This Abandoned Medieval Village Holds a Grisly Secret

Поділитися
Вставка
  • Опубліковано 20 сер 2019
  • The village of Wharram Percy, on the western edge of the chalk wolds of North Yorkshire, is an archaeological treasure. It the best preserved medieval village in Britain and may hold a disturbing secret.
    From the Series: Mystic Britain: The Revenants bitly.com/2N58h5N
  • Розваги

КОМЕНТАРІ • 184

  • @mayazhussain
    @mayazhussain 5 років тому +958

    The abandoned that town because they knew that in future Smithsonian Channel will make an incomplete video about them

  • @josesal
    @josesal 5 років тому +329

    Smithsonian Channel
    If your not going to give us the total video, at least aim us in the direction where we can see it.

  • @LadyBirch
    @LadyBirch 5 років тому +301

    Something is missing like a conclusion seems incomplete

    • @TK-ij2xi
      @TK-ij2xi 4 роки тому +3

      See above comment

  • @Pigmentonic
    @Pigmentonic 2 роки тому +33

    In case anyone was wondering what the "Grisly secret" was, the bones were found burned, smashed and cut in a way which indicates they were dismembered after death but before burial. The two predominant theories as to why are cannibalism or preventative measures to stop the bodies coming back as undead beings called revenants. Of these two explanations, most historians agree that revenants are the more likely answer.

    • @VersatyleTV1
      @VersatyleTV1 Рік тому +1

      If it was cannibalism. Do you think it was likely due to desperate measures and limited to no food supply?

  • @teslagirl1
    @teslagirl1 4 роки тому +29

    Every abandoned place like this, however remote and "out of the way" it is today was once the very center of someone's world.

  • @katerynahrom9727
    @katerynahrom9727 5 років тому +10

    Guys, Wiki says that the plague wasn't the reason why the village was abandoned. The population decreased during that time so the village wasn't profitable anymore. The Percy family exchanged the land with another family and the new owners evicted the villagers to make more pastures for sheep.

  • @nagaviper1169
    @nagaviper1169 5 років тому +91

    Wait, I wasn't done watching.

  • @okay_aaki143
    @okay_aaki143 5 років тому +57

    this is some cliffhanger

  • @cainandnikosadventures3786
    @cainandnikosadventures3786 5 років тому +130

    What's the grisly secret?

    • @mentnomore
      @mentnomore 5 років тому +40

      It’s kept nicely

    • @Metacognition88
      @Metacognition88 5 років тому +15

      Smithsonian plus will tell you.

    • @slee3155
      @slee3155 5 років тому +6

      undead lich ... perhaps Acererak ... needed zombie parts

    • @keeperofthegood
      @keeperofthegood 5 років тому +3

      no the grisly has rotted away, we are only left the bones

    • @StuSaville
      @StuSaville 5 років тому +2

      A Grisly bear ate the people...

  • @noneofyourbeeswax01
    @noneofyourbeeswax01 5 років тому +61

    Doubtless the bones of such people as enraged the villagers by telling incomplete stories...

  • @SOLI_INVICTO
    @SOLI_INVICTO 4 роки тому +12

    There once was a...
    Pay me.

  • @Vardaris
    @Vardaris 3 роки тому +4

    To people who may be wondering what happened:
    Human bones excavated from a deserted medieval village in North Yorkshire show people mutilated and burnt bodies to stop them rising from the dead.
    Knife marks were found on 137 bones dating between the 11th and 14th Centuries, discovered at Wharram Percy.
    Experts said it was the first evidence of ancient practices to stop "corpses rising from their graves, spreading disease and assaulting the living".
    The study was conducted by Historic England and Southampton University.
    The village was abandoned when the land owner evicted the locals to turn the whole village into a sheep pasture site when cultivating crops was no longer as profitable compared to sheep.
    Source: BBC

    • @Vardaris
      @Vardaris 6 місяців тому +1

      @@AlistairClark99 wow a comment after 3 years. Yes it was basically shut down. Everybody left almost at the same time and the land was turned in a place that only had sheep. The story of the place was largely forgotten and only recently the researchers try to revive the story based on the excavations and whatever records they can find.

