US EditionSkeletons Found in Mysterious Pit Died Violent Deaths in Anglo-Saxon-Era England
At least 10 young men’s remains, including a trepanned man and signs of beheading, suggest possible mass execution or battle casualties, according to Cambridge archaeologists.
- On Wednesday, Cambridge University undergraduate archaeology students on a training dig unearthed the remains of at least 10 people in a burial pit at Wandlebury Country Park, possibly dating to the ninth century AD.
- Regional historians note that Cambridgeshire served as a 'frontier zone' where Saxons and Vikings clashed over territory across many decades, and archaeologists suspect the burial pit may relate to those conflicts.
- Archaeologists recorded four complete skeletons, some tied, plus dismembered remains including a cluster of skulls and a stack of legs, and a man estimated 6ft 5in tall with a 3cm diameter hole in his skull.
- Officials plan a geophysical survey and Dr Oscar Aldred of Cambridge Archaeological Unit suggested the buried could have faced corporal punishment and that some disarticulated parts may have been displayed as trophies.
- Archaeologists say the assemblage may indicate the remains were all young men from a mass execution or battle burial, and the find will feature on Digging For Britain, BBC Two on Wednesday.
24 Articles
24 Articles
1,100-Year-Old Burial Pit Unearthed in Cambridgeshire - Archaeology Magazine
CAMBRIDGE, ENGLAND—According to an RTÉ report, a burial pit containing the remains of at least 10 people, likely young men buried after a battle or a mass execution, was uncovered in eastern England by a team from Cambridge University. One of the bodies had been decapitated, while the positions of others suggest that they had been tied up at the time of death. Disarticulated body parts were also recovered. “We don’t see much evidence for the del…
Who were these men? Why were they thrown together, not carefully, into a narrow valley? And what explains the presence of crunched skulls, bare legs and hidden skeletons? Discovered in the vicinity of Cambridge, in the United Kingdom, a common valley of the Viking era has challenged archaeologists and resumed the debate on the violence that marked the dispute between Saxons and Nordic invaders in the 19th century. The burial, dated about 870 B.C…
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