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Dorset Excavation Points to Iron Age Human Sacrifice, With Victims Cast Onto Bone Platforms

Early analyses echo classical accounts of ritual killing and divination.

Overview

  • Archaeologists at Winterborne Kingston uncovered a young woman laid face down on a constructed platform with her throat cut.
  • At least two other skeletons from earlier seasons show comparable injuries and positioning, indicating a repeated practice rather than isolated violence.
  • Two individuals have been radiocarbon-dated to roughly 100–50 BC, placing the deaths in the Late Iron Age.
  • The bodies appear to have been thrown onto a flat surface made from collected animal bones at the bottom of a pit.
  • Researchers will conduct further osteological and isotopic tests at Bournemouth and Dublin universities, plan to return to the site next summer, and the excavation features in a new Hidden Wonders TV series.