The man had suffered several fractures over the course of his life, but every one had healed before he died in his 50s. Standing just over 5 feet tall, he was stocky and muscular. He was born during the reign of Cnut, the Danish Viking king who ruled England from 1016 to 1035, and lived through the Norman Conquest into the reign of William the Conqueror.
Whoever prepared his body folded his arms inside an oak coffin, rested his head on a grass pillow, and placed pieces of local chalk beside it to keep it from turning over. Three applewood staffs lay at his side.
The oak used to make the coffin came from a tree felled around 1079, placing his burial in the early years of Norman rule. Although researchers can estimate when he died and recover details about how others treated his body, they have never learned his name. They now call him “Conquest Man.”
English Heritage recently brought together experts in human remains, ancient DNA, isotope analysis, and facial reconstruction to find out more about him. The results have helped researchers piece together parts of his life, but they have not resolved all the questions that kept the project’s coordinator, Kevin Booth, returning to him.
Explore All Options“I’ve been fascinated by this individual — this man of the Conquest — for twenty years. Who was he, what did he experience, could he have been at the Battle of Hastings, what sort of person might he have been? With this new analysis, it feels like we can really get close to him. To be able to now look at his face is to feel we can almost speak to him,” Booth said in a press release.
Conquest Man’s Burial at St Peter’s Church
Facial reconstruction of Conquest Man
(Image Courtesy of English Heritage))
Conquest Man was buried at St. Peter’s Church in Barton-upon-Humber in northern England. According to English Heritage’s history of St. Peter’s, its oldest parts date to around 1020, when the Humber connected Barton with Scandinavian traders and settlers.
By the time he died, the church belonged to one of William the Conqueror’s knights. His burial in the oak coffin inside the private church indicates that he held an honored place in the community under Norman rule.
The three applewood staffs beside him were part of a Scandinavian burial tradition. Their inclusion shows that the custom still mattered to the people who laid him to rest.
Archaeologists uncovered his grave during excavations from 1978 to 1984. In all, they recovered the remains of 2,803 people buried there over nearly 900 years.
Read More: 1,600-Year-Old Scraps Turn Out to Be a Lost Roman Law Book
Tracing His Connections Through DNA and a Tooth
One of Conquest Man’s teeth preserved two chemical clues to his youth. Its oxygen levels were consistent with time spent in a colder climate, while its strontium levels more closely matched those of the Barton-upon-Humber area.
His ancient DNA showed a good amount of ancestry from continental Europe. Sarah Stark, a human skeletal biologist at Historic England, said that, viewed together, his DNA, tooth chemistry, skeleton, and burial describe a man connected to the wider continental world, whether he traveled to Barton or was born there.
Reconstructing Conquest Man’s Face
Face Lab at Liverpool John Moores University used Conquest Man’s skull to create a digital depiction of what he may have looked like. For Booth, the reconstruction offers a way to see the people caught up in the Conquest as individuals, rather than only as members of opposing sides.
“It seems to me his legacy is of survival, resilience and adaptation and I hope that by sharing his story in this way, when people go to our Battle of Hastings re-enactment or visit the Bayeux Tapestry — of course they can cheer on who they like — but maybe he can help us not to pigeonhole those who fought and died there, but to understand them as human above all,” Booth shared in the press release.
Read More: Bones Buried in Italian Necropolis Offer Clues on Ancient Diets and Society Before the Romans
Article Sources
Our writers at Discovermagazine.com use peer-reviewed studies and high-quality sources for our articles, and our editors review for scientific accuracy and editorial standards. Review the sources used below for this article:
- This article references information from English Heritage: Facial reconstruction reveals Conquest Man
- This article references information from English Heritage: History of St Peter’s Church
