UK's 'oldest hospice' discovered at archaeological dig in Berkshire
Nestled behind a church in the Berkshire village of Cookham is an archaeological dig uncovering an 8th century Anglo Saxon monastery which has been hidden for hundreds of years.
The monastery is in an area ruled by Queen Cynethryth and her husband King Offa. Excavations have found signs of a big wooden domestic structure and even a water mill – cutting edge technology at the time. But it is the monastery's cemetery that is changing our understanding of the Anglo-Saxon era. Archaeologists have been working on the site since 2021 but when excavating the cemetery, they started to notice an unusual pattern.
The first skeleton they dug up with signs of cancer was a surprise. Then they dug up another and another.
Four years into the dig, they have found multiple skeletons with signs of tumours or other swellings.
It is the job of Professor Mary Lewis, a bioarchaeologist to analyse the skeletons.
'Before we excavated at Cookham, of all of the skeletons over the hundreds of years period that the Anglo Saxon period is, about 0.8% of individuals had cancer.
"But adding the individuals from Cookham, it actually raised that to 1% of people. And within the population as a whole, within this group at Cookham, 11% of people that we excavated had cancer. It is unusually high.'
It has led Professor Lewis to theorise that this is the oldest example of a hospice ever to be uncovered in the UK.
"The level of cancer and other kind of conditions in this group is so high that they can't all have come from one local population.
"So I think what's happening is that there's someone working at the monastery who may be a kind of medic - someone who can do prayers or particular herbal remedies that treats what they would have thought of as swellings.'
The evidence continues to pile up. Professor Lewis has found marks on some of the skeletons' pelvises which are consistent with bed sores – suggesting they were receiving treatment at the monastery for extended periods of time.
'We don't really know anything about how people took care of people. But I think what's very clear from the evidence that we've seen is that these people were at Cookham for a long period of time. They were there with very serious conditions that were life threatening conditions.
'They were coming to seek help and people brought them there because they would have received a level of care.'
There is more work to be done on the skeletons which will reveal more details of their lives. Tests can be done on the dental plaque known as calculus, left behind on the teeth of those found.
It can tell us what herbal remedies they may have been treated with and even what incenses or herbs may have been burnt in an attempt to help cure them.
The team are hoping to get some stable isotope analysis of the skeletons too – this will help tell where people may have travelled from to receive care at Cookham.
The monastery was operating at a time of extreme change as Christianity started to spread in England.
Gabor Thomas, a Professor in Early Medieval Archaeology at the University of Reading says the site helps us understand the political and religious movements of the time:
'Christianity at this point is still relatively new so monasteries like this have a role in Christianizing communities here in the Thames Valley."
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Unearthing end-of-life care at 8th Century Cookham monastery
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The Wai-wai are understood to have collaborated with American missionaries to convert other tribes since they were converted to Christianity in the 1950s. But Grey said Messengers should not be present in the Javari region. 'We don't go anywhere we are not allowed,' he insisted. Evangelism has been rising steadily in Brazil in recent decades. According to the country's latest census, released in June, those identifying as evangelical Christians now account for more than a quarter of all Brazilians. The country's historically dominant Catholic population saw its numbers fall in the same survey, from 65 per cent in 2010 to 57 per cent. Evangelicals have been especially successful in making inroads in the Amazon region. The former president, Jair Bolsonaro, a right-wing ex-soldier who was in office from 2019-23, actively courted the evangelical vote and was backed by several prominent pastors. In one of his most controversial moves as president, Bolsonaro sought to appoint a former evangelical missionary, Ricardo Lopes Dias, as the head of the government department tasked with protecting isolated and recently contacted indigenous tribes. Lopes Dias was linked to a missionary group whose explicit purpose was to convert 'unreached people' to Christianity. Appointing such a controversial figure purportedly to protect indigenous people was described by activists at the times as equivalent to 'putting a fox in charge of the hen house'. Eventually the appointment was blocked by the courts. By 2030 it is forecast that there will be more Brazilian evangelicals than Catholics. Pastors talk of the development as a 'revival' that should be duplicated around the world. But Bandeira questions whether this really is something to celebrate, especially if those numbers are being swelled by indigenous converts. She said her experience was that contact with evangelical missionaries eventually led to 'envy, and then division' inside the communities.
