Archaeologists from Bournemouth University have unearthed an Iron Age human sacrifice in Dorset, England. The team was able to learn more about what life was like for people at the bottom of the social hierarchy at the time.
Although they have previously uncovered human remains buried in tombs and storage pits, this looks very different. The victim was found lying at the bottom of a pit and had been placed on top of carefully arranged animal bones. A study of the skeletal remains suggests that he died in his late twenties from a stab wound to the neck.
Dr. Martin Smith, Associate Professor of Forensic and Biological Anthropology at Bournemouth University, said: “In other graves we have found, the deceased appear to have been carefully placed in the pit and treated with respect, but not this poor woman. We found ceramic pots and pieces of meat next to the human remains, which we believe were offerings to the afterlife. But the young woman was found lying face down at the bottom of a pit, on top of a deliberate crescent-shaped arrangement of animal bones, so it looks like she was killed as a sacrifice.”
Examples of Iron Age sacrifice in Britain are very rare and most accounts come from later Roman and Greek sources. According to researchers, this find is physical evidence of human sacrifice in Iron Age Britain.
Examining the bones has revealed new details about the victim’s life and helped piece together parts of the story.
Isotopes in her teeth show that he came from a settlement about twenty miles away. DNA analysis (in progress) will determine whether she was brought to the settlement as a foreigner from another community.
Part of her spine shows significant degeneration and arthritic changes, suggesting that she endured a physically demanding life that took its toll on her body.
“The problems with his spine, his hard working life, the severe injury to his ribs, the fact that he may have come from elsewhere, the way he was buried, all the key facts we found can be explained on their own,” Dr. Smith said.