More than a decade ago, we brought you the story of the ‘lost’ church of All Saints in York, where, between 2007 and 2008, On-Site Archaeology’s excavations uncovered not only the remains of the building, but also the burials of over 650 people (see CA 245). Among these was an unusual grave within the church’s apse (the curved space behind the high altar), containing the remains of a woman who had been laid to rest in a tightly crouched position. Burial in such a prestigious part of the church would have been reserved for wealthy benefactors and important members of the religious community, and it was suggested that the woman could have been Lady Isabel German, an anchoress known to have lived at All Saints in the 15th century.
Anchoresses (and, if male, anchorites) were religious recluses, usually of high social status, who chose to be walled up within a cell so that they could devote the rest of their lives to prayer and contemplation. During the later medieval period, it was particularly popular with pious lay women, for whom it represented an alternative to marrying and becoming the property of their husband. Instead, becoming a ‘living saint’ gave them a degree of autonomy over their life – even if that life was restricted to the confines of their cell – and an important status within their community.
Dr Lauren McIntyre of Oxford Archaeology has carried out osteoarchaeological analysis of the All Saints skeletons (which are now curated by the University of Sheffield, of which she is an alumna), including that of the possible anchoress. Now a paper recently published in Medieval Archaeology (see ‘Further reading’ at the end) sets out new insights into the woman’s life, drawing together Lauren’s osteoarchaeological and historical research, as well as information from radiocarbon dating and isotope analysis.
