The Viking Great Army: A tale of conflict and adaptation played out in northern England

The Repton charnel burial, ©Martin Biddle [Repton and the Legacy of the Viking Great Army by Catrine Jarman, University of Bristol]

Glad you are back. I appreciate your work posting this and similar articles.

I have to admit to being pleased whenever archaeology confirms sources like the Chronicles, thumbing the revisionist nose. It’s fascinating that Islamic coins were found — nothing moves quicker than cash. How did scholars conclude that the “Repton charnel burial” contained Viking remains, since there were probably lots of slaughtered Anglo-Saxons to be disposed of (DNA wasn’t mentioned, and I’m not sure dessicated bones would work)?

Ditto. You and your insightful articles were missed from this forum. I would say “timely articles,” but after all, we are speaking of archeology! LOL

The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle is not the “Saxon Chronicles” by Cornwell. Not sure if you had them mixed up. I have read the entire series by Cornwell but haven’t touched the tome.

Thanks you for pointing that out. I’ve read substantial portions of both, and wondered why the monks suddenly became obsessed with Utred son of Utred.

If you haven’t watched the BBC-TV’s “The Last Kingdom”, it’s fun entertainment. I enjoyed seeing how the film-makers adapted Cornwell’s stories.

Ahh....those Norsemen....Long Ships arriving in the early misty dawn off the coast of Britain... men with fair hair braided with bones, tattoed and with cold blue eyes and even colder steel....unleashing general mayhem in Saxon England.

They say the blood-eagle was particularly painful.

By the Hammer of Thor and the Beard of Odin...I will see you in Valhalla !! :-):-)

I thought you may be familiar with the Chronicle and the Chronicles but most of the rest of us would not have known which you were referring to.

That’s a good tv series and reflects the books quite well. But I also watch Vikings so now I get confused.

"that the Great Army was not actually so great after all, numbering at most in the hundreds..."

Though an army of hundreds in the early middle ages was still a large undertaking.

For the Romans that was just a joke, but for the Anglo-Saxons, that was an Army

Islamic coins would make sense as Western Europe had collapsed and the Vikings made a log of money selling slaves to the Islamic world.

And the pussy Vikings of today put their lips on the mooselimb ass.

You are probably right about slaves, but I introduced an error on a important detail — the article actually says “Arab silver dirhams”, and I conflated that into “Islamic”. The former might be vastly older than the later. Two hundred years for the coins to travel from Byzantium, then through Ukraine & Russia to Scandinavia, then on Viking voyages to 870’s England seemed fast, but “Arab coins” expand the timeframe immensely. It would be interesting to hear a coin expert’s view of the speed that coins would travel in those times and places.

I don’t believe there were many Arab silver dirhams before the Abbassid Caliphate (c.750 AD) and definitely none before the early ummayyad (c 700 AD) so Islamic seems abotu accurate

The Great Army was much much larger, as the rest of the article and new research indicates. Good point about the Romans, though, after Augustus' reforms the entire Roman army was 280,000 strong (half auxiliaries) on paper, lower numbers in reality, to cover the whole Empire's frontiers and, at its peak, 50,000,000 residents.

The ones who inherited everything are their ancestors. The ones who had to leave to find their fortunes wound up making something of themselves, while simultaneously being a pain for everyone they encountered. :^)

Thanks for the kind remarks!

The Great Army got that name due to its size, not its behavior. When defeated, they got no mercy from the Anglo-Saxons. Based on the remains, apparently the defeated captives were stripped of everything, then mercilessly beaten to death, then mass buried. Want some more, just c’mon back.

Michael Wood tends to be PC and all kumbayah, but in his documentary “The Story of England” he noted that the villages under study were under Viking control, but the Vikings let the Anglo-Saxons self-govern on their side of the bridge, and the Vikings stuck to their side. When the Normans (who were Frenched-up Viking descendants) took over England in 1066 (it took them a couple of years at least to exert final control) they regarded the locals as little better than animals, and especially when they were in the pub (that was before pubs were called pubs). Their language sounded like the barking of dogs, so the story goes.

