'Worsley Man' c. 100AD - beaten, strangled, beheaded: pagan ritual?

[wfgodot]

Perhaps should be filed under Very Cold Cases.

Iron Age murder mystery as CT scan shows British man from
100AD was beaten, strangled, then beheaded in 'pagan ritual' (Daily Mail)

Archaeologists have solved a 1900-year-old 'cold case' mystery - using a medical CT scanner to scan the head of an Iron Age murder victim.

The preserved head of the second century Briton - known as The Worsley Man due to his location near Salford - was found in a peat bog in 1958.

The scan shows he as bludgeoned over the head, garrotted and then beheaded - leading archaeologists to suspect he was sacrificed.
---
Brian Stich, the museum’s curator of archaeology, said: ‘This really was an extraordinary level of violence. It could be that there was some sort of ritual behind this.

'Previous tests have shown the remains of a garrotte in his neck although some had speculated this could have been a necklace. But on the new scans you can see the marks of the ligature.’
---

more, with pictures, at link above

 

[AnaTeresa]

I hate the immediate jump to pagan, sacrificial ritual. There's no real evidence of that.

 

[wfgodot]

I hate the immediate jump to pagan, sacrificial ritual. There's no real evidence of that.

Quite true. "The mark of the tabloid" is upon it.

 

[tlcya]

as a non ritual sacrificing pagan, I too cringe whenever that leap is made. But then, in this instance, we are talking about events that took place in 100 AD, so pagan practices back then, depending on the region and the specific type of pagan worship, did indeed sometimes involved ritual sacrifice.

So for this story, I am not terribly offended.

Thanks Woofie, for yet another interesting unusual news story.

ETA now that I have finished reading the article, I hear you about the leap Ana. So the fact that he died an extremely violent death is the only evidence they are going on that this may have been ritual sacrifice???

Seriously? He may well have been set upon by highway robbers. Or been tortured for information or any number of things.

I see your point now. What an incredible leap to make to paganism. Violence = pagan sacrifice.

 

[wfgodot]

BBC has a short article with video here: Worsley Man: Hospital scanner probes Iron Age bog death