A group of students from Cambridge University have made a grim discovery after stumbling upon an ancient burial pit containing the remains of 10 people.
The grisly find was made during a training dig at Wandlebury Country Park near Cambridge.
The burial site is located in the middle of an area where Vikings and Saxons frequently battled over territory during the ninth century.
The number of bodies buried was identified due to the presence of the skulls, with one showing signs of a decapitation.
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Only four of the remains were found as complete skeletons, with some positioned in ways suggesting they had been tied up.
The team also uncovered dismembered body parts, including a cluster of skulls and a stack of legs.
Researchers believe the remains all belonged to young men, who may have been dumped at the site after a battle or deliberately placed there following a mass execution.
The discovery was made during a training excavation forming part of an undergraduate archaeology degree run by University of Cambridge, in partnership with the Cambridge Archaeological Unit and local charity Cambridge Past, Present and Future, which owns the Wandlebury site.
The grisly find was made during a training dig at Wandlebury Country Park
|PA
The excavation’s leader, Dr Oscar Aldred of the Cambridge Archaeological Unit, said: “Those buried could have been recipients of corporal punishment, and that may be connected to Wandlebury as a sacred or well-known meeting place.
“It may be that some of the disarticulated body parts had previously been displayed as trophies, and were then gathered up and interred with the executed or otherwise slaughtered individuals.
“We don’t see much evidence for the deliberate chopping up of some of these body parts, so they may have been in a state of decomposition and literally falling apart when they went into the pit.”
He described the location of the site as a “frontier zone” where Saxons and Vikings “clashed over territory across many decades”.
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The team also uncovered dismembered body parts, including a cluster of skulls
|PA
Dr Aldred added: “We suspect the pit may relate to these conflicts.”
One third year student involved in the dig, Olivia Courtney, said: “Before we uncovered the first remains, our best find was a 1960s Smarties lid.
“I had never encountered human remains on a dig, and I was struck by how close yet distant these people felt.
“We were separated by only a few years in age, but over a thousand years in time.”
Researchers believe the remains all belonged to young men
|PA
Another, Grace Granfield, added: “I would never have expected to find something like this on a student training dig."
She described the grim discovery as a "shocking contrast to the peaceful site of Wandlebury".
Historic England, which is supporting the excavation, has commissioned a new geophysical survey of the area that archaeologists hope will reveal more about the site surrounding the burial pit.
The discovery will feature in an episode of Digging For Britain which is due to air on BBC Two on Wednesday.
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