of the 'poor little witch girl.'
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aquart Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Mar-03-09 04:16 AM
Response to Reply #14
17. Or a suicide.
We really don't know a damn thing.
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petronius Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Mar-03-09 11:44 AM
Response to Reply #17
22. That's probably more the most likely possibility - unless there was other
evidence in the grave we don't know about. I admit my hypothesis was a bit far-fetched... :)
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Beacool Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Mar-03-09 09:54 AM
Response to Reply #14
20. Witch sounds more sexy and sells more...........
}(
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