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Mass grave in Dorset contains remains of executed Viking warriors
The Times Online ^ | 3-12-10 | Simon de Bruxelles

Posted on 03/12/2010 4:37:55 PM PST by atomic conspiracy

The captives, all well built young men in their late teens and early 20s, were herded to the place of execution. Fifty-four in total, their heads were hacked off and stacked neatly in a pile. The bodies were tossed into a pit where they remained a tangle of limbs and headless torsos until archaeologists following the route of a new road stumbled across the remains last year. Not the killing fields of Iraq or the Balkans but the Ridgeway, near Weymouth, an ancient track across the now tranquil Dorset countryside, where one thousand years ago a long forgotten massacre took place. The victims, a mystery when the discovery of the mass grave was first revealed in The Times, have been identified. They were Viking raiders who had come to Britain in search of slaves and plunder. The discovery, during construction of a relief road for sailing events in the 2012 Olympics, led to a host of theories. At first it was thought they were Iron Age warriors killed by the invading Roman Legions during fighting for Maiden Castle, Britain’s largest hill fort. That theory was ruled out when radio carbon tests dated the bones to between AD910 and AD1030, a thousand years later. Now tests on isotopes in the enamel of their teeth has found the men came from further afield. They had sailed across the North Sea from what is now Scandinavia. At least one of the Norse men had lived much of his life inside the Arctic Circle. Study of the bones has revealed the brutality of their deaths. Their heads were not cleanly parted from their shoulders with the swing of an executioners’ axe, but hacked off with swords as the naked warriors tried to defend themselves with their bare hands.

(Excerpt) Read more at timesonline.co.uk ...


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Foreign Affairs; Miscellaneous; United Kingdom
KEYWORDS: chop; dorset; godsgravesglyphs; immigrants; raiders; unitedkingdom; vikings
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This is how the British used to deal with immigrants who came only to plunder and rape. Today it would be a couple of years in jail, then a lifetime on the dole.
1 posted on 03/12/2010 4:37:55 PM PST by atomic conspiracy
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To: SunkenCiv

ping


2 posted on 03/12/2010 4:38:38 PM PST by bamahead (Few men desire liberty; most men wish only for a just master. -- Sallust)
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To: atomic conspiracy

My peeps???

3 posted on 03/12/2010 4:41:50 PM PST by NordP (COMMON SENSE CONSERVATIVES - Love of Country, Less Govt, Stop Spending, No Govt Run Health Care!!!)
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To: SunkenCiv
Ping.

Looks like some locals got a little revenge on some Vikings.

4 posted on 03/12/2010 4:44:00 PM PST by colorado tanker
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To: atomic conspiracy
Photobucket
5 posted on 03/12/2010 4:44:17 PM PST by Pajama Blogger
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To: NordP

With my luck, If I hooked up with her I would get plundered but not raped.


6 posted on 03/12/2010 4:45:47 PM PST by BRL
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To: atomic conspiracy

Viking “warriors”? Try *Viking* invaders. (Iknow that “warriors” isn’t your terminology, atom. con.) The British has lived through Viking invasions before, and knew what a Viking victory would mean.

Good on ye, my ancestors.

It is interesting to find out the truth about these skeletons. I remember the dispute when the grave was discovered, and it was theorized the killing was committed by the Romans.


7 posted on 03/12/2010 4:46:56 PM PST by worst-case scenario (Striving to reach the light)
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To: atomic conspiracy

Pointless to apply today’s standards to the Middle Ages.


8 posted on 03/12/2010 4:49:17 PM PST by samtheman
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To: atomic conspiracy

I imagine the commie ‘RATS are going to want to go after Bush and Cheney for this too.


9 posted on 03/12/2010 4:53:08 PM PST by FlingWingFlyer (A proud American-American since 1949.)
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To: Pajama Blogger
Spam, spam, spam, spam
SPAM, SPAM, SPAM, SPAM
SPAMITY SPAM, SPAMITY SPAM, SPAM SPAM SPAM SPAAAAAM!
10 posted on 03/12/2010 4:58:09 PM PST by AnAmericanMother (Ministrix of ye Chasse, TTGC Ladies' Auxiliary (recess appointment))
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To: atomic conspiracy

I wonder if there is anything in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, Bede, Nennius, William of Malmesbury, Aethelward’s Chronicle, or Geoffrey of Monmouth that sheds light on this event. I suppose if there were, they would have mentioned it. Probably just an unrecorded vigilante action by stalwart Saxon freeholders, God love them. Perhaps we have something to learn from them.


11 posted on 03/12/2010 5:00:18 PM PST by ccmay (Too much Law; not enough Order.)
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To: atomic conspiracy
They didn't put panties on their heads.
12 posted on 03/12/2010 5:07:26 PM PST by Myrddin
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To: atomic conspiracy
all well built young men

How do they know this or is the writer working on a romance novel?

13 posted on 03/12/2010 5:17:09 PM PST by Raycpa
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To: Raycpa

Forensics..


14 posted on 03/12/2010 5:22:03 PM PST by Riodacat (Never attribute to malice what can be adequately explained by stupidity.)
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To: atomic conspiracy
Somehow I think that the Vikings gave as good as they got.
15 posted on 03/12/2010 5:32:19 PM PST by vetvetdoug
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To: atomic conspiracy
Grizzled Viking warrior
16 posted on 03/12/2010 5:35:24 PM PST by Waverunner ( "Think for yourselves and let others enjoy the privilege to do so too." Voltaire)
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To: atomic conspiracy

Sounds like some reparations are clearly in order here. Innocent Swedish tourists murdered by the thuggish locals. Is there a Swedish version of Al Sharpton who can get on this?


17 posted on 03/12/2010 6:31:39 PM PST by bigdaddy45
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To: atomic conspiracy
Today it would be a couple of years in jail, then a lifetime on the dole.

And an antisocial behavior order against any Brit that looked crosseyed at them, no matter what they were doing to provoke the agressive eye rolling.

18 posted on 03/12/2010 6:35:35 PM PST by ApplegateRanch (U.S. Citizen since 1946: “Made in the USA, by proud American workers!")
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To: atomic conspiracy; ccmay
Always a matter of high interest for nearly everyone. I went up into the attic and got my copy of The Anglo-Saxon Chronicles (Colour Library Books of Godalming, Surrey 2005). It shows the original manuscripts and english translations by Anne Savage. The date given was roughly a thousand years ago that this event happened.

I know that King Alfred the Great of Wessex reigned from 871-899. It was he that defeated the Danes a number of times. Curiously enough the name Wessex (West Saxons) was disgarded for that area- being Dorset and Somerset. Yet the East Saxons (Essex) with Middle Saxons (Middlesex) and South Saxons (Sussex) still bear the name.

Other Saxons bribed the Danes with Danegeld (gold). The nasty beggers reneged on their promise to leave that area alone. They came very often. More gold or else! It was King Alfred that stood up to them.

Please excuse this long screed and in case you all ready know this history, it may inform others. The men could be casualties of real warfare. Awful to contemplate as it is today. I know that weapons were so valuable, they were quickly taken from the dead. Perhaps a coin or two may be found (unlikely) but one never knows. This might date the event.

19 posted on 03/12/2010 6:59:16 PM PST by Peter Libra
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20 posted on 03/12/2010 8:46:14 PM PST by SunkenCiv (Freedom is Priceless.)
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