Archaeologists who have been working on Ghent’s Saint-Bavo's Cathedral have found out that the walls of the structure are completely made of human bones.
As per a report published in The Brussels Times, a spokesperson for the archaeological team from Ruben Willaert bvba in Bruges asserts that the find in Belgium is unique.
Emphasizing upon the find it has been said that walls are majorly made of the thigh and shin bones of adults and the spaces between the walls has been filled with skulls. Moreover full human skeletons, too, have been uncovered.
The report mentions that this work is being carried out as a part of the preparation for the construction of a new visitor’s centre in the cathedral. As per a statement given by the team, the place in Ghent will not become an attraction for tourists and so the bones will be removed from there.
From what has been said in the report the bones apparently appear to date from the second half of the 15th century. Further, the find also raises questions like why was the wall built in the first place?
Project leader Janiek De Gryse told The Brussels Times that the skeletons cannot just be thrown away, adding that since people believed in a resurrection of the body, the bones were considered the most important part of the architecture.
“That is why stone houses were sometimes built against the walls of city graveyards: to house skulls and the long bones in what is called an ossuary,” he added.
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