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Saturday, 22 March 2014

Never steal ice creams from a Weymouth man

                      ENTER YOUR EMAIL ON THE RIGHT FOR YOUR DAILY DOSE OF DORSET!


BEFORE WEYMOUTH TRIP

I'm just back from the excellent Viking exhibition at the British Museum. In pride of place were some unfortunate victims of Dorsetshire wrath.
During the the building of a new road on the downs above Weymouth several years ago archaeologists made a unique discovery. Strewn at the bottom of a pit were the the skeletons of around fifty decapitated men, their skulls lying in a neat pile close by. 
The site was soon identified as the location of a mass execution dating from the 10thC. DNA tests showed that all of the victims originated from Scaninavia and were aged 18-25, which points meant that the victims were almost certainly a captured Viking raiding party. 
If your idea of your average Viking is that of a healthy strapping kind of fellow; the bones show that many definitely weren't, the victims suffered a variety of diseases from gall stones to running sores. All bore the evidence of savage and inexpert execution. There was also several more skeletons than heads making archaeologists speculate that some heads were taken to be displayed as a warning to others.
If you can't make the Viking exhibition there are plans afoot to display the find in the near future at the County Museum in Dorchester.
AFTER WEYMOUTH TRIP

2 comments:

  1. I took the liberty of re-posting: https://plus.google.com/100146646232137568790/posts/frSg7EPCYkw

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  2. Thanks...I'm glad you looked!...Ian

    ReplyDelete