Archaeologists in England have discovered the 2,000-year-old skeleton of a teenager lying face down in a pit – an unusual burial site that may hold the key to solving a murder mystery.
Researchers from Bournemouth University excavated Celtic in Dorset, a county in southwest England, earlier this year when they came across a bizarre burial site. The discovery occurred during the filming of the new television series “The Hidden Wonders of Sandi Toksvig”, which was hosted by TV presenter and comedian Sandi Toksvig. statement from Bournemouth University.
The teenager had no equipment and was found face down at the bottom of an abandoned pit. Combined with evidence that her hands were tied, this evidence hints that she was sacrificed by the Durotriges, a Celtic group living in Britain. during the Iron Age before the Roman invasion, Russell said.
And she's not the only possible murder victim at this site.
“The two other bodies face down in pits that we found as part of the project were a teenage girl found in 2024,” Russell said, “and one from 2010 young adult woman” whose neck had been cut.
These unusual burials were discovered on the grounds of Bournemouth University. Project Durotrigeswhich focuses on pre-Roman settlements in southern Britain. The cemetery appears to date from around the early to mid-1st century BC, about a century before Romans successfully invaded southern England.
In a study published earlier this year, project researchers used DNA analysis to show that Celtic groups such as Durotrigi were probably maternally organizedwhich was consistent with what Roman authors said about the Celts. It appears that men went to their wives' villages to marry, rather than the other way around.
Given the Celts' emphasis on maternal relationshipSurprisingly, all three unusual burials may represent sacrificed women and girls.
Russell said these people may have been at the lower end of the social ladder and considered more “disposable”, especially if they did not come from the area or were not related to the ruling families.
While the female victim found in 2010 has already been analyzed, the teenage victim found in 2024 and the teenager found this year have not yet been fully studied. Russell and his team plan to examine both skeletons for possible signs of injury and disease, as well as to determine what the teenagers ate and where they came from.
The discovery of numerous female sacrifices suggests the practice was much more widespread than previously thought, Russell said, but “we don't know what sociopolitical and environmental factors caused the practice.”
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