Human sacrifice evidence in Iron Age bones, say Bournemouth researchers

A team from Bournemouth University said bones found in Winterborne Kingston, Dorset, in 2010 revealed the woman in her late 20s was stabbed in the neck.

Her spine also showed evidence of hard labour, her ribs were broken and isotopes in her teeth suggested she grew up more than 20 miles away.

Dr Martin Smith, associate professor in forensic and biological anthropology, said: "In the other burials we have found, the deceased people appear to have been carefully positioned in the pit and treated with respect, but this poor woman hasn't.

"The young woman was found lying face down on top of a strange, deliberately constructed, crescent shaped arrangement of animal bone at the bottom of a pit, so it looks like she was killed as part of an offering."

Mr Smith said: "All the significant facts we have found such as the problems with her spine, her tough working life, the major injury to her rib, the fact she could have come from elsewhere, and the way she was buried could be explained away in isolation.

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