  • @carterl369
    @carterl369 5 років тому +23

    I’m no expert in the time period but I’m like 70% sure it’s a plague pit

    • @AndyCutright
      @AndyCutright 4 роки тому +1

      Yep

    • @joekelly9369
      @joekelly9369 3 роки тому

      @@AndyCutright a plague pit .the bodies were burnt .these were deliberately dismembered .

  • @timpauwels3734
    @timpauwels3734 4 роки тому +4

    The village was cleared in the 1500s by local lords who wanted more space for sheep pasture. This was an era when increased trade and a population decimated by repeated plagues had caused a merchant class in the cities to flourish, to which feudal lords who's wealth was in indentured serfs (of which many died) rather than of the monetary kind, could not keep up. In search of wealth, the aristocracy kicked the unprofitable peasants off the common land they lived on and enclosed it for sheep pasture, employing (this was a new concept!) only a small number to tend to the livestock. The king's army would have helped with the violence.
    Many who had lived self sufficient (albeit unfree and taxed) lives on common land were without homes or support. They either went to work for a landowner or went into debt to start their own business schemes. Capitalism was born.
    Countless people were kicked off the land in Scotland during the highland clearances, yet because this is in England, the same type of event is somehow "mysterious".
    You will find that most ancient hedges, walls, mounds and ditches that divide the European countryside are from the 1500s. This event is why the village is abandoned.
    As for the pit of skeletons - plague pit maybe? Or, given the knife marks, dead from a famine? Maybe they were executed for carrying out a peasant's revolt?

  • @memonk11
    @memonk11 5 років тому +29

    Thanks for nothing.

  • @tinker.belle.501.
    @tinker.belle.501. 5 років тому +7

    To be honest, I think that some people who have been buried outside of The Graveyard near the church, were either Romans, people who died of The Black Plague, or Even Worse, they Could have been murdered; & then their corpses buried Away from The Church, that way, No One Else Would Ever have Any suspicions as to what happened to the ten corpses.

    • @R.M.MacFru
      @R.M.MacFru 5 років тому +1

      Burial on unconsecrated ground was usually for either suicides or women who died in childbirth.
      Of course, murdering travellers for money was sometimes a popular sport. 🤨

    • @joekelly9369
      @joekelly9369 3 роки тому +1

      They were from the village

  • @rickyspanish492
    @rickyspanish492 5 років тому +26

    Some mad clickbait Smithsonian

  • @ladyalaina42
    @ladyalaina42 5 років тому +9

    10 people not buried in the churchyard is a grisley secret?

  • @pignonMZ6
    @pignonMZ6 5 років тому +10

    Well that was underwhelming.

  • @TimTams_64
    @TimTams_64 5 років тому +21

    so wheres the reset of the video?

  • @bigblue6917
    @bigblue6917 4 роки тому +2

    I have been there and if you are interested in the Medieval period, especially the archaeology of that times, it is an interesting place to go.

  • @aquillafleetwood8180
    @aquillafleetwood8180 5 років тому +4

    Can't wait for the sequel!!!

  • @USSResolute
    @USSResolute 4 роки тому +11

    This was about as accurate and informative as the displays at Mayan sites in Belize, which, if not for the jungle sitting atop them, look exactly like Wharram Percy from the air, I imagine but from the terrain just look like mounds of rock. The Smithsonian Channel is about as useful with regard to what happened here as the Belize Tourism Bureau is about the 15 or so major Mayan sites they manage, all of which were also abandoned for no good reason since the people in Belize still live and farm right around them today. If you don't know what happened at Wharram or you don't want us to know, don't waste our time with videos. When you waste my time, you have essentially stolen 3.5 minutes of my life.

    • @anitadavenport7209
      @anitadavenport7209 2 роки тому

      A million thank you's! I hate wasting time and learning nothing in the process 💯

    • @Concetta20
      @Concetta20 7 місяців тому +1

      Wow. Tell us how you really feel.

