51 Headless Vikings Found in English Execution Pit?

From National Geographic come this fascinating story of ancient history and the modern science used to unravel it.

Naked, beheaded, and tangled, the bodies of 51 young men-their heads stacked neatly to the side-have been found in a thousand-year-old pit in southern England, according to carbon-dating results released earlier this month.

The mass burial took place at a time when the English were battling Viking invaders, say archaeologists who are now trying to verify the identity of the slain.

The dead are thought to have been war captives, possibly Vikings, whose heads were hacked off with swords or axes, according to excavation leader David Score of Oxford Archaeology, an archaeological-services company.

Read the rest of this article in National Geographic