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Typically Spanish - Spain Culture News

Shackled skeleton found in Ávila
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By h.b. - Jan 31, 2007 - 2:05 PM
The famous vila city walls in recent snow - Photo EFE
The famous vila city walls in recent snow - Photo EFE
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It's the second such find in the city and is thought to date from the Middle Ages

A skeleton tied up with shackles and chains and thought to date from the Middle Ages has been found in an archaeological dig in Ávila, behind the city’s Church of San Pedro.

It’s the second such find in the city, although coming in a different place, and it has led experts to think that death occurred during some form of punishment.

Tomorrow, Thursday the latest find will be taken to the Provincial Museum where the skeleton will be studied and protected.

The Municipal Archaeologist, Rosa Ruiz, said it was from before the 16th century and after the 13th.


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Readers' comments:
Gerry
01 Feb 2007, 00:34
Interesting that highly valuable chains and shackles would be interred if the victim died during an officialy sanctioned punishment.
Bill Cornelius
01 Feb 2007, 04:28
I thought so too, but he was behind the church, so it's probably complicated like involveing lost keys, rich patrons, outraged church officials & perhaps orphanages & drunken brawls. The possibilities are endless.
Alan Poole
01 Feb 2007, 05:34
Perhaps he was left dead for awhile and nobody wanted the sickening job of removing the shackles.
Bill Cornelius
01 Feb 2007, 05:46
the article doesn't say if the grave was on consecrated ground, if it was, there may be a prohibition against disfigurement. No, how about he was an escaped convict hiding in the grave & got covered up by accident when it caved in on him, ... or something?
Alan Poole
01 Feb 2007, 06:26
Maybe there was a sickness, curse, or some kind of witchery fear about the shackled person, and there was fear to touch the body. People may have gotten sick in some way around the person.
Bill Cornelius
01 Feb 2007, 07:21
Yes! A zombie that kept dripping maggots all over the place! The Sanitation Dept. was scandalized and maidens were distraught. So Opus Dei sent a self abusing hit-man monk to lure him to a secluded dark churchyard with hints of illicit pleasure, but the zombie caught on & staggered off. The monk couldn't climb out of the hole because of the chains he liked to wear, so he buried himself as a form of atonement. Archeology is easy when you know how these things work.
Alan Poole
01 Feb 2007, 17:12
Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha! That's funny stuff! Thanks for lightening my morning!
Joe Q
06 Feb 2007, 22:16
Normally soldiers who committed crimes were buried with their shackles still on.
Rachel
07 Feb 2007, 18:50
Perhaps, this is an unfortunate victim of the Inquisition, one of Torquemada's victims.....and the chains, perhaps the victim did not confess to be a Jew, and the torturers thought the chains and shackles would "torture" this victim for eternity....poor soul...now he/she is free...Torquemada is damned.
Please keep to the subject. Opinions published here are of our visitors, not the Typically Spanish team. Comments which go against Spanish laws or which are libellous are not allowed. We reserve the right to delete any comment we wish.

Por favor, céntrate en el tema. Son las opiniones de los internautas, y no las de Typically Spanish. No está permitido verter comentarios contrarios a las leyes españolas o injuriantes. Reservado el derecho a eliminar los comentarios que consideremos fuera de tema.