The Story of England With Michael Wood | Episode 1
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ptE6gd4TFdY

Why was a 9th century Viking woman buried with a ring that says ‘for Allah’ on it?
Washington Post | March 18, 2015 | Adam Taylor
Posted on 02/05/2016 12:57:25 PM PST by beaversmom
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/chat/3393383/posts

In 865 AD, England was invaded by the Great Heathen Army. The viking army was made up of a coalition of Scandinavian warriors mainly from Denmark and, legend has it, four of the five sons.
Is This The Most Important Viking Burial Site In Britain? | 11:39
History Hit | 688K subscribers | 678K views | 1 year ago

Transcript
0:00 · [Music]
0:00 · the jewel in the crown
0:02 · that sounds like a must visit
0:05 · it's back on the road to repton in
0:08 · derbyshire
0:09 · [Music]
0:18 · i know it's silly but when i visit
0:20 · places that were
0:21 · at the center of kind of bloody dramatic
0:24 · events in our history even though it's
0:25 · one thousand years ago i still feel like
0:27 · it's blood today but of course now it
0:28 · just feels like a lovely
0:30 · beautiful country church yeah this sort
0:32 · of feels like as idyllic as you can
0:34 · guess in england doesn't it really but
0:36 · it definitely was not like that in the
0:38 · late 9th century
0:40 · it was an important place not the
0:42 · vikings obviously
0:43 · a huge impact here but it was an
0:44 · important place well before they arrived
0:45 · i thought that's what they were doing
0:46 · here i guess yeah absolutely so
0:48 · even before the viking age this was one
0:50 · of the most significant sites really in
0:53 · the kingdom of mercia this was a royal
0:56 · ecclesiastical religious
0:58 · importance there was a very wealthy
1:00 · monastery here dating back probably as
1:02 · early as the seventh century does any of
1:04 · that fabric still remain or was it all
1:06 · smashed up by the vikings so we know
1:07 · definitely some of it was destroyed by
1:09 · the vikings but there is a part that
1:11 · still remains that the crypt in this
1:13 · most of the churches is very modern but
1:15 · they're right still you're the only
1:16 · person i know cat who refers to very
1:19 · modern as the 14th century yeah well you
1:21 · know anything after the turn of the
1:23 · millennium is pretty much modern to me
1:25 · which millennium yeah
1:33 · so we're heading down to the crypt yeah
1:35 · this is the
1:36 · anglers that isn't crazy this is
1:38 · anglo-saxon now these rocks here are
1:39 · like whoa
1:40 · so this here definitely when we're now
1:43 · in the crypt this is all part of the
1:44 · merchant monastery
1:47 · amazing time travel yeah absolutely this
1:50 · i mean this is what's so extraordinary
1:51 · this is what was here when the vikings
1:53 · arrived they
1:54 · would be touching the same pillars that
1:56 · we're touching today and that's pretty
1:57 · unusual in britain isn't it there's not
2:00 · much
2:01 · stone architecture left from what the
2:03 · well the ninth century but it's not over
2:05 · yeah so this is this is eighth century
2:07 · certainly possibly even before that so
2:09 · there's not much of that at all so we
2:11 · it's very rare in the whole country to
2:13 · have uh evidence of that remaining this
2:15 · is one of the most special early
2:17 · medieval bits of architecture in in the
2:19 · uk yeah definitely and what's really
2:21 · nice as well as you can see things like
2:22 · traces of paint
2:24 · so if you if you imagine
