Builders restoring the roof of a 16th century building at Christ’s College, Cambridge University, have discovered three wall paintings hidden behind a wooden roof joist. The wall paintings depict a crowned portcullis, a crowned red Lancaster rose and a third motif that is partially obscured but is likely a fleur-de-lis. These motifs are all elements of the family crest of the foundress of Christ’s College, Lady Margaret Beaufort, mother of King Henry VII.

The paintings were found in First Court, the oldest part of Christ’s College dating to the 15th century, in the roof over the northwest wall of the original library. They extend over 20 feet and were painted directly onto the plaster. Limewash was applied around the artworks to make them stand out.

Originally founded as God’s House, a school for grammar teachers, in 1437, it was enlarged and refounded as Christ’s College by Margaret Beaufort in 1505. She financed the transformation of a modest school into a fully-fledged college of Cambridge University, donated 39 books to form the kernel of its prestigious library, endowed it with two estates complete with their manors and spent £1625 on construction for the college between 1505 and 1509. She bequeathed even more of her properties to Christ’s College in her will, guaranteeing that it would have the steady income needed to thrive as an educational institution for centuries after her death.

Lady Margaret’s legacy is embedded in the architecture of Christ’s College. The family coat of arms, the portcullis of the Beaufort family, the red rose, the badge adopted by Henry VII as the first Tudor king, the white Marguerite (daisy) that was Lady Margaret’s personal emblem and the family motto “Souvent me souvient” (“I often remember”) are found on walls, over doorways and in monumental format over The Great Gate, the entrance into Christ’s College that still boasts its original 1509 oak door.

Cambridge University art historian Dr Christina Faraday said: “This is a really exciting and unusual discovery.” […]

Dr Faraday, who specialises in Tudor visual and material culture, said the works revealed “the ways that the college celebrated and advertised its royal patron during the early years of the 16th Century, following its re-founding”.

“A powerful and pious woman, with a keen interest in scholarship, Lady Margaret left her indelible mark on the college,” Dr Faraday said.

“The wall paintings are an early example of her family’s savvy use of visual ‘branding’ even beyond the royal court. Henry VII had a very weak claim to the throne, but became adept at using visual symbols like this to promote his kingship.”

It’s rare for murals like these to survive centuries of refurbishments. They were inexpensive decorations to begin with so there was little incentive to go to the trouble of preserving them when changes were made to the buildings. Researchers checked the archives after the murals were rediscovered and the last eye-witness account of the wall paintings was recorded in around 1738.

The paintings were preserved by benign neglect thanks to their covered location in the roof. That location also means they won’t go on display, unfortunately. They will, however, be restored and stabilized in situ.

The remains of feasting have been discovered at an early medieval cemetery near Barry, South Wales. The cemetery dates to the sixth and seventh centuries and contains an estimated 80 graves. Fragments of animal bone, some cooked and bearing the marks of butchery, and of expensive glass drinking vessels imported from western France indicate feasting rituals took place by the graves.

A team of archaeologists and students from Cardiff University’s School of History, Archaeology and Religion excavated the site on the grounds of Fonmon Castle this summer after a 2021 geophysical survey revealed the presence of archaeological remains. They expected to find structures associated with a farmstead, but the excavation instead unearthed burials of different types, including stone-lined cists and crouch burials.

So far, 18 of the burials have been excavated and examined. Four of them are crouch burials, which is a high proportion compared to other cemeteries from the period. All of the crouch burials were placed on their right side facing south and also happen to all be female. The consistency of these practices suggest that certain people were buried in keeping with specific rituals, perhaps related to their position or role in the community.

Dr Andy Seaman, Lecturer in Early Medieval Archaeology, said: “This is a really exciting discovery. Sites of this date are extremely rare in Wales and often do not preserve bone and artefacts. The Fonmon cemetery will allow us to discover so much about the people who lived here around 1,400 years ago.

“Other similar sites have found bodies in crouched positions such as this, but considering the number of graves we have looked at so far, there seem to be a high proportion. This could be evidence of some sort of burial rite being carried out.”

He added: “There is nothing to suggest that people were living near the site, so the evidence of cooking and glasses certainly suggests some level of ritual feasting, perhaps to celebrate or mourn the dead.”

Fonmon Castle was constructed in the late 12th century, so the cemetery long pre-dates it and was probably unknown to the St John family who built the castle. The excavations are ongoing and are planned to continue over the next several summers.

A medieval grave containing the remains of a man more than six feet tall with a sword more than four feet long has been discovered in the port city of Halmstad on Sweden’s west coast. The sword was placed at the man’s left side and was the only artifact in the grave. Osteological examination of the skeletal remains found the man was at least 6’3″ and the surviving parts of the sword, wooden hilt included, are 4’3″ long.

The burial was discovered at Lilla Torg, a square in the city center that in the 15th century was part of the Franciscan monastery of Sankta Annas. The first excavation at the square in 1932 found the remains of the monastery kitchen and of the church. This year’s excavation found more of the monastery church. The grave with the sword was discovered under the floor of the south nave. Two other graves were found next to him, one belonging to an adult woman, the other to a man.

No other objects were preserved in the three investigated graves. The sword is also the only decommissioned object found in the 49 graves examined so far during the ongoing reconstruction of Lilla Torg. Finding swords in medieval graves is very rare, and the people who were buried with swords belonged to the upper echelons of society. The sword find at Lilla Torg confirms that Sankta Anna’s church was used as a burial place for, among other things, people of noble birth during the 35 years that the Franciscan order operated on the site.

The sword has been removed from the ground and sent to conservation to begin examination and treatment of the find in a protective environment. The first X-ray image of the find shows that the blade is decorated with two inlaid crosses, probably in precious metal. Already when the sword was found, the field archaeologists could guess that the blade was decorated, something that the X-ray image has now confirmed.

Halmstad received its first town charter in 1307 and its current historic center was established in the 1320s. It was part of the Kingdom of Denmark at that time. The Sankta Annas monastery, built between 1494 and 1503 with the aid of a donation of an expensive silver plate from Christina of Saxony, then Queen of Denmark, had a brief life. It was shut down by the city magistrate in 1531 and the property repurposed to various uses including as a hospital and an armory. What was left of the monastery burned down in a 1619 fire that destroyed much of the town.