At least 45 dismembered skeletons have been discovered in a burial pit by archaeologists digging on the site of a planned £87m relief road in Dorset. The burial site on Ridgeway Hill near Weymouth is thought to date from late Iron Age to early Roman times. Skulls, rib cages and leg bones, thought to be from young men, were arranged in separate parts of the pit. Archaeologists said they appeared to have been victims of a "catastrophic event" like an execution or disease. The skeletons were discovered during the earthwork operation for the Weymouth Relief Road. David Score, Oxford Archaeology project manager at dig, said it was a "remarkable burial pit". "We have counted 45 skulls so far, these are in one section of the pit, and several torsos and leg bones in separate sections of the pit. "It is rare to find a burial site like this one. "There are lots of different types of burial where skeletons may be aligned along a compass axis or in a crouched position, but to find something like this is just incredible." "At the moment we don't fully understand how or why the remains have come to be deposited in the pit but it seems highly likely that some kind of catastrophic event such as war, disease or execution has occurred," he added. The torsos of the skeletons were arranged separately "We're still working on carefully recording and recovering all of the skeletons, which will be taken back to our offices in Oxford for detailed analysis, and trying to piece together the extraordinary story behind these remains."... Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image! Wow, and I thought the Aztecs, Incas, and Mayans were blood thirsty.
Would this would be around the time the Romans raped and pillaged our Druid and Pagan lands? When they began demonising our gods and goddesses and killing anyone who would not convert?
BC 55 - AD 43 IIRC. So if the dating is accurate yes, and the location is between several iron age forts, including Maiden Castle.
You don't think it could have been done by Polish plumbers creating job openings then? Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image! Orly: convert to the Roman religion/ way of life as opposed to "Druidism".
It was more a pantheistic religion I think (with Mithraism popular among the military): but definitely not "our religion", or "ours" wasn't "theirs" and needed replacing, according to themPlease Register or Log in to view the hidden image!
are you referring to the salvation of our lands, when the foul taint of heathen savages was purged with righteous fury? cos i'm pretty sure that's what you meant.
I should have thought disease an unlikely explanation. The infection risk, plus instinctive repulsion, would deter dismemberment of diseased bodies. The circumstances certainly point to violent death at human hands. I have heard various estimates of the proportion of ancient human remains where the evidence pointed to violent death. Among the very oldest "Englishmen" (beginning with Pete Marsh), rather a lot appear to have been murdered! I wonder if any data have been assembled on this theme?
wheeeeey! I love in Dorchester! This is like a five minute drive from me... Old English dudes were rough...
my guess is they got sick of lugging those tiresome limbs around, and formed a medieval weight loss club.
I don't recall that they did it because peopel wouldn't convert, it was because the Druids etc were centres of resistance, like invading Saudi Arabia and nuking Mecca because all the resistance organisers like to hide out there claiming religious justification for their actions.
Are they going to do any DNA tests on the bodies to find out whether they were Brythons or Romans, or others?
Our bloody history can be quite a wake up call. We know what will happen if our society breaks down. If people don't get access to clean water, the beast will come out. We know what will happen, because we see our past trends. This is why we must work together to build a world that works in harmony with nature. Those that don't remember the past are doomed to repeat it.
