Archaeologists uncovered the find<\/a> when work was being carried out ahead of a development.<\/p>\nPeter Strachan, councillor for planning and regeneration at Buckinghamshire Council, said that the “discovery of what is likely a medieval execution burial ground offers a rare glimpse” into the county’s past.<\/p>\n
Buckinghamshire Council said the latest report confirmed that at least 73 individual bodies have been found across 34 graves.<\/p>\n
No clear order or layout has been discovered with most burials laid in a traditional east-west position.<\/p>\n
Twenty-six skeletons were found with their hands tied behind their backs. <\/p>\n
The burials were predominantly of adult males, with some juveniles and adolescents, but no females were identified.<\/p>\n
Further analysis revealed signs of childhood stress, healed fractures, and diseases such as tuberculosis. <\/p>\n
Only a small number of artefacts were found at the site, suggesting valuables were removed before burial. <\/p>\n
Two buckles were recovered, one dating to the late Roman period and one dating to the post-medieval period.<\/p>\n
Carbon dating of one skeleton provided a date in the late 13th Century, according to Buckinghamshire Council’s archaeology team.<\/p>\n
It said that the unusual layout, lack of grave goods, and evidence of bound hands strongly suggested the site was an execution cemetery – a rare type of burial ground historically used for criminals.<\/p>\n
These sites, often located on parish boundaries, represent a marginalised sector of medieval society.<\/p>\n
Post-excavation analysis will now be undertaken and the results published to ensure a proper record of the discovery is made.<\/p>\n
Further research will continue to enhance understanding of the site, the individuals buried there, and life in Buckinghamshire during the Saxon and medieval periods.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"More than 70 bodies have now been uncovered at a medieval cemetery used for executed criminals, archaeologists say.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":362944,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[43,44,41,39,42,40],"class_list":{"0":"post-362943","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-headlines","9":"tag-news","10":"tag-top-news","11":"tag-top-stories","12":"tag-topnews","13":"tag-topstories"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/362943","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=362943"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/362943\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/362944"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=362943"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=362943"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=362943"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}