Cambridge students help unearth possible Viking-era ‘execution pit’ on training dig

"The individual may have had a tumour that affected their pituitary gland and caused an excess of growth hormones," said Dr Trish Biers, curator of the Duckworth Collections at the University of Cambridge, where these remains have been taken for further analysis.

"We can see this in the unique characteristics in the long shafts of their limb bones and elsewhere on the skeleton."

"Such a condition in the brain would have led to increased pressure in the skull, causing headaches that the trepanning may have been an attempt to alleviate. Not uncommon with head trauma today," Biers said.

The inclusion of dismembered remains alongside fully articulated bodies is highly unusual even for a mass grave, and has puzzled archaeologists.

While one man was clearly beheaded - evident from chop marks on the jaw - and a few others have traces of trauma consistent with combat, there isn't enough to suggest those buried at Wandlebury were victims of a battle, say archaeologists.

However, to have severed heads, limbs and other remains - from ribs to pelvises - tossed in a pit, with body parts of the same type stacked together in some cases, piled on top of four dead men, at least one apparently bound, suggests terrible violence and perhaps an execution, according to CAU's Dr Oscar Aldred.

"Those buried could have been recipients of corporal punishment, and that may be connected to Wandlebury as a sacred or well-known meeting place."

"It may be that some of the disarticulated body parts had previously been displayed as trophies, and were then gathered up and interred with the executed or otherwise slaughtered individuals," Aldred said.

"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."

Cambridge in the late 8^th century was under the control of Offa, ruler of the kingdom of Mercia, but in the late 9^th century (around 874-5 AD), half of the Viking Great Army set up camp close to Cambridge, and sacked the town.

Cambridgeshire was then incorporated into the Viking kingdom of East Anglia, and stayed under Viking control up to the early 10^th century as part of the Danelaw agreement.

Initial radiocarbon work dates some bones to around this time, but with no associated grave materials more research is required to establish if these are Saxons or Vikings.

"Cambridgeshire was a frontier zone between Mercia and East Anglia, and the continual wars between Saxons and Vikings as they clashed over territory across many decades," said Aldred. "We suspect the pit may relate to these conflicts."

Historic England, who are supporting the excavation and monitor and manage archaeology on protected Scheduled Monuments such as Wandlebury, have commissioned a new geophysical survey of the area that archaeologists hope will reveal more about the site surrounding the burial pit.

Tony Calladine, East of England Regional Director, Historic England, said: "Wandlebury is an important natural and historic resource for the people of Cambridgeshire. The extraordinary discovery there speaks to the story of our nation and the lives of ordinary people living during turbulent times."

Future work from the Cambridge team will include bone analysis including ancient DNA and isotopic work to investigate health, kinship and ancestral links, which will help to establish if these are Viking remains.

The archaeologists will also attempt "refitting" to see if any dismembered remains can be reconstructed to determine how many people were thrown into the pit.

"I would never have expected to find something like this on a student training dig. It was a shocking contrast to the peaceful site of Wandlebury," added Grace Grandfield, a Cambridge undergraduate from York who took part in the dig.

"Several of the individuals we uncovered were a similar age to me, and it was a sobering experience to identify ever more disarticulated bones and realise the extent of the suffering that had taken place."

^{*The pit, measuring four metres by one metre, was unearthed just outside the hillfort ringwork to the south.
**Initial radiocarbon work dates this skeleton to between 772 - 891 AD with 85% probability, and further work will be undertaken to help narrow this date.}