Archaeologists Uncover Decapitated Bodies From Roman Britain
Technological advances, including DNA and tooth enamel analyses, allowed researchers to form new conclusions about capital punishment under Roman rule.
Decapitated bodies from the third century were found in graves in Cambridgeshire, England.Credit.Dave Webb/Cambridge Archaeological Unit
June 2, 2021, 7:36 a.m. ET
British archaeologists uncovered more than a dozen decapitated skeletons in a discovery that, they said in a new paper, sheds light on how the ancient Romans used capital punishment as their grip on Britain slipped in the late third century.
Archaeologists at the Cambridge Archaeological Unit, a company that provides archaeological services, uncovered three small Roman cemeteries at the edge of a farm in Cambridgeshire, about 70 miles north of London, in excavations between 2001 and 2010. After studying the remains, they found that 17 of the 52 skeletons were decapitated, a much higher rate than in other Roma
June 2, 2021
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Based on the best estimates available, did murder rise in 2020 compared with 2019? And if so, by how much? (Rate is murders per 100,000 people.)
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