British archaeologists have discovered the 2,000-year-old skeleton of a teenager lying face down in a hole. This unusual burial position may provide a clue to the murder mystery.
Researchers at Bournemouth University discovered a strange burial site earlier this year while excavating Celtic ruins in the county of Dorset in southwest England. Bournemouth University said the discovery occurred during the filming of a new television series, Sandi Toksvig’s Hidden Wonders, hosted by the broadcaster and comedian Sandi Toksvig.
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The boy was found face down at the bottom of an abandoned pit with no grave goods. Combined with evidence that her hands were tied, these clues suggest she was sacrificed by the Durothryges, a group of Celts who lived in Britain during the Iron Age before the Roman invasion, Russell said.
And she was not the only possible victim killed at the scene.
“The two prone bodies in the holes that we recovered during this project were of a teenage girl who was discovered in 2024, and the other was a young adult woman who was decapitated in 2010,” Russell said.
These rare burial objects were recovered as part of Bournemouth University’s Durotryges project, which focuses on pre-Roman settlements in southern England. The cemetery appears to date from approximately the early to mid-1st century BC, about a century before the Romans successfully invaded southern England.
In a study published earlier this year, researchers on the project used DNA analysis to show that Celtic groups such as Durotrige were likely organized along matrilineal lines, consistent with what Roman authors said about the Celts. It appears that men traveled to their wives’ villages to get married, rather than the other way around.
Given the Celts’ emphasis on maternal relationships, it is surprising that all three unusual burials may represent sacrificed women and girls.
Mr Russell said these people may have been considered lower in social status and more “disposable”, especially if they were not from the area or had no blood ties to the ruling family.
While the female victim found in 2010 has already been analyzed, the teenage victim found in 2024 and the teenager found this year have not yet been fully studied. Russell and his team plan to examine both skeletons for possible signs of trauma or disease, and to determine what the teens ate and where it came from.
The discovery of multiple female sacrifices suggests the practice was much more common than previously thought, Russell said. However, he said, “we do not know what social, political, or environmental factors led to this practice.”
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