SWINTON, SCOTLAND—Chronicle Live reports that human bone fragments have been discovered in disturbed soil in the area of Swinton Parish Church, which is located in Scotland near the Anglo-Scottish border, by researchers from the Border Reivers Archaeology Unit. The bones are thought to represent two adults and three children who suffered multiple injuries around the time of their deaths. Blade wounds thought to have been made with an ax or sword were found on three of the leg bones. One of these bones and another thigh bone bear teeth marks from a large dog or wolf, indicating that they had been left unburied for a time, perhaps after a battle or massacre. Wolves were also known to have dug up graves in order to eat human remains during the sixteenth century, however. Swinton Parish Church is thought to have been used as a refuge during the border raids of the Anglo-Scottish wars from the fourteenth century through the sixteenth century, and raids conducted from the late thirteenth century to the seventeenth century by both English and Scottish border reivers. Traces of a possible defensive earthwork have also been identified in the churchyard. To read about the fortifications of a crucial bastion during the Wars of Scottish Independence, go to "Storming the Castle."
