Posted on 08/14/2011 1:57:36 PM PDT by SunkenCiv
Evidence of a brutal massacre of Vikings in Oxford 1100 years ago has been uncovered by archaeologists.
At least 35 skeletons, all males aged 16 to 25 were discovered in 2008 at St John's College, Oxford...
The bodies had not received any type of formal burial and they had been dumped in a mass grave on the site of a 4,000-year-old Neolithic henge monument...
It is possible that the Oxford skeletons were victims of an event called the St Brice's Day Massacre, recorded in a number of historical sources.
In AD1002, the Saxon king Ethelred the Unready recorded in a charter that he ordered "a most just extermination" of all the Danes in England.
He made the decision after he was told of a Danish plot to assassinate him.
The charter also recorded how on that day, the Danes in Oxford fled to St Fridewides church expecting to find refuge, but instead were pursued by the townspeople, who then set the church on fire.
Radiocarbon dating of the bones indicated that the bodies were dumped between AD960 and AD1020...
Isotope analysis of the bones has shown that the men were eating a diet that was high in seafood...
A similar mass grave was found last year by Oxford Archaeology during work to build the Weymouth relief road.
It was radiocarbon dated to a similar period and again containing only young male victims, indicating that Anglo Saxon violence towards Vikings at the time may have been nationwide.
(Excerpt) Read more at bbc.co.uk ...
The paid in advance — the Danegeld.
“What a moniker to be stuck with!”
“Obama the Unready”, I like it! n/s
Beats Boleslas the Chaste...
....Or Charles the Simple.
Early Flash Mob?
What a moniker to be stuck with!"
Better that than Obama the POS DOOFUSS!
When you think about the actual human beings involved, it paints a pathetic picture.
I wonder if we’ll ever get to that point again in this nation - where the “just extermination” of an entire race of people is ordered because of a rumor of a plot against the government.
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