UM-Bot Posted September 20, 2017 #1 Share Posted September 20, 2017 A recent archaeological dig near Guernsey has yielded something rather unexpected - a porpoise skeleton. http://www.unexplained-mysteries.com/news/311754/porpoise-unearthed-in-medieval-graveyard 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ROGER Posted September 20, 2017 #2 Share Posted September 20, 2017 I believe he is mistaken. Looks more like a family dog . Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wes4747 Posted September 20, 2017 #3 Share Posted September 20, 2017 Weredolphin!!! I knew it was real!!! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cathya Posted September 20, 2017 #4 Share Posted September 20, 2017 Maybe it was a pet. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
paperdyer Posted September 20, 2017 #5 Share Posted September 20, 2017 The skull does resemble a dog head, but since I've never seen a skeleton of a porpoise I'll defer and wait for more info. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
oneshot_me Posted September 20, 2017 #6 Share Posted September 20, 2017 When it dies in the grave pit no one wanted to be buried there thinking is was a sign of some kind Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
oneshot_me Posted September 20, 2017 #7 Share Posted September 20, 2017 Of the bad kind Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest brizink Posted September 20, 2017 #8 Share Posted September 20, 2017 What is the porpoise of all this?... Teehee, had to say it since no one else did. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
qxcontinuum Posted September 21, 2017 #9 Share Posted September 21, 2017 (edited) maybe it saved someone life at the sea or was some sort of pet like friendship. The purpose was obviously to protect being eaten by scavengers or disrespected in any kind left alone. In the same time it could have been burried to prevent putrefaction or stank around a village ? Edited September 21, 2017 by qxcontinuum Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
skliss Posted September 21, 2017 #10 Share Posted September 21, 2017 There have been cases of dolphins who've helped sailors navigate difficult passages...maybe this dolphin did some special feat or service. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shouldthisexist Posted September 21, 2017 #11 Share Posted September 21, 2017 (edited) Dolphins, the once true rulers! I knew my theories would prove themselves...time to move on to proving the flatness of the earth! also for reference to the might be a dog skull I looked for the closest resemblance a 5 min search could find. https://goo.gl/images/FZFNLY Edited September 21, 2017 by Shouldthisexist 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Black Monk Posted September 21, 2017 #12 Share Posted September 21, 2017 19 hours ago, ROGER said: I believe he is mistaken. Looks more like a family dog . No. It's definitely a porpoise. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Black Monk Posted September 21, 2017 #13 Share Posted September 21, 2017 9 hours ago, skliss said: There have been cases of dolphins who've helped sailors navigate difficult passages...maybe this dolphin did some special feat or service. It's a porpoise, Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Black Monk Posted September 21, 2017 #14 Share Posted September 21, 2017 (edited) The celebrated Northumbrian saint, Cuthbert, cast ashore on a Scottish bay, was said to have found three porpoises or dolphins lying dead on the beach, as if miraculously presented there for his sustenance. To the faithful, whales and dolphins were bounties from above. With the Norman invasion, they became the preserve of the aristocracy and the holy orders because, classified as fish, they could be eaten on fast days of Wednesday and Friday. The name porpoise is itself a contraction of the Norman French, porc poisson. In 1324, this right was enshrined in medieval legislation regarding “Fishes Royal”, which claimed any stranded whale, dolphin, sturgeon or porpoise for the monarch and his or her favourites. The law still loosely obtains today, administered by London’s Natural History Museum. Some years ago a large sturgeon – a bony, antediluvian-looking fish – delivered to the museum was offered to Buckingham Palace. The offer was politely declined. And in an even odder cyclic collision of science, culture and myth, scientists have proposed that mathematical examination of Pictish pictograms like the Pictish beast may enable us to understand the communication systems used by dolphins, whose squeaks and whistles appear to be aural versions of such images, conveying meaning that is, as yet, beyond us. https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2017/sep/20/channel-islands-buried-porpoise-is-not-the-first-such-mysterious-find Edited September 21, 2017 by Black Monk 6 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Yoyo1 Posted September 21, 2017 #15 Share Posted September 21, 2017 Perhaps it liked humans. Opo and Pelorus Jack were two dolphins in New Zealand which liked to spend time with humans in the early 1900s and in the 1950s. They became legends. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
skliss Posted September 21, 2017 #16 Share Posted September 21, 2017 9 hours ago, Black Monk said: It's a porpoise, I know but they are very similar....I assumed they would have similar characteristics. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Caspian Hare Posted September 21, 2017 #17 Share Posted September 21, 2017 Very strange. There's an old superstition that dolphins carry the souls of drowned sailors. Maybe that has something to do with it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PersonFromPorlock Posted September 23, 2017 #18 Share Posted September 23, 2017 Is there any porpoise analog to a selkie? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Parsec Posted September 23, 2017 #19 Share Posted September 23, 2017 20 hours ago, PersonFromPorlock said: Is there any porpoise analog to a selkie? I am not sure threy differentiated much in the middle ages between dolphins and porpoises, so I reckon we could ascribe selkies to porpoises as well. Wow, actually your link (and wiki's page about porpoises) took me to a quite unexpected journey of old traditions and legends. Between female rape, slavery and forced marriages (selkies in a nutshell) and drive hunting, I see how things have changed on some topics. And how traditions are important, but some of them are better left to history books. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Piney Posted September 26, 2017 #20 Share Posted September 26, 2017 On 9/20/2017 at 1:31 PM, cathya said: Maybe it was a pet. That's what I was thinking. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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