Prescot Dig

Altar Rails

I went to a small town in Minas, one of those places that grew rich on gold mining in the 18th century. These days it is a sleepy mountain town with a baroque monster of a church, something way out of scale with the town it serves. The mayor is busy 'repairing' the church... and so, wading through the piles of ripped out timbers we made it into the church. The labourers were on their break but were only too happy to show us the bones, hair and jewelry they had found whilst digging in the nave. The workmen thought the bodies were slaves. Hell, even the Mayor thought the bodies were slaves, but we know that's not true, we know that these are the rich. 300 years of the wealthy buried one on another under a shallow soil. Right there inside the nave of the church... closer to God. The mayor is hacking them out in the name of progress and their bad smell. Soon it will be all gone. An archaeological site being sacked before your very eyes, with written permission from the government agency responsible for heritage. But then, that's what it's like being an archaeologist, everywhere you go, people destroying stuff either out of malice, ignorance, incompetence or greed. You pick your battles. This isn't my battle, I took a few discrete photos, savoured the smell of this old place and went for a beer.