Medieval pope bull discovered at Corvey World Heritage Site

A papal lead seal of at least 800 years old has been discovered in the former monastery settlement "Civitas Corvey" near Höxter. 

City archaeologist Ralf Mahytka found the so-called bull in a tailings hill in the Höxter Archaeology Park, where visitors can dig on days of action, a spokeswoman for the Huxarium Garden Park said on Monday.

"You don't find something like this too often, because the seal of lead was mostly melted down and recycled when the respective contract had expired or become invalid," Mahytka explained. 

He manages the excavations in the Huxarium Garden Park on the site of the medieval town desert Corvey ("Civitas Corvey") on the Weserbogen. 

The remains of the 1265 destroyed settlement and the Carolingian western work of the former monastery of Corvey have been part of the Unesco World Heritage since 2014.

Mahytka suspects that the metal seal found belonged to a papal deed addressed either to the monastery or a resident of the lost city of Corvey. 

The name Gregory is therefore easy to read on it, but it is unclear whether it is Pope Gregory VIII (1187) or Gregory IX (1227–1241).