Three years ago archaeologists excavating at Magdalen College in Oxford uncovered some “very broken up” human skeletal remains. The bones had been found at or near what was believed to be the location of first medieval Jewish cemetery in Oxford, which functioned from c. 1190 to 1231.
This June, after carbon dating, DNA testing, and other research at the London Natural History Museum determined that the remains were almost certainly from that early Jewish cemetery, the bones were reburied near the site, on the Quad lawn of Magdalen College, at a ceremony attended by around three dozen people and led by a rabbi.
Kaddish was recited, and Dr. Michael Ward, of the Jewish Heritage Oxford group, laid the bones, wrapped in a shroud, in the grave. Attendees scattered earth into the grave, and a plaque was set into the paving of St. John’s Quad to recall the history.
“We thought we knew where the first cemetery was when the bones were found at the college,” Dr. War was quoted by the Jewish Chronicle as saying. “At first there was doubt over what the college thought they had found. They came to us with the discovery and were fantastic, consulting us on every step of the way.”
Oxford had an important Jewish community in medieval times, but very little tangible remains today. Jews first arrived in Oxford from France in 1070s, but this medieval community was expelled from Oxford and England by King Edward 1 in 1290. Jews were not officially allowed back to England until 1655.
The Oxford Jewish Heritage website focuses on the long-neglected history of the medieval community (as well as the modern Jewish presence from the 19th century). Highlights include detailed maps of Medieval Jewish Oxford, an Inventory of Hebraica and Judaica in the Oxford Colleges.
Archaeological work, too, has been recovering parts of this lost history.
An Oxford Archaeology city report describes how the excavation of remains of what essentially was garbage, found in a medieval latrine in Oxford, provides “rare evidence for Oxford’s medieval Jewish community.”
The report, downloadable from the city’s web site, notes that the latrine (which seemed to have been that of a wealthy family) including waste matter including pottery, bones, and other material.
Analysis shows that the family was very probably Jewish.
It notes:
Based on current knowledge it is not possible to suggest the religious affinities of individuals in central Oxford from simply examining their pottery usage. However an obvious means by which an archaeological ‘signature’ of Jewish inhabitation might be detected is through a comparison of the animal bone assemblage with Jewish dietary law or kashrut.
Indeed, it said, an analysis of the animal bones found there by Oxford Archaeology showed that there were no pig bones or bones of other non-kosher animals. Moreover, analysis of the organic residue of “animal fats or plant oils and waxes” preserved on the pottery showed that none of the vessels found there had been used to cook or process pork.
These finds are described in detail by Edward Biddulph in the May 2019 issue of Current Archaeology.
NOTE: A pdf of the article can be downloaded thanks to the Oxford Jewish Heritage web site. Click here to find the pdf.
FURTHER NOTE: The Jewish Chronicle runs a story about a remarkable Jewish woman who spent some time in Oxford in the 13th century and who was murdered there by a burglar in 1277 — the money-lender and businesswoman Licoricia of Winchester.
She married the Oxford money-lender David of Oxford in 1242. He died two years later and was buried in one of the vanished medieval cemeteries in Oxford.
Read about the cemetery on the Oxford Jewish Heritage web site
Report by the Jewish Chronicle on the reburial
Oxford Archaeology city report providing evidence on medieval Jewish community
1 comment on “UK: Bones reburied in Oxford bear witness to medieval Jewish cemetery; archaeological analysis of 800-year-old “kosher” garbage pinpoints medieval Jewish presence”
‘ Jews were not officially allowed back to England until 1655’.
I am not sure that they were ever officially allowed back. The 1290 edict expelling them was never revoked.
What evidence is there of this ‘offical’ return?