This Abandoned Medieval Village Holds a Grisly Secret 

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

Something is missing like a conclusion seems incomplete

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

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.

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

Wait, I wasn't done watching.

this is some cliffhanger

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.

What's the grisly secret?

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

There once was a... Pay me.

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

Thanks for nothing.

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

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

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?

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.

I fell for a click bait

Some mad clickbait Smithsonian

Well that was underwhelming.

so wheres the reset of the video?

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

Im so glad that these videos are short and comprehensive

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.

Can't wait for the sequel!!!

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.

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.

Are you going to upload another part to this video

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

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

Grisly??? All tease and no substance

Where can we get the entire series of Mystic Britain?

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.

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

Probably a plague? Or some kind of sickness

Nice!!

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

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

GREAT Teaser!

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

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!

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

Ahh man, now I wanna see all of it!

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.

What an absolutely banal story.

This is Clive Anderson saying goodnight. “Goodnight.”

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

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

Ok, but...why

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

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

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

It’s always brighter here 🤩

Were these people murdered?

1:57 That zip is AWESOME.

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

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.

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

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

Will future archeologists discover the lost point of this video?

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

News Alert! ...no news...

Ten people buried in a pit...Soooo grizzly

I want to see more plane videos

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

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.

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

Hits man on back of head with spade

Suicides and heretics were buried in unhallowed ground.

It must have something to do with David S Pumpkin

When was the church built ?!

Where's the end?

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

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

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

Sounds like they had serial killers in medieval times to

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 ? 😋

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

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?

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

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.

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

he spelled Grizzly WRONG!

Check the description for the entire show @t

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

They found me out. Curses!

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

Site of medieval 1st attempt to land an airliner?

How is that grisly or disturbing?

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

Sounds like Wharram Percy was plagued with disease.

who is pashionate about waching food videos

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.

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

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

uhm, that was it?

a bit lackluster but oh well

Spooky!! 👻 Witches!

Oh so grisly - NOT!!

What was the point of this video?