Decapitated skeletons found near Aylesbury

[Eldorado]

Decapitated skeletons, brooches, spoons, coins and tableware have been found in an archaeological dig that uncovered part of a Roman town.

The excavation at Fleet Marston, near Aylesbury, took place as part of work to create the HS2 high-speed railway.

This included the largest Roman cemetery yet to be excavated in Buckinghamshire, with 425 burials.

Archaeologist Richard Brown described the dig as "significant", enabling future study of the town's inhabitants.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-beds-bucks-herts-60254154

[+and-then]

I always thought that beheading was THE choice for capital punishment for Roman citizens.  I did a little digging and find that the Romans were quite creative in their ways of killing the convicted but beheading was the main form it took.  What does it say about this community that one in ten who were buried there were beheaded?  Lots of other variables are involved so it may be normal but it sounds like that community was a "tough neighborhood".

[OpenMindedSceptic]

Fascinating. HS2 is a terrible idea but what a find from the damaging train idea!

 

[jethrofloyd]

Maybe they were the gladiators?

[HollyDolly]

Could be, or maybe criminals. It also might be possible, and just a guess, they could have encountered some british natives, and got into a skirmish. People went out in search for them, and found their bodies and heads, brought them back for burial. That's just a guess, as I really don't know much about the peoples of Roman Britian. Can't even keep up with what the rest of my family was doing in Hungary and Germany back in those days.