300 bodies found in village grave ‘are Viking warriors’

A MASS grave uncovered in a village may be the burial site of Viking warriors, a study found yesterday.

The burial site was uncovered in the 1980s and radiocarbon dating suggested the grave consisted of bones collected over several centuries.

But new tests found they are from the ninth century, meaning they could be the remains of the Viking force that drove out the king of Mercia from Repton, in Derbyshire.

Repton was a significant royal and ecclesiastical centre but became a Viking stronghold.

Historical records state the Viking great army wintered in Repton in 873 and drove the Mercian king into exile to Paris.

Now research by the University of Bristol’s department of anthropology and archaeology found the bones are all consistent with a date from more than 1,100 years ago.

Excavations led by archaeologists Martin Biddle and Birthe Kjolbye-Biddle at St Wystan's Church in Repton in the 1970s and 1980s discovered several Viking graves and a charnel deposit of nearly 300 people underneath a D-shaped shallow mound in the vicarage garden.

The mound appeared to have been a burial monument linked to the Vikings. Among the bones were artefacts, including an axe, several knives and five silver coins dating to the period 872 to 875.

Bio-archaeologist Dr Cat Jarman said: “The previous radiocarbon dates from this site were all affected by something called marine reservoir effects, which is what made them seem too old. When we eat fish or other marine foods we incorporate carbon into our bones that is much older than in terrestrial foods.

“This confuses radiocarbon dates from archaeological bone material and we need to correct for it by estimating how much seafood each individual ate.”