‘Child sacrifices’ uncovered at grave of Viking soldiers
FOUR children were slaughtered and buried to accompany the souls of Vikings killed in battle more than 1,000 years ago, experts believe.
A mass grave of the warriors, found in Derbyshire, sits by a single grave of slaughtered children in what archaeologists believe was a burial ritual enacted to assist the dead in the afterlife.
The findings come after experts from the University of Bristol re-examined a pit of bones uncovered in the Seventies and Eighties in Repton.
Examination at the time suggested the grave spanned centuries, but radiocarbon analysis has revealed the skeletons belong to soldiers from the Great Viking Army, which drove Burgred, the king of Mercia, into exile in AD873.
Excavators also discovered four children aged between eight and 18 buried with a sheep’s jaw at their feet, dated to the same period. At least two showed signs of traumatic injury, suggesting they may have been sacrificed in a ritual to accompany the dead.
Cat Jarman, a Bristol archaeologist, said: “The grave is very unusual. I don’t know of any examples of four young people buried in a single grave like this from anywhere else in England in this period. They are placed in unusual positions – two of them back-to-back – and have a sheep’s jaw at their feet.
“There are historical accounts from elsewhere in the Viking world suggesting human sacrifice may have formed part of a Viking funeral.”
The Great Viking Army invaded England’s four kingdoms in AD865, taking York the following year and spreading to Wessex, London and Northumbria. In AD873 the Vikings marched to Repton and drove out King Burgred.
The grave of 300 warriors was found at St Wystan’s Church in Repton underneath a shallow mound in the vicarage garden. Among the bones were Viking weapons and artefacts, including an axe, knives and silver coins. Most of the buried were men, several showing signs of violent injury.
Initial radio-carbon dating suggested the bones spanned several centuries, but further research by archaeologists now suggests the bodies were interred at the same time.
‘Accounts of the Viking world suggest human sacrifice may have been part of a Viking funeral’