Stabbed in the back! HS2 digs up an ancient murder . . .
LIFE was brutal in the Dark Ages – and death, as this poor chap found out, was even more horrible.
Discovered with what looks to be an iron dagger lodged in its side, this skeleton is thought to have belonged to a young Anglo-Saxon man between the ages of 17 and 24 years old.
And – proving life really was nasty, brutal and short – archaeologists have concluded he was not only stabbed once in the front, but a second time in the back.
The skeleton has been unearthed at an HS2 site in Wendover, Buckinghamshire, where experts have found what is believed to be one of the biggest Anglo-Saxon burial grounds in Britain.
The 30-strong team uncovered 138 graves – containing 141 burials and five cremations – and a trove of 89 brooches, 2,000 amber beads and 51 knives from the 5th and 6th centuries.
The findings, made during construction work in 2021, will feature in historian Dan Snow’s podcast History Hit. He said: ‘This stunning set of discoveries on the HS2 route can tell us more about how our predecessors lived, fought and ultimately died.’