2:26 · yeah imagine it really vividly colored
2:28 · full of jewels glittering gold candles
2:32 · it must have been such an atmospheric
2:35 · place i mean it's special today but more
2:37 · than a thousand years ago even more so
2:39 · and and so this is where mercy which had
2:41 · been one of the most powerful
2:43 · anglo-saxon kingdom for periods buried
2:46 · its kings i mean this was the holiest
2:47 · the holy yeah so several we know that
2:49 · several of the uh immersion uh dynasty
2:52 · the royal dynasty were buried here and
2:54 · this crypt itself would have been uh
2:55 · that mausoleum so this would have been
2:57 · where those uh possibly in these alcoves
2:59 · here would have had uh essentially the
3:02 · remains of those kings and people would
3:04 · come here as a pilgrimage somewhere to
3:05 · visit and this was all part of the
3:08 · bigger monastery site which is very
3:10 · wealthy it's a double house monastery
3:12 · for men and women and so it might have
3:15 · been a small town around it as well so
3:17 · this is you can't really talk about
3:19 · things as a capital city i guess but
3:20 · this would have been
3:22 · one of the most important
3:24 · religious political royal sites in mercy
3:27 · absolutely and this would have been
3:28 · known far and wide so a very deliberate
3:31 · place for the vikings to attack
3:33 · [Music]
3:36 · so this would have been filled with all
3:38 · sorts of riches so there'd be a lot that
3:40 · they could take away a lot of wealth
3:41 · here but it was much more than that it
3:43 · was a very much a political statement
3:45 · knowing that it was such an important
3:46 · religious site if you come and take that
3:49 · then you're making a really big
3:51 · statement it's like the soviet sticky
3:52 · neck and a hammer and sickle flag on the
3:55 · reichstag in 1945 what amazing moment
3:58 · we know about the viking presence here
4:00 · thanks to extraordinary investigations
4:02 · done here by professor martin biddle and
4:04 · his late wife vieta shalby biddle
4:09 · from 1974 we started to dig beside the
4:12 · crypt and very early on we got dating
4:16 · evidence and then we found
4:18 · an enormous ditch
4:20 · i mean a whopper beside
4:23 · right beside the church and if you can
4:25 · imagine the church was there that was
4:28 · the angle
4:29 · of the of the church the ditch was there
4:31 · they were cornered a corner
4:33 · and this was i mean this is
4:35 · four meters deep goodness knows how wide
4:38 · we only got part of it
4:40 · and we started to think and we looked at
4:43 · the kind of pottery not much that was
4:45 · coming out of it
4:46 · and it came to us that
4:49 · there was only one thing this could be
4:51 · it would be part of the viking winter
4:54 · camp
4:55 · of 873-4 which of course we know about
4:58 · from the anglo-saxon chronicle
5:02 · and martin biddling's team didn't only
5:04 · find the ditch
5:06 · around the church they found other
5:08 · evidence that proves the vikings were
5:10 · here
5:11 · [Music]
5:12 · so what else have you found at this site
5:16 · so in addition to to the ditch and all
5:18 · of that the archaeologists executing
5:21 · here in the 1970s and 80s found a lot of
5:24 · burials and some of them were definitely
5:26 · scandinavian or viking burials and
5:29 · actually they are right here and some of
5:31 · the most important ones yeah so we're
5:32 · just going to try and work out exactly
5:34 · where we are so looking at
5:35 · the map and the plan so this is the
