The remains of five 2,000-year-old humans have been found buried in a crouched position along with sacrificed animals at a recently discovered Iron Age settlement in Dorset.
The site, which includes round houses and storage pits, was discovered by archeology students at Bournemouth University last September.
It was named Duropolis because the once bustling farming settlement, dating back to around 100 BC and well before the Roman invasion of Britain, is believed to have been occupied by the Durotrige tribe.
For the past three weeks, a team of 65 university students have been excavating at Winterbourne-Kingston.
During this time, they discovered the bodies of women and men, as well as animal parts, in storage pits that were originally used to store grain.
The bodies were found in crouched positions in oval-shaped pits and were buried along with joints of meat and clay bowls that originally contained drinks “for the afterlife,” which experts believe was the way a group of people gave their dead a way to walk. to another place”.
This crouched burial position was the standard practice of the period. It began in the Bronze Age and continued until the Iron Age.
“Burial at Winterbourne Kingston – lying on your side with your limbs tucked in – was the practice of durothrigs at the time, and they were buried in a shroud along with some offerings for the afterlife,” said Damian Evans, demonstrator in field archeology and collections at Bournemouth University.
Excavations: Two thousand year old human remains and sacrificed animals have been found at a recently discovered Iron Age settlement in Dorset.
The bodies were found in crouched positions in oval-shaped pits and were buried along with meat joints and clay bowls originally containing drinks.
The site, which includes round houses and storage pits, was discovered by archeology students at Bournemouth University last September.
Experts say the discovery of prehistoric people who lived at the site, as well as items from their daily lives, provides interesting new insights into Iron Age lifestyles.
“We know a lot about life in Britain during and after the Roman invasion because so much was recorded,” said Dr Miles Russell of Bournemouth University.
“But we don’t have anything written about life before, the answers to questions about how they lived come solely from what we find in the earth.”
Groups of students and university staff have been engaged in exploration and excavation in the area for several years.
In 2015, they completed excavations of a large Iron Age city, which they named “Duropolis” after the Durotrig tribes that lived in the region.
The settlement they’re working on today is about half a mile north of Duropolis.
Archaeologists hope the new discoveries will help them better understand the religious practices in the communities of the time.
“The animal remains that we find at the bottom of the pits would have served as food for this settlement for several weeks, so burying so much in the ground is a significant sacrifice to their gods,” Dr. Russell said.
For the past three weeks, a group of 65 university students have been excavating at Winterbourne-Kingston.
During this time, they discovered the bodies of women and men, as well as animal parts (pictured) in storage pits that were originally used to store grain.
Experts say the discovery of prehistoric people who lived at the site, as well as items from their daily lives, provides interesting new insights into Iron Age lifestyles.
“In some pits, animal parts were placed on other animals and together with them, for example, we found the head of a cow on the body of a sheep.
“We don’t know why they did it, it’s frankly weird to us, but it’s an exciting new look at their belief systems.”
Archeology student Nathan Sue cleaned and preserved finds from the settlement, including pottery, animal bones, and jewelry.
“Some of the most exciting finds we unearthed during the excavation include a ring we found on someone’s finger in a related burial,” he said.
“It’s a copper alloy, possibly bronze, and it’s nice to find that rings from this century aren’t common.”
Groups of students and university staff have been studying and excavating sites in the area for several years.
The excavation will continue for another week and the human bone will be analyzed at Bournemouth University before it is returned to the ground.
The team will then continue to explore and scan the East Dorset area for further settlement activity, which they hope may reveal more secrets of life in pre-Roman Britain.
Another archaeology student from Bournemouth, Sarah Elliot, who was part of the excavation team, said: “We learned that people who lived here two thousand years ago filled these storage pits with their garbage, and we found pottery, bones, coal and flint.
“We know they buried their dead here and all of their limbs are articulated so they were placed in the ground with care and they bury their dead in a very special way so that they can be easily identified.”
The excavation will continue for another week and the human bone will be analyzed at Bournemouth University before it is returned to the ground.
The team will then continue to explore and scan the East Dorset area for further settlement activity, which they hope may reveal more secrets of life in pre-Roman Britain.
