When most of us think of coffins, we think of ornate wooden structures, lined with satin and trimmed with brass. When we think of the coffins our ancestors might have been buried in, we may conjure up images of simple pine boxes. But what about in medieval times?
People used what was available to them, and as we have seen from the burial cairns, this tended to be rock.
The rocks were carved out so that a body could be laid inside the large slab and then, rather than a hinged lid, another large slab was laid over top, giving the finished look of a table grave slab.
I can't imagine how heavy these would have been!
Here are some examples:
These ones at Holyrood Abbey in Edinburgh don't have the slab over top to act as a lid. Did they?
These two in the kirkyard at St Andrew's Cathedral show the carving where the body would be laid and then the slab that was placed over top to form a table slab. To me, it looks like the coffins were a drawer.
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