5:38 · church of the yes that's the crypt
5:40 · seven and eight this is
5:41 · right in here yeah this spot
5:44 · that we're standing on now yeah uh is
5:46 · probably
5:47 · the most
5:49 · well the best known and most significant
5:51 · viking grave in all of england right
5:53 · this was where we had the so-called
5:55 · repton warrior
5:57 · buried and a younger man next to him he
6:00 · was buried with a loss of objects which
6:03 · was a typical scandinavian burial
6:05 · writers being buried with objects around
6:07 · you uh that included a sword along
6:10 · inside a viking sword he had a sore
6:12 · thumb around his neck yes thor's hammer
6:13 · is there the guys are viking precisely
6:16 · so so that's that's the sort of most
6:17 · obvious part of it he had lots of other
6:19 · smaller objects but he also had some
6:21 · really really severe injuries on his
6:23 · body so we could be pretty confident i
6:25 · mean it's difficult to say that this
6:27 · idea of whether somebody's a warrior is
6:29 · really hard even if you're bored with
6:30 · weapons doesn't necessarily mean that
6:32 · but the severity of his injuries he must
6:35 · have died in battle so he was terribly
6:38 · wounded or killed in battle and brought
6:40 · back here to this sacred royal space to
6:42 · be buried
6:43 · absolutely so
6:44 · he was here there was a young man next
6:46 · to him and we actually now know through
6:48 · dna analysis that they were related so
6:51 · they were father and son
6:53 · they were essentially buried side by
6:54 · side and on top of them were
6:57 · lots of
6:58 · sort of rectangular stone setting which
7:00 · included smashed up pieces of beautiful
7:03 · carved anglo-saxon crosses so here you
7:06 · have what seems to be a pagan burial
7:09 · with weapons with thor's hammer and with
7:12 · essentially the evidence of that smashed
7:14 · up monastery right on top
7:17 · anything else in the body you want to
7:18 · tell me about
7:19 · well there is a very i know exactly what
7:21 · you're asking about
7:23 · he had some quite severe injuries as i
7:25 · said one of them was a very
7:28 · big wound to his left femur his left
7:30 · thigh bone uh almost certainly made by
7:32 · an axe because it was a properly big
7:34 · v-shaped cut but he went so
7:37 · closely down diagonal from his left hip
7:40 · that it's almost certain that it would
7:42 · have cut off part of his penis as well
7:45 · more evidence for for the likelihood of
7:46 · that is that those who buried him
7:48 · actually placed a boss tusk in between
7:50 · his legs right so he could still
7:54 · enjoy life full in the afterlife
7:55 · presumably that was the reason and why i
7:58 · mean it's that maps fascinating there's
7:59 · just a cluster of burials right here
8:01 · just outside the royal crypt what
8:04 · statement are vikings trying to make
8:05 · there yeah i think that's the really key
8:07 · point here in wrapton this isn't like
8:09 · this isn't just something that they do
8:10 · and then move away and forget all about
8:13 · they are using burial those funerary
8:15 · rights as a very political statement
8:17 · saying this is where you used to have
8:20 · your royals your most important people
8:22 · but now we're in control we're in charge
8:25 · and these are our important dead so now
8:27 · we have that link that we can show even
8:30 · the next generations that that this is
8:32 · now essentially scandinavian territory
8:36 · and an even more dramatic burial is to
8:38 · be found next door
