A three-week archaeological dig in the English Channel took a strange turn after researchers found a carefully cut grave with no human remains.
The ancient remains of a medieval porpoise were found on the small island of Chapelle Dom Hue off the coast of Guernsey in September 2017, but archaeologists were at a loss to explain the story behind the tomb.
"I don't know what to make of it, it's very strange," said Philip de Jersey from Oxford University.
Why bury a porpoise in a grave?
The way the porpoise was buried doesn't suggest it was simply dumped underground.
It looks like it's been laid to rest, with the body aligned east to west, and the careful digging of the grave suggests it was intended as a solemn resting place.
The island is thought to have been a religious retreat for monks, and de Jersey expected to find the remains of a medieval monk in the tomb.
The skull of a juvenile porpoise was found after the researchers noticed changes in the soil, which they think is related to the graves of other monks.
The porpoise were eaten in medieval times.
If that is the case, the researchers say it would have made sense for people to dispose of the remains in the sea, located just 10 meters from the site, and the small island is surrounded by water on all sides.
There is a video on Guernsey Archaeology.
"If we were in a church and we found something like this, we would think it was a grave cut," de Jersey said.
That is something that puzzles me. If they killed it for the blubber, why not bury it?
De Jersey thinks that the animal may have been killed for food and then preserved until needed, but the remains were never used.
He told The Guardian that it may have been packed in salt and that they didn't come back to it.
The porpoise bones were removed from their resting place and handed over to a marine expert.
It's the strangest find in de Jersey's 35-year career as a scientist.
He said that the dolphin has a strong significance in Christianity, but he had never seen anything like this before.
It's not the kind of thing that you would get in medieval times.
In a follow up interview in late 2018, de Jersey said he believed the animal had been stored for food, but that we would probably never find out.
He said that they wouldn't find out.
The original version of this article was published in March.
