1 THE SKULL OF BEDE Authors Joanna Story: School of History, The University of Leicester, University Road, Leicester LE1 7RH. Email:
[email protected] Richard N. Bailey Abstract In 1831 Canon James Raine excavated Bede’s tomb in Durham Cathedral revealing a partial skeleton accompanied by a medieval ring. Three casts were made of the skull; the recent re-discovery of one of these casts provokes an examination of the authenticity of the remains and of antiquarian interests in craniology in the mid nineteenth century. Text I. The 1831 excavation Canon James Raine (1791–1858) excavated St. Cuthbert’s tomb in Durham Cathedral in 1827.1 The spectacular discoveries of that controversial investigation no doubt then encouraged him to turn his attention to Bede’s tomb in the Galilee chapel. In 1830 workmen dismantled the table tomb down to pavement level and then – with his well-honed sense of political timing – Raine excavated the grave beneath on the anniversary of Bede’s death on 27 May 1831. His report was published in 1833 as part of a history of the cathedral building, and this information can be supplemented by a draft of its text which is contained in Raine’s autograph annotations to his earlier book on St Cuthbert.2 According to Raine, when he opened Bede’s tomb, the human bones he found there were: Although by no means furnishing the full complement of those belonging to a perfect skeleton, appeared nevertheless to have been purposely arranged in their respective places, in a coffin of the full size, of which, though in a very decomposed state, there were numerous traces.