8:42 · so we come to the vicarage garden just
8:44 · next the church now more evidence here
8:46 · is there yeah so this is another one of
8:48 · those locations in fact if you go over
8:50 · here where one of those discoveries was
8:53 · made in the 1980s
8:55 · back in the 80s there was a mound here
8:58 · okay and that mound had been known about
9:00 · for a very long time in fact they've
9:02 · been dug into uh by antiquarian pesky
9:04 · antiquarians yeah absolutely their dug
9:07 · holes into it and in fact there's a
9:09 · record uh that dates to the 70 earlier
9:12 · 1700s of somebody who had been asked by
9:16 · the lady of the manor there's manohars
9:17 · that used to be behind us here
9:19 · to investigate hillocks in the garden
9:22 · and this workman had dug into it and
9:25 · found this huge deposit of bones
9:28 · there was a central
9:30 · uh skeleton nine foot tall surrounded by
9:33 · the bodies of 100 humane skeletons
9:36 · apparently but the lady of the manor was
9:38 · so uh horrified by this that she just
9:40 · ordered them to cover it all up again
9:42 · back in the 1980s this was excavated
9:44 · again this mount and and they actually
9:47 · found that bone deposit but it was
9:49 · inside a building so it was inside a
9:51 · two-celled stone building which again
9:54 · was part of that same monastery uh same
9:57 · period that the crypt was from just
10:00 · basically right where we're standing now
10:02 · and it was just full of bones it was a
10:04 · one compartment was full of bones they
10:06 · identified almost 300 individuals all
10:10 · crammed into that single space
10:12 · wow and do we know that that's viking
10:14 · era so there's quite a few clues within
10:17 · those bones we know that they were all
10:19 · what we call secondary deposits so they
10:21 · were bones that were buried somewhere
10:22 · else originally and then they were moved
10:24 · when they turned to skeletons and put in
10:26 · place but among the bones were also lots
10:29 · of artifacts so there were viking
10:31 · weapons also coins dating to the 870s so
10:35 · precisely that winter we know the viking
10:37 · great army was here in wreston that's
10:39 · pretty good evidence isn't it yeah
10:41 · that's pretty good as you go for
10:42 · evidence is that bodies that people have
10:44 · died on the campaign they kept them all
10:46 · and buried them in one place this is one
10:48 · of the big questions and i think that
10:50 · that's what's most likely because we
10:52 · would have had
10:53 · hundreds maybe thousands of people dying
10:56 · on those campaigns in battle or for
10:58 · other reasons
10:59 · it's likely they might have been given a
11:00 · temporary burial somewhere at the site
11:03 · but when they came here to repton we
11:05 · know that they took over the whole
11:07 · territories this was this is a long term
11:09 · thing so i think it's quite likely that
11:11 · they could have gone back found some of
11:13 · those remains and taking them giving
11:14 · them essentially a communal burial
11:16 · somewhere like this somewhere where they
11:18 · can say well this is this is where we've
11:20 · settled now this is where we are to stay
11:23 · welcome to the history hit youtube
11:25 · channel which we are relaunching we've
11:28 · got all the best exclusive content going
11:30 · straight to this history hit youtube
11:32 · channel and you can find out for example
11:34 · what on earth i'm standing at the top of
11:35 · this mast
11:36 · you should probably subscribe

