Nadene Goldfoot
Eighteen years ago in 2004, construction workers digging in advance of the Chapelfield shopping centre development in Norwich, UK, uncovered a medieval well containing the remains of at least 17 people, most of whom were children.
NORWICH, county town of Norfolk, E. England. The medieval Jewish community is first mentioned in 1144, when the discovery of the body of a boy, William of Norwich, in a wood near the town gave rise to the first recorded *blood libel in Europe. (the allegation that Jews murder Christians in order to obtain blood for the Passover or other rituals. This allegation used over and over with Christians not enlightened about Jews who wouldn't touch blood with a 10 foot pole! Part of the kosher laws are about not eating blood of an animal--let alone a human, Dear G-d! This shows how hatred for Jews was not based on a fact bad enough to hate people for, but stupidity.
The Jewish bodies found in the well may have come from the time of February 6, 1190, however when all Jews of Norwich were attacked in their homes and butchered.
There were attacks by citizens on the Jews in the 1230s, the one in 1234 following an accusation that the Jews had kidnapped and circumcised a Christian child. The descendants of *Jurnet (Jews) of Norwich, who were financiers, patrons of learning, and scholars, dominated the community from 1160 to 1260: the lower part of their stone house still stands in King Street (as part of the "Music House"). The 13th-century Norwich community (numbering about 100 to 150) seems, from the considerable documentary evidence surviving, mainly to have consisted of financiers who lent to local traders and the rural gentry and villagers. The community suffered from the "coin-clipping" charges of 1279 and the execution for blasphemy of the local magnate, Abraham fil' Deulecresse; by the time of the general expulsion from England in 1290, it numbered only 50 souls. The poems of *Meir b. Elijah of Norwich (c. 1244) have survived, mainly in a Vatican manuscript.
“Ralph de Diceto’s account of the 1190 AD attacks is evocative, but a deep well containing the bodies of Jewish men, women, and especially children forces us to confront the real horror of what happened.”
Scientists from the Natural History Museum, UCL, Mainz and Cambridge Universities, and the Francis Crick Institute, conducted analysis on the remains of six of these individuals, uncovering new genetic, medical, and historic information. The whole genome analyses reveal the individuals appear to be a group of Ashkenazi Jews who fell victim to antisemitic violence during the 12th century.
The remains of at least six adults and 11 children were recovered from the unusual burial location. Unlike other mass burial sites, where bodies are typically laid in an organised fashion, skeletons from the well were oddly positioned and mixed, likely caused by being deposited head-first shortly after death. These findings hint at mass fatalities such as famine, disease, or murder.
Radiocarbon dating of the remains placed their deaths around the late 12th to early 13th century — a period which includes some well-documented outbreaks of antisemitic violence in England — leading researchers to consider foul play. A specific antisemitic riot in 1190 CE was recorded by the chronicler Ralph de Diceto in his Imagines Historiarum II:
“Many of those who were hastening to Jerusalem determined first to rise against the Jews before they invaded the Saracens. Accordingly on 6th February [in 1190 AD] all the Jews who were found in their own houses at Norwich were butchered; some had taken refuge in the castle.”
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These would be the Crusaders who went through Europe killing Jews when on the way to Jerusalem to kill Moslems.
To piece together the individual's past life and what led to their death, the team studied these remains at the time of their excavation, and with developments in DNA sequencing technology, were able to sequence whole genomes from six of these individuals.
Co-lead author Professor Mark Thomas (UCL Genetics, Evolution & Environment) said: “It was quite surprising that the initially unidentified remains filled the historical gap about when certain Jewish communities first formed, and the origins of some genetic disorders.
“Nobody had analysed Jewish ancient DNA before because of prohibitions on the disturbance of Jewish graves. However, we did not know they were likely Jewish until after doing the genetic analyses.”
