Archaeologists in Edinburgh have published the lost history of a sacred Scottish “healing island” that revealed its sacred secrets in the skeletons of sick children.
This majestic chain of islands in Scotland’s Firth of Forth has been inhabited since the Bronze Age and has a rich tradition of “healing”, incorporating “plague bodies” on Inchkeith. But now the Benedictine abbey on the Isle of May has been discovered by University of Edinburgh archaeologist Marlo Willows, whose “discovery of children with syphilis suggests the island was a center of medicine and medieval healing,” according to an article in the Herald.
Isle of May harbour, with the ruins of a monastery nearby. (Photo: Peter Yeoman/Fife Council Archeology Service)
The archaeologist said the new findings show people sailed here from all over Scotland “seeking wisdom from the monks who called this place home and also the hope of divine intervention – in this life or the next”. For more than a millennium, the monastery on the Isle of May has been associated with an early Christian missionary “Ethernan,” who is said to have been buried there “while serving the Picts who once called Fife their home,” Willows said.
Parts of the monastery building here are dedicated to St Ethernan (or Adrian), dating from the 11th century. (CC BY-SA 2.0)
Last year, archaeologists unearthed “dozens of tombs dating from 500 AD to around 1500 AD” and the skeletons were “full of serious and life-threatening diseases – including the earliest case of prostate cancer ever identified in the UK.” Peter Yeoman, a former Fife district archaeologist, told Herald reporters that “he was amazed by the new light shining on the old bones” and that “victims of prostate cancer were It was revealed that he was covered in wounds that showed he had been carrying the disease for many years.”
Dozens of graves have been found with diseased remains. (Photo: Peter Yeoman/British Journal of Archeology)
Furthermore, “another skeleton of a teenage boy showed signs of congenital syphilis,” which would be “very painful,” Yeoman added. “We can only speculate, but something is going on. These are very sick people – so they go out there to be healed?” the archaeologist asked. Archaeologists said subjective evidence suggests this is exactly what was “going on” as traces of medicinal plants were found in May “including greater celadine used to treat treatment of pain and illness, and henbane – used as an anesthetic.
Foot bones of a teenager with syphilis (left). The skull is enlarged, possibly due to hydrocephalus (right). (Image: Marlo Willows/British Archeology)
Speaking to reporters at the Herald, David Steel, manager of the Isle of May reserve for Scottish National Heritage, said: “This incredible new information shows that the Isle of May is a center of healing is another great example of the island’s uniqueness.” “The monastery may have been a place of learning and the monks may have been literate, so it is possible they used that knowledge to treat the sick,” the manager added. It was believed that “being near the grave of a saint like Ethernan would help their souls reach heaven, through the “sacred radiation” of his holy presence.”
A modern mystical neighbor
And this supposed “divine radiation” has been felt in modern times, according to spoon millionaire Uri Geller, that is. In 2009, Geller famously bought the neighboring Isle of Lamb and, according to a Scottish article, his purchase was “influenced” by a fake New Age article on 2009 edition of the paranormal magazine Atlantis Rising. Convinced that “the exiled Egyptian princess, Scota” had buried something valuable on Lamb Island, Geller then spent a night on the island in 2010, about which he said he “used the ability to dowsing to see if ancient legends point to the truth.” to an Egyptian treasure hidden on the island.”
Even though Geller didn’t find the “Egyptian princess’s treasure,” this story just goes to show that beliefs, no matter how wild, can have a direct impact on the real world and cause people to take action. In this case, the effect ended up in the Gellers bank account, but a thousand years ago, believing that May could cure his child’s illness, people sailed across the sea to get there to get it. some “healing energy” is attributed to it and embarks on medical work. . Archaeologists on the island of May now suspect “the monks of May used “herbal legends to treat the sick and dying” who they suspect “made pilgrimages to the island in the hope of a miraculous cure or simple care in their dying days.” It seems that the island’s majestic setting, medical and holy environment have always made it a place where the veil between this world and the other world is considered a little thinner.
