Seriously gross:

[boudiceaborn]

No, seriously. The fact that I was eating porridge at the time I discovered this quote did NOT help.

From a paper discussing the exhumation of very well-preserved medieval remains:

Comments

[mayamahal]

That's HORRIBLE!

Keep writing about this stuff, it's better than coffee.

[empryss]

It just confirms my belief that someone is always willing to do something extremely stupid at least once.

[gyptis]

Stop eating porridge.

Now read on...

I studied archaeology at university. A colleague of mine had worked on an excavation of a graveyard in Dover, England, and they'd come across a lead-lined coffin too heavy to lift without assistance.

So they ran straps around it and got a crane to lift it.

With them standing around the grave, and the coffin at head-height, it split open, thereby showering them with the liquified putrescence contained within.

The showerblock they used near the site "ran all night".

[boudiceaborn]

Oof, yuck.

But thanks for commenting! Did you go to university in the UK?

[gyptis]

Yes - at Newcastle upon Tyne. We covered mainly Roman stuff - just as I realised that my interests were turning to Medieval subjects. I graduated in 1984.