An archaeologist excavates a circa-1000 English burial pit in summer 2009. The pit holds 51 headless young men, perhaps Viking warriors executed by early English fighters, experts say. Photograph courtesy David Score, Oxford Archaeology
Posted on 07/28/2009 1:34:43 PM PDT by SunkenCiv
Naked, beheaded, and tangled, the bodies of 51 young men -- their heads stacked neatly to the side -- have been found in a thousand-year-old pit in southern England, according to carbon-dating results released earlier this month. The mass burial took place at a time when the English were battling Viking invaders, say archaeologists who are now trying to verify the identity of the slain. The dead are thought to have been war captives, possibly Vikings, whose heads were hacked off with swords or axes... Many of the skeletons have deep cut marks to the skull and jaw as well as the neck... The bodies show few signs of other trauma, suggesting the men were alive when beheaded. One victim appears to have raised an arm in self-defense: "The hand appears to have had its fingers sliced through," Score noted... Unusually, no trace of clothing has been found, indicating the men were buried naked. Even if their weapons and valuables had been taken "we should have found bone buttons and things like that, but to date we've got absolutely nothing," Score said... The burial has been radiocarbon-dated to between A.D. 890 and 1034... The team hopes chemical analysis of the buried men's teeth will show whether they grew up in Britain or Scandinavia... There was little to differentiate Vikings and early English warriors on the battlefield, said Siddorn, founder of Regia Anglorum, a historical-reenactment society... Both used spears as their primary weapons, with swords and axes as backups, Siddorn added... "During the height of the Viking raids, it's reasonable to say it was unsafe to live anywhere within 20 miles [32 kilometers] of the coast."
(Excerpt) Read more at news.nationalgeographic.com ...
An archaeologist excavates a circa-1000 English burial pit in summer 2009. The pit holds 51 headless young men, perhaps Viking warriors executed by early English fighters, experts say. Photograph courtesy David Score, Oxford Archaeology
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PING - for a later reading
Thanks for posting
“OD-I-I-N!!”
Talk about burying the evidence...I had no idea...and the Brits claim to be “civilized.”
I was gonna think of that!!!
Pit Viking alert!
you don't need that ring, do you?
Britain needs to apologize for this ethnic cleansing of the Viking “raiders”. They were probably just wayward youth or young strolling minstrels.
Back then clothing, especially buttons, were valuables. If you were going to execute someone in that time, it makes perfect sense to strip them first to keep from damaging or staining their clothes.
“Britain needs to apologize for this ethnic cleansing of the Viking ‘raiders’”
I think the term you’re looking for is “undocumented immigrants.” ;)
You are probably right. They were stripped of their hammers, clothes and roofing nails, beheaded and then thrown into the mass grave.
Talk about burying the evidence...I had no idea...and the Brits claim to be “civilized.”
Read what the Vikings did to BRits!!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C3%86thelred_the_Unready
Looks like archaeological evidence of Ethelred’s massacre of the Danes in 1002.
Interesting, I wonder how many English died to capture them.
Dem Dry Bunes
Tue-a bune-a cunnected tu zee fuut bune
-a Fuut bune-a cunnected tu zee leg bune
-a Leg bune-a cunnected tu zee knee-a bune
-a knee-a bune-a...ja dey all dry bunes
They were civilized - they buried their dead enemies.
Reparations are in order!
Currently, I’m reading “A History of the Vikings,” by Gwyn Jones. Interesting!
Since I’m descendant from both, it’s pretty cool to see them fight then .......
;o]
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