Transcript
0:00	·	[Music]
0:00	·	the jewel in the crown
0:02	·	that sounds like a must visit
0:05	·	it's back on the road to repton in
0:08	·	derbyshire
0:09	·	[Music]
0:18	·	i know it's silly but when i visit
0:20	·	places that were
0:21	·	at the center of kind of bloody dramatic
0:24	·	events in our history even though it's
0:25	·	one thousand years ago i still feel like
0:27	·	it's blood today but of course now it
0:28	·	just feels like a lovely
0:30	·	beautiful country church yeah this sort
0:32	·	of feels like as idyllic as you can
0:34	·	guess in england doesn't it really but
0:36	·	it definitely was not like that in the
0:38	·	late 9th century
0:40	·	it was an important place not the
0:42	·	vikings obviously
0:43	·	a huge impact here but it was an
0:44	·	important place well before they arrived
0:45	·	i thought that's what they were doing
0:46	·	here i guess yeah absolutely so
0:48	·	even before the viking age this was one
0:50	·	of the most significant sites really in
0:53	·	the kingdom of mercia this was a royal
0:56	·	ecclesiastical religious
0:58	·	importance there was a very wealthy
1:00	·	monastery here dating back probably as
1:02	·	early as the seventh century does any of
1:04	·	that fabric still remain or was it all
1:06	·	smashed up by the vikings so we know
1:07	·	definitely some of it was destroyed by
1:09	·	the vikings but there is a part that
1:11	·	still remains that the crypt in this
1:13	·	most of the churches is very modern but
1:15	·	they're right still you're the only
1:16	·	person i know cat who refers to very
1:19	·	modern as the 14th century yeah well you
1:21	·	know anything after the turn of the
1:23	·	millennium is pretty much modern to me
1:25	·	which millennium yeah
1:33	·	so we're heading down to the crypt yeah
1:35	·	this is the
1:36	·	anglers that isn't crazy this is
1:38	·	anglo-saxon now these rocks here are
1:39	·	like whoa
1:40	·	so this here definitely when we're now
1:43	·	in the crypt this is all part of the
1:44	·	merchant monastery
1:47	·	amazing time travel yeah absolutely this
1:50	·	i mean this is what's so extraordinary
1:51	·	this is what was here when the vikings
1:53	·	arrived they
1:54	·	would be touching the same pillars that
1:56	·	we're touching today and that's pretty
1:57	·	unusual in britain isn't it there's not
2:00	·	much
2:01	·	stone architecture left from what the
2:03	·	well the ninth century but it's not over
2:05	·	yeah so this is this is eighth century
2:07	·	certainly possibly even before that so
2:09	·	there's not much of that at all so we
2:11	·	it's very rare in the whole country to
2:13	·	have uh evidence of that remaining this
2:15	·	is one of the most special early
2:17	·	medieval bits of architecture in in the
2:19	·	uk yeah definitely and what's really
2:21	·	nice as well as you can see things like
2:22	·	traces of paint
2:24	·	so if you if you imagine
2:26	·	yeah imagine it really vividly colored
2:28	·	full of jewels glittering gold candles
2:32	·	it must have been such an atmospheric
2:35	·	place i mean it's special today but more
2:37	·	than a thousand years ago even more so
2:39	·	and and so this is where mercy which had
2:41	·	been one of the most powerful
2:43	·	anglo-saxon kingdom for periods buried
2:46	·	its kings i mean this was the holiest
2:47	·	the holy yeah so several we know that
2:49	·	several of the uh immersion uh dynasty
2:52	·	the royal dynasty were buried here and
2:54	·	this crypt itself would have been uh
2:55	·	that mausoleum so this would have been
2:57	·	where those uh possibly in these alcoves
2:59	·	here would have had uh essentially the
3:02	·	remains of those kings and people would
3:04	·	come here as a pilgrimage somewhere to
3:05	·	visit and this was all part of the
3:08	·	bigger monastery site which is very
3:10	·	wealthy it's a double house monastery
3:12	·	for men and women and so it might have
3:15	·	been a small town around it as well so
3:17	·	this is you can't really talk about
3:19	·	things as a capital city i guess but
3:20	·	this would have been
3:22	·	one of the most important
3:24	·	religious political royal sites in mercy
3:27	·	absolutely and this would have been
3:28	·	known far and wide so a very deliberate
3:31	·	place for the vikings to attack
3:33	·	[Music]
3:36	·	so this would have been filled with all
3:38	·	sorts of riches so there'd be a lot that
3:40	·	they could take away a lot of wealth
