The excavations at Christ Church, Spitalfields unearthed c. 1000 burials from 1729 to 1852. The relationship and significance has been examined in detail in this volume. This volume also sets the context for the accompanying anthropological study which details the specific observations from the bodies themselves.
Author(s): Jez Reeve, Max Adams
Series: Council for British Archaeology. CBA Research Reports, 85
Publisher: Council for British Archaeology
Year: 1993
Language: English
Pages: 478
City: York
Contents (p iiii)
Summaries (p vi)
Preface (p 1)
Acknowledgements (p 2)
History of the site (pp 3-15)
The commissions for Fifty New Churches (pp 3-6)
The building of the church (pp 6-7)
Christ Church 1729-1984 (p 7)
The crypt (pp 7-15)
Account of the excavation (pp 16-26)
Setting up the project (p 16)
Academic objectives (pp 16-17)
Health and safety considerations (pp 17-20)
Methodological approaches (pp 20-25)
Progress of the excavation (pp 25-26)
Post-excavation (p 26)
The archaeology of Christ Church (pp 27-64)
Introduction (pp 27-28)
The lower west areas (pp 28-34)
The upper west areas (pp 34-40)
The north-east areas (pp 40-46)
The south-east areas (pp 46-51)
The Herbert/Simpson areas (pp 51-54)
The Peck area (pp 54-55)
The parochial area (pp 55-62)
The eastern parochial area (pp 62-65)
Christ Church as a mortuary site (pp 65-76)
Sources of evidence (p 65)
The burial vault as a resource (pp 65-67)
The funeral industry in London 1729-1867 (pp 67-73)
Death and disposal in Spitalfields (pp 73-74)
Mortuary behaviour: the archaeological evidence (pp 74-75)
Spatial analysis (p 75)
Social variability (pp 75-76)
Material culture (pp 77-92)
Background (pp 77-78)
The burial container (pp 78-83)
Coffin furnishings (pp 83-88)
Finds from dumps (pp 88-89)
Artefacts from interments (pp 89-92)
The textiles by R C Janaway (pp 93-119)
Introduction (p 93)
Health and safety (p 93)
Conservation and analysis (pp 93-94)
Funerary textiles in the 18th and 19th centuries (pp 94-96)
Preservation of textiles and sample bias (pp 96-100)
Textiles from Christ Church: the evidence (pp 100-112)
Examples of well-preserved groups of textiles (pp 112-119)
Summary (p 119)
Formation processes at Christ Church (pp 120-129)
The formation of mortuary deposits (pp 120-121)
The depositional context at Christ Church (p 121)
Identification and recording (pp 121-121)
Cultural formation processes at Christ Church (pp 121-126)
Non-cultural formation processes at Christ Church (pp 126-129)
Conclusion (pp 130-131)
Appendix A: References to Christ Church, Spitalfields in primary documents (pp 132-133)
References to Spitalfields from the minutes of the building committee, 1711 (p 132)
References to Spitalfields from the minutes of Commissioners' meetings, 1714-27 (pp 132-133)
From the building records, 1722-23 (p 133)
Orders in Queens Council relating to burials at Christ Church (p 133)
Appendix B: Accounts of funerals at Christ Church, Spitalfields (pp 134-135)
Account of the funeral of Mrs Sarah (Marchant) Hurlin, who died 6 May 1839 (pp 134-135)
Obituary of Colonel Paul Le Mesurier (p 135)
Appendix C: Inscriptions of memorials in Christ Church, Spitalfields (pp 136-143)
Appenidx D: Details of coffin furniture design types from Christ Church, Spitalfields (pp 144-147)
Upholstery pins (p 144)
Grips (pp 144-145)
Grip plates (p 145)
Breastplates (pp 145-146)
Escutcheons (p 146)
Lid Motifs (pp 146-147)
Inscriptions (p 147)
Appendix E: Metallurgical analysis of a selected sample of coffin furniture by Paul Budd, University of Bradford (pp 148-151)
Appendix F: Summary of a report on the examination of a ferrous coffin (2247) from Christ Church, Spitalfields by Brian Leddington, University of Bradford (pp 152-160)
Appendix G: Entomological and parasitological investigations on samples from Christ Church, Spitalfields, London (a summary) by Andrew K G Jones and Professor J. Phipps of the Environmental Archaeology Unit, York (p 161)
Appendix H: Burial catalogue codes (pp 162-163)
Bibliography (pp 164-166)
Index compiled by Lyn Greenwood (pp 167-170)
Microfiche (295 pp.)
