Ancient mass grave found on Olympics site

[Contrary1]

LONDON (Reuters) - An ancient burial pit containing 45 severed skulls, that could be a mass war grave dating back to Roman times, has been found under a road being built for the 2012 British Olympics.

Archaeologists, who have only just begun excavating the site, say they do not yet know who the bones might belong to.

"We think that these dismembered bodies are likely to be native Iron Age Britons. The question is -- how did they die and who killed them," said dig head, David Score, of Oxford Archaeology.

"Were they fighting amongst themselves? Were they executed by the Romans? Did they die in a battle with the Romans?

More: http://www.reuters.com/article/newsOne/idUSTRE55B3LJ20090612?pageNumber=1&virtualBrandChannel=0

[virgogal]

1. Amazing. This road won't be built by 2012 now.

[undeterred]

2. Not an ancient Olympics site

so it wasn't like, the end of the Marathon or anything.

[AngryAmish]

6. They didn't have the marathon in the ancient Olympics

See MArathon, Battle of

[SoCalDem]

3. I guess we now know what happened to the ones who did not "medal" n/t

[eppur_se_muova]

4. "do not yet know who the bones might belong to"?

Just look for people without heads -- how hard can that be?

[blogslut]

10. No kidding

Granted, I know next to nothing about ancient Roman culture but damn, that's a lot of heads.

[derby378]

5. self-delete

I got the answer I was looking for. Nothing to see here...

[Contrary1]

7. Don't know, but here's an article with a lot more info.

"The mass grave was discovered in Thomas Hardy country on Ridgeway Hill, near Weymouth, Dorset, 119 miles south west of London. Weymouth and Portland, on Britain's southern coast, will host all the sailing events at the 2012 Olympics.

The burial site is close to Maiden Castle - Europe's largest Iron Age hill fort where the ancient Britons are said to have staged their last stand against General Vespasian and his Roman legion after the invasion..."

http://forums.canadiancontent.net/history/84769-decapitated-bodies-roman-mass-grave.html

[derby378]

8. I appreciate that

I think my budding theory has just been dashed.

[theHandpuppet]

9. This may be a stupid question...

But would it be possible to extract any DNA from these skulls, perhaps from the teeth?

[ChickMagic]

11. It's not stupid

They very well might be able to do so, depending on the level of decay.
They could most likely retrive markers which would tell them whether these
people were Britons or Romans.

[Fire1]

12. Interesting. n/t

[chollybocker]

13. Was Tonya Harding competing back then ?

;)

[RagAss]

14. Ancient soccer riot?