3:41	·	here but it was much more than that it
3:43	·	was a very much a political statement
3:45	·	knowing that it was such an important
3:46	·	religious site if you come and take that
3:49	·	then you're making a really big
3:51	·	statement it's like the soviet sticky
3:52	·	neck and a hammer and sickle flag on the
3:55	·	reichstag in 1945 what amazing moment
3:58	·	we know about the viking presence here
4:00	·	thanks to extraordinary investigations
4:02	·	done here by professor martin biddle and
4:04	·	his late wife vieta shalby biddle
4:09	·	from 1974 we started to dig beside the
4:12	·	crypt and very early on we got dating
4:16	·	evidence and then we found
4:18	·	an enormous ditch
4:20	·	i mean a whopper beside
4:23	·	right beside the church and if you can
4:25	·	imagine the church was there that was
4:28	·	the angle
4:29	·	of the of the church the ditch was there
4:31	·	they were cornered a corner
4:33	·	and this was i mean this is
4:35	·	four meters deep goodness knows how wide
4:38	·	we only got part of it
4:40	·	and we started to think and we looked at
4:43	·	the kind of pottery not much that was
4:45	·	coming out of it
4:46	·	and it came to us that
4:49	·	there was only one thing this could be
4:51	·	it would be part of the viking winter
4:54	·	camp
4:55	·	of 873-4 which of course we know about
4:58	·	from the anglo-saxon chronicle
5:02	·	and martin biddling's team didn't only
5:04	·	find the ditch
5:06	·	around the church they found other
5:08	·	evidence that proves the vikings were
5:10	·	here
5:11	·	[Music]
5:12	·	so what else have you found at this site
5:16	·	so in addition to to the ditch and all
5:18	·	of that the archaeologists executing
5:21	·	here in the 1970s and 80s found a lot of
5:24	·	burials and some of them were definitely
5:26	·	scandinavian or viking burials and
5:29	·	actually they are right here and some of
5:31	·	the most important ones yeah so we're
5:32	·	just going to try and work out exactly
5:34	·	where we are so looking at
5:35	·	the map and the plan so this is the
5:38	·	church of the yes that's the crypt
5:40	·	seven and eight this is
5:41	·	right in here yeah this spot
5:44	·	that we're standing on now yeah uh is
5:46	·	probably
5:47	·	the most
5:49	·	well the best known and most significant
5:51	·	viking grave in all of england right
5:53	·	this was where we had the so-called
5:55	·	repton warrior
5:57	·	buried and a younger man next to him he
6:00	·	was buried with a loss of objects which
6:03	·	was a typical scandinavian burial
6:05	·	writers being buried with objects around
6:07	·	you uh that included a sword along
6:10	·	inside a viking sword he had a sore
6:12	·	thumb around his neck yes thor's hammer
6:13	·	is there the guys are viking precisely
6:16	·	so so that's that's the sort of most
6:17	·	obvious part of it he had lots of other
6:19	·	smaller objects but he also had some
6:21	·	really really severe injuries on his
6:23	·	body so we could be pretty confident i
6:25	·	mean it's difficult to say that this
6:27	·	idea of whether somebody's a warrior is
6:29	·	really hard even if you're bored with
6:30	·	weapons doesn't necessarily mean that
6:32	·	but the severity of his injuries he must
6:35	·	have died in battle so he was terribly
6:38	·	wounded or killed in battle and brought
6:40	·	back here to this sacred royal space to
6:42	·	be buried
6:43	·	absolutely so
6:44	·	he was here there was a young man next
6:46	·	to him and we actually now know through
6:48	·	dna analysis that they were related so
6:51	·	they were father and son
6:53	·	they were essentially buried side by
6:54	·	side and on top of them were
6:57	·	lots of
6:58	·	sort of rectangular stone setting which
7:00	·	included smashed up pieces of beautiful
7:03	·	carved anglo-saxon crosses so here you
7:06	·	have what seems to be a pagan burial
7:09	·	with weapons with thor's hammer and with
7:12	·	essentially the evidence of that smashed
7:14	·	up monastery right on top
7:17	·	anything else in the body you want to
7:18	·	tell me about
7:19	·	well there is a very i know exactly what
7:21	·	you're asking about
7:23	·	he had some quite severe injuries as i
7:25	·	said one of them was a very
7:28	·	big wound to his left femur his left
7:30	·	thigh bone uh almost certainly made by
7:32	·	an axe because it was a properly big
7:34	·	v-shaped cut but he went so
7:37	·	closely down diagonal from his left hip
7:40	·	that it's almost certain that it would