  • @vernondias3920
    @vernondias3920 5 років тому +11

    I fell for a click bait

  • @jamesmann8196
    @jamesmann8196 4 роки тому +1

    The bodies found apparently had bones with knife marks slashed into them to avoid the deceased person to "rise from the dead". Numerous body parts were also singed, and thus mutilated as well as decapitation being present. The village fell into decline during the chaos of the 'Black Death'.
    Hope that concludes the video for people.

  • @Super-chad
    @Super-chad 5 років тому

    Im so glad that these videos are short and comprehensive

  • @jackbuckley7816
    @jackbuckley7816 2 роки тому +3

    The "grisly secret" in the caption simply is the grisly secret we'll never know what the grisly secret IS! Disappointing but a good cliffhanger nonetheless. My own sense is that the mysterious grave contained victims of one of the many plague-outbreaks of those far-off times.

  • @TheManWithTheWhiteHusky
    @TheManWithTheWhiteHusky 5 років тому +6

    Are you going to upload another part to this video

  • @dkelban
    @dkelban 5 років тому +8

    Grisly??? All tease and no substance

  • @Silkendrum
    @Silkendrum 5 років тому +27

    Hey, Smithsonian, you have left me angry! You won't like me when I'm angry....

  • @benvasilinda9729
    @benvasilinda9729 4 роки тому +2

    The people in that medieval town died and were buried as mysteriously as this video ended.

  • @mentnomore
    @mentnomore 5 років тому +4

    Nice!!

    • @mentnomore
      @mentnomore 5 років тому +2

      Ninten, if you say I delete

  • @luckyidiot9433
    @luckyidiot9433 5 років тому +14

    Probably a plague? Or some kind of sickness

    • @jacobblack2696
      @jacobblack2696 5 років тому +1

      Vampires!!!!!yeahhhhh I've got it!!!😎😎

  • @charlotteziggy8353
    @charlotteziggy8353 5 років тому +6

    Some of the comments below are entertaining...so got a little something out of it.

  • @vaibhavathalye7542
    @vaibhavathalye7542 5 років тому

    Where can we get the entire series of Mystic Britain?

  • @htos1av
    @htos1av 4 роки тому

    Ahh man, now I wanna see all of it!

  • @mayazhussain
    @mayazhussain 5 років тому +1

    Only thing that is abandoned here is this video by Smithsonian Channel

  • @65LB
    @65LB 4 роки тому

    GREAT Teaser!

  • @captainsixties9890
    @captainsixties9890 4 роки тому

    My first thoughts are it’s a plague pit, but the others are correct that people back then did used to mutilate bodies to prevent them returning as vampires so it could be either one.

  • @doylepro
    @doylepro Рік тому

    Legends has it that the village were haunted by the Auto Insurance Sales Agents which force them abandoning it.

  • @sarahkendle7564
    @sarahkendle7564 5 років тому

    Most likely the burial was a plague pit, the village collapsed as its population shrank and not enough people survived to keep the settlement going hence the village was abandoned. In regards to the bodies the only other thing I could think of is possibly criminals who had been executed but I would have thought this would have been done in a town nearby and I think even criminals were given individual burials. Has anyone else got any better ideas because this has me hooked!

  • @estebannemo1957
    @estebannemo1957 5 років тому +7

    What an absolutely banal story.

  • @donnaemerson3313
    @donnaemerson3313 4 роки тому

    The link to the entire episode is in the drop down info.

  • @GregoryTheGr8ster
    @GregoryTheGr8ster 4 роки тому

    There is absolutely no doubt in my mind that this village is now horribly haunted. I would not go there even with a shotgun.

  • @michael245
    @michael245 3 роки тому

    this is the only thing i hate about these videos is that their not long enough where can i watch the full video of this

  • @ted.angell7609
    @ted.angell7609 4 роки тому

    It’s always brighter here 🤩

  • @jgcelliott1
    @jgcelliott1 4 роки тому +1

    Serial killer?
    Raid?
    Minor insurrection?
    Witch hunt?
    Come on, take a stab at it.
    .

  • @davidwood9966
    @davidwood9966 4 роки тому

    1:57 That zip is AWESOME.

  • @xCaptxCrunchx
    @xCaptxCrunchx 4 роки тому

    Maybe it was bodies used to practice autopsies since at the time it was frowned upon.

