Headless Skeletons in Dorset Were the Vikings
Archaeologists confirmed that 50 headless skeletons excavated in Dorset, England were the Vikings who attempted to raid Anglo-Saxons roughly 1,000 years ago.
A group of archaeologists set out to excavate the site of the planned Weymouth Relief Road prior to the road construction project across the site. Although the site was declared to be protected for its archaeological and historical importance, the project was carried out which attracted controversy. As the archaeologists cut through the land of the site, they found out a mass grave. The archaeologists also found out a mass grave in Repton which allegedly belonged to the Viking Great Heathen Army.
The site where the Viking mass grave was found. Taken from above
They found out 50 skeletons all beheaded inside a shallow grave. All the skeletons rest on one side while the heads piled up to the other side.
The Vikings got beheaded and their heads were piled up on one side when the archaeologists brought them to the light.
There were 54 skeletons found but only 51 heads appeared in the site. The archaeologists believed that the executors brought some heads away to store as a symbol of victory.
No traces of clothes appeared at the site. This suggested the victims were naked when the execution took place.
All of them were males, around their teens and 25. They were killed at the same time with an extremely sharp weapon like the sword. The cut left on the skeletons revealed that they were beheaded from the front which was a unique way of execution.
The archaeologists working on the site of the Viking mass grave in Dorset, England
This must be an ordered execution on the captives. For the victims had no weapons along. They suffered some blows in the jawbones and skulls. One man was cut off his hand. The cut suggested that the man might have defended with his bare hand against the sword cutting into him.
The cut in the skull of the remains in Dorset, England
Archaeologists working on the remains of the Vikings found in the mass grave in Dorset, England
First, the archaeologists thought the skeletons were the Anglo-Saxons. But the examinations on the skeletons revealed that the skeletons belonged to the Scandinavian skeletons dating back to the 10th or 11th century.
Dr Britt Baillie from the University of Cambridge theorized that the grave belonged to the St Brice's Day massacre. It was during the reign of Aethelred the Unready. When the Danes continuously attacked, Aethelred the Unready ordered to kill all Danes living in England.