7:42	·	have cut off part of his penis as well
7:45	·	more evidence for for the likelihood of
7:46	·	that is that those who buried him
7:48	·	actually placed a boss tusk in between
7:50	·	his legs right so he could still
7:54	·	enjoy life full in the afterlife
7:55	·	presumably that was the reason and why i
7:58	·	mean it's that maps fascinating there's
7:59	·	just a cluster of burials right here
8:01	·	just outside the royal crypt what
8:04	·	statement are vikings trying to make
8:05	·	there yeah i think that's the really key
8:07	·	point here in wrapton this isn't like
8:09	·	this isn't just something that they do
8:10	·	and then move away and forget all about
8:13	·	they are using burial those funerary
8:15	·	rights as a very political statement
8:17	·	saying this is where you used to have
8:20	·	your royals your most important people
8:22	·	but now we're in control we're in charge
8:25	·	and these are our important dead so now
8:27	·	we have that link that we can show even
8:30	·	the next generations that that this is
8:32	·	now essentially scandinavian territory
8:36	·	and an even more dramatic burial is to
8:38	·	be found next door
8:42	·	so we come to the vicarage garden just
8:44	·	next the church now more evidence here
8:46	·	is there yeah so this is another one of
8:48	·	those locations in fact if you go over
8:50	·	here where one of those discoveries was
8:53	·	made in the 1980s
8:55	·	back in the 80s there was a mound here
8:58	·	okay and that mound had been known about
9:00	·	for a very long time in fact they've
9:02	·	been dug into uh by antiquarian pesky
9:04	·	antiquarians yeah absolutely their dug
9:07	·	holes into it and in fact there's a
9:09	·	record uh that dates to the 70 earlier
9:12	·	1700s of somebody who had been asked by
9:16	·	the lady of the manor there's manohars
9:17	·	that used to be behind us here
9:19	·	to investigate hillocks in the garden
9:22	·	and this workman had dug into it and
9:25	·	found this huge deposit of bones
9:28	·	there was a central
9:30	·	uh skeleton nine foot tall surrounded by
9:33	·	the bodies of 100 humane skeletons
9:36	·	apparently but the lady of the manor was
9:38	·	so uh horrified by this that she just
9:40	·	ordered them to cover it all up again
9:42	·	back in the 1980s this was excavated
9:44	·	again this mount and and they actually
9:47	·	found that bone deposit but it was
9:49	·	inside a building so it was inside a
9:51	·	two-celled stone building which again
9:54	·	was part of that same monastery uh same
9:57	·	period that the crypt was from just
10:00	·	basically right where we're standing now
10:02	·	and it was just full of bones it was a
10:04	·	one compartment was full of bones they
10:06	·	identified almost 300 individuals all
10:10	·	crammed into that single space
10:12	·	wow and do we know that that's viking
10:14	·	era so there's quite a few clues within
10:17	·	those bones we know that they were all
10:19	·	what we call secondary deposits so they
10:21	·	were bones that were buried somewhere
10:22	·	else originally and then they were moved
10:24	·	when they turned to skeletons and put in
10:26	·	place but among the bones were also lots
10:29	·	of artifacts so there were viking
10:31	·	weapons also coins dating to the 870s so
10:35	·	precisely that winter we know the viking
10:37	·	great army was here in wreston that's
10:39	·	pretty good evidence isn't it yeah
10:41	·	that's pretty good as you go for
10:42	·	evidence is that bodies that people have
10:44	·	died on the campaign they kept them all
10:46	·	and buried them in one place this is one
10:48	·	of the big questions and i think that
10:50	·	that's what's most likely because we
10:52	·	would have had
10:53	·	hundreds maybe thousands of people dying
10:56	·	on those campaigns in battle or for
10:58	·	other reasons
10:59	·	it's likely they might have been given a
11:00	·	temporary burial somewhere at the site
11:03	·	but when they came here to repton we
11:05	·	know that they took over the whole
11:07	·	territories this was this is a long term
11:09	·	thing so i think it's quite likely that
11:11	·	they could have gone back found some of
11:13	·	those remains and taking them giving
11:14	·	them essentially a communal burial
11:16	·	somewhere like this somewhere where they
11:18	·	can say well this is this is where we've
11:20	·	settled now this is where we are to stay
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