  • @bandicoot5412
    @bandicoot5412 4 роки тому

    It's cool to see the same view they had, with no Advil.

  • @swivelhips586
    @swivelhips586 5 років тому

    Vikings in the late 900's sailed through a worm hole-portal and arrived in the 1500's? I knew it!

  • @WobblesandBean
    @WobblesandBean 5 років тому +1

    Ok, but...why

  • @TheDizzleHawke
    @TheDizzleHawke 4 роки тому

    This is Clive Anderson saying goodnight. “Goodnight.”

  • @nesa1126
    @nesa1126 5 років тому

    Maybe they died of plague? Maybe that is why village is abandoned? In my hometown during plague they buried bodies out of town. But town grown during 20th century. Anyway, once there was a project to dig a channel and they found mass grave.

  • @jry.....why.1605
    @jry.....why.1605 5 років тому +2

    I HATE when the story is hanging,with no answers??,..I just started to get my mood.😏😏😒😒

  • @termeownator
    @termeownator 5 років тому +3

    We're they suicides or something? Or heretics or blasphemers?

    • @Chew1964
      @Chew1964 5 років тому +2

      Yes, suicides and heretics were buried in unhallowed ground.

    • @rudra62
      @rudra62 5 років тому

      Those hung for witchcraft?

  • @aquillafleetwood8180
    @aquillafleetwood8180 5 років тому +4

    News Alert!
    ...no news...

  • @drgaganvelayudhan1733
    @drgaganvelayudhan1733 5 років тому +2

    Were these people murdered?

  • @no_name1549
    @no_name1549 5 років тому +1

    I want to see more plane videos

  • @jimmym9967
    @jimmym9967 4 роки тому

    I would guess if it was medieval this would be people that died of the Black Death, and the villagers wanted the cadavers away from the town

  • @xSUBIACOx
    @xSUBIACOx 5 років тому +2

    Ah, right, er, erm, yes, er, hmmm, er, and?

  • @prestonak
    @prestonak 3 роки тому

    This is a cable tv channel, they don't give episodes for free guys

  • @rustyshackleford2627
    @rustyshackleford2627 4 роки тому

    When was the church built ?!

  • @SamtheMan0508
    @SamtheMan0508 5 років тому

    Before I saw the "village", I thought it would be an interesting place to visit.

    • @marysunshine4730
      @marysunshine4730 5 років тому

      Michele Pohl It is 19 miles North of York. I would love to catch the vibes.

  • @garethanthonyclark4879
    @garethanthonyclark4879 4 роки тому

    Hits man on back of head with spade

  • @DraRed73
    @DraRed73 4 роки тому

    Ten people buried in a pit...Soooo grizzly

  • @seanhaarhoff3726
    @seanhaarhoff3726 4 роки тому

    Where's the end?

  • @kervinashong4414
    @kervinashong4414 5 років тому +2

    OH DEAR GOD!!!! they are just going to leave us hanging?????

  • @mikehunt3852
    @mikehunt3852 5 років тому +2

    Surprised you can afford to keep going Smithy - remind us how many millions of dollars the yanks fined you for destroying those 15 foot skeletons again ? 😋

  • @darrenfraser5132
    @darrenfraser5132 4 роки тому

    For you fellow Americans most villages in the meadevil period were left to crumble because of the black death that was in Europe. This lead villages to bury or burn the remains of the victims that died of the black death away from the villages. There are loads of these around the country side today.

  • @BradiKal61
    @BradiKal61 4 роки тому

    It must have something to do with David S Pumpkin

  • @MrNightpwner
    @MrNightpwner 5 років тому

    How is Britain an island, so old, and has a bunch of abandoned land?

  • @wormswithteeth
    @wormswithteeth 10 місяців тому

    They left becasue they were getting constantly spam for time shares.

  • @BradiKal61
    @BradiKal61 4 роки тому

    Will future archeologists discover the lost point of this video?

