Monday, June 10, 2013

Exham Priory/Summerisle Discovered, or Centuries of Human Sacrifice in Kent

Martin Rundkvist discusses Cliffs End, excavated by Wessex Archaeology in 2004-2005. They uncovered centuries of what appears to be ritual human sacrifice. Bodies of at least 24 humans, as well as animals, were ritually manipulated after being killed. Based on stable isotope analysis, many of the victims were from Scandinavia, possibly slaves. The striking thing is the duration: It continued for eight centuries.

This work has been ongoing, and you can read about it from Wessex Archaeology's website (they also have a flickr account with images). Notably, this doesn't take the same tack as either the original blog post, nor from the description in the magazine's table of contents, the popular article that inspired the blog post.