Judaism is primarily a shared religious and cultural identity, but present-day Ashkenazi Jewish groups often carry genetic ancestries which reflect their distinctive diasporic population histories and endogamous marriage practices. The results showed that the individuals from the well shared similar diasporic genetic ancestries and were therefore almost certainly Ashkenazi Jews.
Among these burials, four were closely related, including three full-sibling sisters — a 5 to 10-year-old, a 10 to 15-year-old and a young adult. DNA analysis also allowed the researchers to infer physical traits for a 0 to 3-year-old boy. Their results suggested blue eyes and red hair, the latter a feature associated with historical stereotypes of European Jews.
Red hair has been attributed to King David, called a gingy. Last year, about two hundred red haired Israeli Jews gathered for a “>Stav Shaffir, the barely thirty year old Member of the Knesset whose hair is vibrant red. Stav, by the way, is Hebrew for Autumn. There is even Hebrew slang for redheads: gingi (Jeenji) for a male and gingit (Jeenjit) for a female, both Hebraicized corruptions of the English ginger. What’s with Jews and red hair?The Jewish connection to red hair turns out to be quite complex. The first possible references to redheaded Jews appear, not surprisingly, in the Tanakh, the Hebrew Bible. Two well-known personalities, Esau and David, are described as admoni, meaning red or ruddy. (See Gen. 25:25; 1 Sam. 16:12, 17:42.)
Co-lead author Professor Ian Barnes (Natural History Museum) said: “When you study ancient DNA from people who’ve died several hundreds to thousands of years ago, you don’t often get to work with the living community at the same time. “It’s been really satisfying to work with the community on a story that’s important to them.” Co-lead author Dr Selina Brace (Natural History Museum) said: “I’m delighted and relieved that twelve years after we first started analysing the remains of these individuals, technology has caught up and helped us to understand this historical cold case of who these people were and why we think they were murdered.” Co-author Dr Tom Booth (Francis Crick Institute) said: “Our study shows how effective archaeology, and particularly new scientific techniques such as ancient DNA, can be in providing new perspectives on historical events.
From 1189 to 1190, the anti-Jewish pogroms in London, York, and numerous other cities and towns displayed cruelty and barbarity never before seen by English Jews. Indeed, these acts of violence distinguished themselves as some of the worst atrocities committed against European Jews in the Middle Ages. If this is true, then what drove the English, who hadn’t previously committed acts of violence against the Jews, to kill their neighbours?
In order to understand the reason why the pogroms of 1189 and 1190 occurred, the early history of the Jews in England must be explained.
Prior to 1066, no Jews were recorded living in the kingdom. However, during the Norman Conquest, William the Conqueror brought England’s first Jews from Rouen, France, where Jews had been living since even before 70 CE as traders.
According to the Domesday Book, William wanted the government’s dues to be paid in coin, not by kind, and he saw the Jews as a nation of people who could supply him and the kingdom with coin. Therefore, William the Conqueror viewed the Jews as an important financial asset, one which could fund the kingdom’s ventures.English Jews began to face more hostility from their Christian neighbors.
Religious fervor fueled by the Crusades swept through England, causing many Christians to feel enmity towards the Jews. The first blood libel cases were reported in England during the 12th century and massacres of Jews almost broke out. Fortunately, King Stephen intervened to quell these violent outbursts and Jewish lives were spared.
English Jews suffered massacres in 1189–90. In 1290, all Jews were expelled from England by the Edict of Expulsion. It only took 101 years from massacring Jews to expelling them from their pristine country. They would not return till the year 1655; banned for 365 years.
Resource:
The New Standard Jewish Encyclopedia
https://www.historic-uk.com/HistoryUK/HistoryofEngland/Pogroms-1189-1190/
https://www.timesofisrael.com/dna-analysis-suggests-bodies-found-in-a-well-were-victims-of-1190-antisemitic-attack/
https://jewishjournal.com/culture/food/175017/ginger-jews/
https://www.jstor.org/stable/4051451
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_Jews_in_England_(1066%E2%80%931290)
https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-norfolk-62731151
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