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View Full Version : Decapitated bodies - were they Vikings?



Liffrea
09-18-2009, 03:37 PM
It looks like the aftermath of a massacre - the decapitated, naked bodies of at least 51 young men found thrown into an old quarry and their heads piled on top.

The mass grave uncovered by archaeologists at Ridgeway Hill, near Weymouth in rural Dorset, is a rare discovery.

The men had all been executed, their heads hacked off with swords - but who were they?

In early June, the team from Oxford Archaeology had finished excavating the area where a £87m relief road, from Dorchester to Weymouth, is being built.

But as the diggers went in to level the banks to the side of the new road, which runs along an ancient Roman way, skulls and bones started appearing.

In total, 51 skulls have been found along with the bodies they once were attached to.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/dorset/8250295.stm

Brännvin
09-18-2009, 03:53 PM
It needs an automatic DNA tests now on all ancient skeletal remains; Y-DNA, mtDNA and genome-wide to find out who they really were :)

Beorn
09-18-2009, 04:00 PM
http://www.theapricity.com/forum/showthread.php?t=6545

Allenson
09-18-2009, 04:00 PM
"They were all men, generally robust, healthy and strong - your typical warrior."

The pictures of the bones & skulls are quite good and yep, the skulls very much look to be from rugged fellows.

http://newsimg.bbc.co.uk/media/images/46392000/jpg/_46392037_oxfordarchaeology_1708.jpg


But, she said: "It's not a straight one slice - head off. They have all been hacked at around the head and jaw.

:eek:



It needs an automatic DNA tests now on all ancient skeletal remains; Y-DNA, mtDNA and genome-wide to find out who they really were :)

Isotope analysis on the teeth perhaps?