These digitally reconstructed faces attempt to regain the lost stories of 17 humans, whose skeletons were found in a well in Norwich England, but these images are robotic and not very convincing. A recent DNA analysis, however, has revealed a particularly sad and horrifying aspect of their deaths.
After the bodies were uncovered by archaeologists going over ground intended for a shopping center, forensic scientists and archaeologists have used radiocarbon dating that put the deceased between 1161-1216. Furthermore, analysis of the bones indicated that these people likely died before being thrown into the well, since their bones showed no sign of violent trauma other than breaking upon impact with the well floor. There were six adults, and they broke the fall for eleven children who followed them.
In a paper published in August 2022 in _Current Biology_, genetic scientists analyzed six of the dead and discovered that four of them were closely related, with three of them sisters. One of the six was younger than three years old, and likely had blue eyes and red hair. But the most chilling facts were that they were all likely to have been Ashkenazi Jews, murdered in 1190 in a disgusting wave of anti-Semitism.
There were several genetic markers unusual for most but not for Ashkenazi Jews (like Tay-Sachs disease) among the dead. This fits in with other evidence from the time period, when anti-Semitic uprisings swept across England in the wake of the Third Crusade. Jews in places like Norwich and York were rounded up and killed as Christian zealots sought to eliminate peoples whose religious beliefs did not match theirs.
It is unlikely we will ever know the actual number of Jewish people murdered in these pogrums.
Sources: Smithsonian Magazine, “Bones found in Medieval well likely belong to victims of anti-Semitic massacre,” Meilan Solly, Sept 1, 2022