  • @ravensage1756
    @ravensage1756 4 роки тому

    Sounds like they had serial killers in medieval times to

  • @elikemlarnyoh5642
    @elikemlarnyoh5642 5 років тому +2

    The place doesn’t look abandoned at all
    Well trimmed grasses, well cut out roads, buildings in good shape though old; and you say it’s abandoned.
    You should come again

  • @olbradley
    @olbradley 4 роки тому

    My guess is sweating plague. Also in what universe is 1520 considered medieval? The Renaissance era started when Constantinople fell to the Turks and is generally used as the end date of the Medieval period and the beginning of the Renaissance.

    • @tamaracarter1836
      @tamaracarter1836 3 роки тому

      The village was built long before 1520 (the layout is largely 10th-12th century and the church is mostly 12th-14th century), 1520 is just when everyone left. Remember this is one of England’s “abandoned” medieval villages (of which there are over 3000).

  • @Alex462047
    @Alex462047 4 роки тому

    Well, go on and tell us why these people were buried outside the churchyard. Were they suicides? Were they executed? Why were they buried like that?

  • @mrs.g.9816
    @mrs.g.9816 4 роки тому

    I wish I could see more of this video. No cable - so I can't watch the Smithsonian channel.

  • @JinrohDFLL
    @JinrohDFLL 4 роки тому +3

    as always you can count on a Smithsonian video not telling you what the title says.

  • @theastronomer5800
    @theastronomer5800 2 роки тому

    How is that grisly or disturbing?

  • @lizardwrangle
    @lizardwrangle 4 роки тому

    That's it? No reason given why the village was abandoned?

  • @robothunter1035
    @robothunter1035 4 роки тому

    They found me out. Curses!

  • @jayveeaurea9091
    @jayveeaurea9091 4 роки тому

    Sinful deaths like suicide weren’t buried in the church yard known to them as “sacred land”.

  • @billyrock8305
    @billyrock8305 5 років тому +2

    Spooky!! 👻 Witches!

    • @Calum...
      @Calum... 5 років тому

      Shut up Billy

  • @Chew1964
    @Chew1964 5 років тому

    Suicides and heretics were buried in unhallowed ground.

  • @BornAgainCynic0086
    @BornAgainCynic0086 4 роки тому

    Site of medieval 1st attempt to land an airliner?

  • @FootballClubDavid_WI_USA
    @FootballClubDavid_WI_USA 4 роки тому

    Check the description for the entire show @t

  • @janesgems7
    @janesgems7 3 роки тому

    If you truly want to find some place truly inspiring go to Eyam.

  • @gnarmarmilla
    @gnarmarmilla 4 роки тому

    Maybe they are the bodies of their enemy’s warriors.

  • @andrewgodly5739
    @andrewgodly5739 4 роки тому

    Could've been for anything. Perhaps they were too poor to be buried in the graveyard or they were plague victims that were burned in a pit together. Could've even been where they buried non-Christians or for one of the other thousand possibilities

  • @privateer177666
    @privateer177666 4 роки тому

    And now you know NOT the rest of the story.....

  • @bruceschneider4928
    @bruceschneider4928 5 років тому

    Sounds like Wharram Percy was plagued with disease.

  • @philiplombardo249
    @philiplombardo249 4 роки тому

    A marginal video 🤔 I highly suggest reading quite well done books written by Peter Ackroyd for some truly stunning insights into English history. His fine authorship will offer a deep and interesting analysis of England over both ancient and modern time frames.

  • @wicrosoft8091
    @wicrosoft8091 4 роки тому

    a bit lackluster but oh well

  • @anon7219
    @anon7219 3 роки тому

    uhm, that was it?

  • @gentlebabarian
    @gentlebabarian 4 роки тому

    are they plague victims then?

  • @joekelly9369
    @joekelly9369 3 роки тому

    Brilliant , but folklore and fears spread like wildfire , litterally stoked by fear and self preservation , so this isnt an isolated incident , further south the welsh borders would sacrifice the weakest maybe mentally ill of the village to apease the gods of the crops , after a few failed harvests it seems a common thing of the time , the harvest festival originates from a darker period ,

  • @CJ-hj3co
    @CJ-hj3co 3 роки тому

    he spelled Grizzly WRONG!

  • @gimmedemdigits6040
    @gimmedemdigits6040 4 роки тому

    The plague?