Man found in sixth century mass grave had travelled miles
A man whose body was thrown in a mass grave in Cramond more than 1,400 years ago met his death after travelling across the country to what is believed to have been an important centre of power.
The man was one of nine adults and five children who died in the sixth century and whose bodies were dumped in the latrine at a former Roman baths at Cramond. It was earlier believed the group may have been from one family.
Now it is thought he may have hailed from the Loch Lomond area, with the man travelling to Cramond, judged to have been an important political centre that attracted well-connected individuals, at a time of great turmoil across what became Scotland.
Further tests found violence was also at play at the time of death for some left in the grave, with a woman and child likely killed by blunt-force injury to
the head, possibly after being bashed by the butt end of a spear.
Professorkatebrittonofaberdeen University, senior author of the study, said the research team had been surprised those buried in close proximity were bornhundredsofmilesapartin some cases.
She said: “Tooth enamel, particularly from teeth which form between around three and six years of age, act like little time capsules containing chemical information about where a person grew up.
“When we examined the remains, we found six of them to bear chemical signatures consistent with what we would expect from individuals growing up in the area local to Cramond, but two – those of a man and a woman – were very different.
“This suggests that they spent their childhoods somewhere else, with the analysis of the female placing her origins on the west coast.
“The male instead had an isotopic signature more typical of the Southern Uplands, Southernhighlandsorlochlomond area, so it is likely he came to Cramond from an inland area.”
The university said the findings enhanced the understanding of mobility and connections of people across Scotland in the early medieval period when the country was broadly divided between the Scotti in Dál Riata to the west, the Picts in most of northern Scotland and the Britons in the south.