Last year workmen for the 2012 Olympics sailing venue in southern England came upon a grisly discovery. Fifty-one men had been severely injured, most of them beheaded, and tossed into a mass grave. The burial site was discovered during the construction of the Weymouth Relief Road, meant to ease traffic congestion on the highway to Weymouth.
Weymouth Bay is found on England's southern coast and will host the Olympic sailing events during the 2012 London Olympics.
Who Were these Executed Men? Radiocarbon dating has shown the executed men to have lived between 890 and 1030 C.E., which was just before the Norman conquest of Anglo-Saxon England. England was split at this time with Anglo-Saxons in the south and west, and the Danes in the north and east. The executors of the buried men were most probably the Anglo-Saxons who were Germanic peoples. From the Anglo-Saxons the English language developed, along with contributions from other peoples.
Isotope analysis of teeth can uncover the origin of people from their drinking water and the climate that they came from. Analysis of their teeth has revealed that they came from cold climates such as Sweden and Norway, with one person from as far away as the Arctic Circle. The isotope studies also revealed that the buried men lived on a high-protein diet similar to people from Sweden at the time.
Researchers believe that the buried men were Vikings executed by Anglo-Saxons. The men suffered several blows about the body, and showed defensive wounds on the hands. Those who were beheaded showed clean cuts of decapitating blows that are thought to have come from swords.
The Vikings were found naked and beheaded, with their heads stacked to one side. No sign of clothing has been found -- no buttons, no weapons. They were probably war captives all dumped into one pit. The men took many blows but their state of health seems to indicate that they were strong men, all alive when decapitated.
The burial was found on a hilltop by the ancient road to Weymouth which was already in existence at the time of the executions. Such a location was typical of Anglo-Saxon burials. Vikings were more likely to just leave the victims where they killed them. During the times of the Viking raids it would have been unsafe to live anywhere within twenty miles of the coastline.
Modern Thought about the Vikings Today scholars are reversing the image of Vikings as evil barbarian plunderers. Vikings were actually from the upper class of Scandinavian society. They were fit, trained warriors, but also traders, farmers, explorers of the world, and innovators.
The Vikings were unable to record their own history, they left cryptic runes only. Their history was penned mostly by the English and French who fell victim to their raids and fearfully described the exploits of the Vikings in exaggerated detail, while dismissing similar violence and theft by the other raiders of the era, who were actually equally as violent.
Even Christian rulers treated the common people barbarically during the harsh medieval times, but the clergy and scribes were fearful of complaining about the non-Christian acts of the Christians for fear of further reprisals.
Read more at Suite101: Over Fifty Beheaded Vikings Found in England: Viking Men Discovered Near Olympics 2012 Site http://anthropology.suite101.com/article.cfm/over-fifty-beheaded-vikings-found-in-southern-en#ixzz0iHn6APYR