13/12/2024
Up on the hills above Weymouth lies some hidden history!
The Ridgeway Hill Viking burial pit near Weymouth, Dorset, was a mass grave of 54 skeletons and 51 heads of Scandinavian men executed some time between AD 970 and 1025. The men are believed to have been Vikings executed by local Anglo-Saxons.
They had not been cleanly killed, as many of them had suffered multiple blows to the vertebrae, jawbones and skulls. One man had his hands sliced through, suggesting that he had attempted to grab the sword as it was being swung towards him.
- Archaeologists said defence wounds on the hands, arms and skulls imply that not all men died without a struggle
Wounds to necks and shoulders indicate that the process of decapitation was no less chaotic, and in some cases several blows of the sword were required to remove the heads ~ BBC.
They had no obvious battle wounds and were most likely captives. Judging by the lack of any remains of clothing or other possessions, they had probably been naked when they were thrown into the pit.
The new road level is around 60 feet below the grave pit (if that makes sense) and is on the ridgeway that is one continuous Neolithic and Bronze Age cemetery. May be it’s a coincidence but I think not, may be it was a sign, a warning to other would by invaders. We have at least 6000 years of continuous death and destruction here.
