CAMBRIDGE, ENGLAND—According to an RTÉ report, a burial pit containing the remains of at least 10 people, likely young men buried after a battle or a mass execution, was uncovered in eastern England by a team from Cambridge University. One of the bodies had been decapitated, while the positions of others suggest that they had been tied up at the time of death. Disarticulated body parts were also recovered. “We don’t see much evidence for the deliberate chopping up of some of these body parts, so they may have been in a state of decomposition and literally falling apart when they went into the pit,” said team leader Oscar Aldred of the Cambridge Archaeological Unit. One of the men whose remains were found in the pit is estimated to have been about six feet, five inches tall. His skull has a small hole in it, perhaps from a surgical procedure. “The individual may have had a tumor that affected their pituitary gland and caused an excess of growth hormones,” said Trish Biers of Cambridge University. The bones have been dated to about the ninth century A.D. and may have belonged to Vikings or Saxons, who are known to have battled each other in the region for decades. To read about a medieval mass grave excavated on the grounds of the University of Oxford, go to "Vengeance on the Vikings."
