The curious archaeological finds are happening today thanks, in many cases, to new technologies. In Supercurioso we have seen some of them as the basilica discovered on a lake in Turkey or the incredible Nazca lines . On this occasion we wanted to get closer to the remains of 50 Vikings beheaded in England. What happened to them?
The Viking incursions that devastated the coasts of Great Britain were constant from the sacking of the monastery of Lindisfarne in the year 793 until its conversion to Christianity in the 12th century. They planted such a degree of terror that the nuns of an English convent they cut their noses before a Viking attack .
The remains of 50 Vikings beheaded in England
On Ridgeway Hill in Dorset, England, the remains of 50 people were beheaded a few years ago while a secondary road was being built. The bones appeared buried at shallow depths and all the heads were piled together and separated from the bodies. In addition, there were no remains of tissues or animal skins, which led to the archaeologists who came to study the site, who had been stripped of their clothes before being buried.
The team of the University of Oxford counted, in addition to the traditional methods and the help of forensic experts, with the latest technology available to try to find out who the remains belonged to. They found out several things about that common grave:
- The dead were Vikings. The chemical analysis of the dentition indicated that none of those remains corresponded to someone born in Britain. They were all from the subarctic and arctic regions of Iceland , Norway, Sweden or the Baltic States.
- The remains belonged to between 47 and 52 individuals.
- The majority of the bones corresponded to males between 18 and 25 years old, although there were also some that belonged to a young adolescent and others to a man around 50 years of age.
- They were buried shortly after being executed.
- The wounds on skulls, hands and arms indicated that they defended themselves before being killed.
- The decapitation of the around 50 decapitated Vikings was not easy. There are marks on shoulders, jaws and necks that show that it took several sword strokes to separate the head from the body.
- The radiocarbon analysis dated the tomb between 970 and 1025.
Archaeologists have not been able to find out exactly what these men did in Dorset at that time, but in those decades England suffered innumerable Viking raids, wars, hostage takings, ransom payments, etc. They believe that they were possibly killed during the "San Brice Massacre". This occurred in response to the Viking attacks, driven by the king "Ephelred the Unready". The monarch ordered the death of all the Danes who lived in England at that time.
They do not know if they were mercenaries, merchants or Vikings established in English towns, but they represent a historical moment in which the inhabitants of England revolted and attacked the Vikings, killing many of them. Dorset's is not the only tomb with murdered Vikings found in Britain. Have you heard about this pit with decapitated vikings ? If you know other real stories related to the Vikings, share them with us! and if this post has interested you and you want to know more about that Scandinavian town, we invite you to read: 25 Curiosities of The Vikings | They will amaze you. Discover them!