Abbot’s kneecap returned 70 years after it was taken from 13th century grave

A kneecap belonging to an Abbot at a medieval British abbey has been returned by the widow of a man who stole it from an excavation site on the premises as a child.

George Box, who died last year, was 11 when he swiped the bone while on a school trip to Glastonbury Abbey in the summer of 1956, according to a statement from the abbey.

During the process of sorting through his belongings and arranging to bring his ashes back to the U.K. to spread them where he grew up, his wife also planned to return the bone to its original resting place.

5:39
Parks Canada archaeologists unearth rare shipwreck findings at Sable Island National Park Reserve

“While visiting the abbey, George had noticed a large archaeological excavation taking place. As no one was around, he managed to pick up a piece of medieval floor tile and a piece of bone (a kneecap, in fact) from an opened tomb,” the abbey said in a news release.

As a child, George never told anyone he took the bone or the tile, or that when he moved to Australia in the 1970s, he brought both items with him.

In Australia, he displayed the artifact and the tile in a glass cabinet alongside fossils and other items he had collected during his lifelong fascination with archaeology.

George married his second wife in 2000, and when she caught wind of his childhood antics, thought the items should be returned to the abbey, its statement says. Box agreed that they should be taken back to England after he died.

They are now back in the hands of the abbey’s museum department and are on display for public viewing.

“The abbey is very grateful for their return, and to have learnt their fascinating story,” it said, adding that its records show a dig was taking place at the north transept of the Abbey Church, where several abbots’ tombs were opened up, some near the remains of tiled floors when Box pocketed the patella as a boy.

Glastonbury Abbey, which underwent dissolution in 1539 under Henry VIII during his efforts to exercise complete control over the church, is the burial site of several abbots who oversaw the establishment and died more than 800 years ago.

“This means that the kneecap could belong to either Abbot Amesbury, Abbot Petherton or Abbot John of Taunton, who all died in the 13th century and were buried in that part of the abbey.”

“All three remain at rest in this area,” the news release says, noting that they are buried several metres below the ground.

Lucy Newman, an employee at the abbey, told the BBC that staff are not sure which abbot the bone belonged to, and joked that if they were to excavate the burial sites to match it with its owner, one of its three potential owners could end up with “three kneecaps.”

“How surprised would they be to know that one of their kneecaps had travelled to Australia and back” — a land completely unknown to medieval monks of their time.