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From a distance, the slate gray roof and central white tower of the Brahekyrkan church appear charming. The idyllic building is situated on a small island in southern Sweden and surrounded by a cemetery dotted with flowers.So archaeologists weren't surprised when a construction project at the church uncovered several skeletons — but the grave held an 800-year-old mystery, too.Archaeologists began excavations at the Brahekyrkan church in Visingsö to prepare for the installation of a geothermal heating system, the Jönköping County Museum said in a March 27 news release.On the first day of the excavation, the team found two skeletons, Anna...

A man examines the St. Thomas Becket exhibit at The British Museum in London, which is marking the 850th anniversary of the death of the 12th-century saint. (Credit: CNS photo/courtesy The British Museum.)LONDON — In a gallery of The British Museum, light plays on an array of medieval crosses, reliquaries and manuscripts, as an audiovisual display reenacts one of English history’s most notorious crimes. At the center, three stained-glass windows, painstakingly transferred from Canterbury Cathedral, convey images from the fabled afterlife of St. Thomas Becket (1120-1170), next to badges and keepsakes left by generations of pilgrims at his place of...

'They're the most beautiful books that were created.' So said Peter Stoicheff, professor of English at the University of Saskatchewan, who wants to reassemble forty boxes of single manuscript pages. May 26, 2005: University of Saskatchewan Reassembles Medieval Manuscripts at Rare Book News and Scattered Leaves at Bookworm started me on a little journey. Prof Stoicheff's quote is in Pages for the ages: U of S prof on quest to reassemble pages of centuries-old manuscripts. The hand-written pages were torn from some 50 books in the possession of Otto Ege of Cleveland, Ohio. In the early decades of the...