Archaeologists uncover 2,000-year-old murder mystery on UK TV show
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Archaeologists uncovered a 2,000-year-old murder mystery while filming a television program in the UK; This program raises more questions than answers.
Bournemouth University announced the discovery in late October, involving Channel 4 presenter Sandi Toksvig. The dig was part of a new series called “The Hidden Wonders of Sandi Toksvig.”
Toksvig, who studied archeology at Cambridge University, participated in archaeological excavations around a 2,000-year-old Iron Age settlement in Dorset.
The settlement belonged to the Durotriges, a tribe who lived in rural Dorset before the Roman conquest.
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Archaeologists in Dorset uncovered a 2,000-year-old Iron Age burial site while filming a Channel 4 documentary with Sandi Toksvig. (Bournemouth University)
Archaeologists have unearthed artifacts from daily life in Iron Age Britain at the site, including bronze brooches, a bone comb and a bronze bracelet.
Later, during filming, the crew was surprised to find a skeleton buried face down in a pit; This skeleton was probably a young girl killed as part of a human sacrifice.
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Many of the skeletons from the site were carefully placed in formal graves, often with grave goods such as urns or brooches.
The girl’s body was entwined and face down, in stark contrast to other burials in the settlement, with no such offerings included.
The girl’s body was found face down and entwined, unlike official graves discovered nearby. (Bournemouth University)
In a Bournemouth University statement, excavation leader Miles Russell said the team was “shocked, especially to hear that this could have been a human sacrifice.”
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“Sandi’s interest in archaeology was clearly evident, as she was deeply moved by what was uncovered,” the researcher added.
Speaking to Fox News Digital, Russell said the girl’s burial face down “indicates a distinct lack of respect.”
Archaeologists found various artifacts, as well as the young man’s skeleton, in the ancient settlement. (Bournemouth University)
He added that the condition of the teenager’s muscle attachments and intervertebral discs showed that he had been doing heavy manual labor and lifting heavy weights throughout his life.
“This seems to indicate that the graves were at the lower end of society, possibly representing enslaved or prisoners of war,” Russell said.
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The victim also had an unhealed wrist fracture, suggesting she was defending herself at the time of her death.
Her wrists also appeared to be bound, indicating “sacrifice or at least deliberate execution,” Russell said.
“This suggests that the graves were at the lower end of society, possibly representing enslaved or prisoners of war,” Russell said. (Bournemouth University)
The archaeologist concluded: “This is indeed an example of archaeological evidence supporting the Roman view that human sacrifice not only occurred very frequently in pre-Roman Britain during the Iron Age.”
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“What we are trying to do now is to effectively give victims back their voices by identifying who they are in terms of status and position and why they were chosen for such a fate.”
