A HAUNTING Viking-era mass grave stuffed with dismembered bodies has been uncovered in the UK – and may have been an “execution pit”.
The grim burial site is packed with skulls, legs, entire skeletons, and the remains of an “extremely tall” man who had a hole bored through his head.
Remains belonging to as many as 10 different individuals were found at the site on the outskirts of Cambridge, with archaeologists hailing the find as “extremely rare” to The Sun.
And in an “unusual” twist, the grave holds a “mix of complete and dismembered remains” from the 9th century AD.
That includes “a cluster of skulls without clear accompanying bodies”, and even a “stack of legs”.
Four complete skeletons were found, but mysteriously, they were in positions that suggested they were tied up.
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Experts think that the pit may have been the aftermath of a battle or an execution more than 1,100 years ago.
The pit was unearthed during spring and summer last year at what was one a “frontier zone” between the Saxon-run kingdom of Mercia and the kingdom of East Anglia.
The area was conquered by the Vikings in around 870 AD.
And the pit appears to be packed with “relatively young men” that were “flung in without care”.
GIANT’S TALE
One unfortunate victim was a giant that stood “well over six foot”, which archaeologists say was “extremely tall for the time”.
He is believed to have bee around 6ft 5 inches tall, which is tall even by today’s standards, and aged between 17 and 24.
At the time, the average height was just 5ft 6 inches.
And interestingly, his head had been trepanned, which means a hole was bored into it using some kind of tool, said Dr Oscar Aldred, who led the dig, speaking with The Sun.
“There are various tools that could have been used, usually a material that is harder than bone,” Dr Aldred, of the University of Cambridge told The Sun.
“This could be a hard and probably sharp stone such as flint or obsidian, or later on using a metal knife.
“With a stone the surface of the skull may have been scraped, or by intersecting cuts or in a cutting in a circular motion.
“Alternatively, a drill with a sharp end may have been used.
“The healing on the bone obscures the method used, unfortunately.”
Experts believe that the 3cm hole is linked to a surgical procedure, rather than any kind of battle wound.
It’s possible that he had a tumour that affected his pituitary gland, causing “an excess growth of hormones”, according to Dr Trish Biers, of the University of Cambridge.
She continued: “We can see this in the unique characteristics in the long shafts of their limb bones and elsewhere on the skeleton.
“Such a condition in the brain would have led to increased pressure in the skull, causing headaches that the trepanning may have been an attempt to alleviate. Not uncommon with head trauma today.”
BATTLE OR EXECUTION?
The pit contained a man that was “clearly beheaded”, with chop marks visible on his jaw.
Others have “traces of trauma consistent with combat”, though there’s not enough evidence to say that there was definitely a battle.
However, the fact that there are severed heads and limbs tossed in a pit, piled on top of four dead men, means that there was likely “terrible violence and perhaps an execution”.
“Those buried could have been recipients of corporal punishment, and that may be connected to Wandlebury as a sacred or well-known meeting place,” said Dr Aldred.
“It may be that some of the disarticulated body parts had previously been displayed as trophies, and were then gathered up and interred with the executed or otherwise slaughtered individuals.
“We don’t see much evidence for the deliberate chopping up of some of these body parts, so they may have been in a state of decomposition and literally falling apart when they went into the pit.”
The Cambridge area was under the control of Offa, who ruled Mercia in the 8th century.
But in the late 9th century, half of the Viking Great Army “set up camp close to Cambridge and sacked the town”.
That meant that Cambridgeshire became incorporated into the Viking kingdom of East Anglia, and stayed under its control until the early 10th century.
“Cambridgeshire was a frontier zone between Mercia and East Anglia, and the continual wars between Saxons and Vikings as they clashed over territory across many decades,” said Aldred.
“We suspect the pit may relate to these conflicts.”
The discovery is due to be showcased in a Digging for Britain episode that will be aired on Wednesday, February 4 on BBC Two.
It was made at Wandlebury Country Park, which is famous for its “ringwork”, which is a series of banks and ditches that mark an Iron Age hillfort.
This would’ve been constructed a millennium before the Viking era.
And the newly excavated pit, which measures four metres by one metre, was unearthed just south of the hillfort ringwork.
RARE FIND
It’s an especially rare discovery, the archaeologists say.
“The discovery of skeletons in a pit in the form we have here is an extremely rare occurrence, but Wandlebury has a previous precedent,” Dr Aldred told The Sun.
“In 1976 a cache of five individuals were found, also dating to the same 8th to 9th century period, and likely to be related to the same, or a similar event. It is also rare in other ways.
“Execution burials will tend to be buried in individual graves, whereas what we have at Wandlebury is at least ten individuals in a single pit.
“With regards the skirmish theory, there have only been a few examples excavated of a similar date, one of which was found on Ridgeway Hill, Weymouth, but contained around fifty individuals (47 to 52).”
Dr Aldred noted that this kind of pit was “not at all common as a practice”.
And he noted: “Especially as the 8th to 9th century time bracket we have here is within the Christian era when people were buried in cemeteries.”
