Headless Viking Burial of Dorset

Archaeologists found the bodies of 54 men who had all been decapitated and placed in shallow graves with their heads piled up to one side. Carbon dating revealed that the bodies were from the 11th century, which gave the first hint that the bodies might be linked to the Vikings. 

At this time Anglo-Saxons on the south coast of England were under constant threat from Nordic attack. Isotope tests on the teeth of the men revealed they came from Scandinavia. 

Dr Britt Baillie, from the University of Cambridge, said that she believed they belonged to a group of violent Viking killers who modelled themselves on a legendary group of mercenaries founded by Harald Bluetooth and based at Jomsborg on the Baltic coast – the Jomsvikings. The Jomsvikings had strict military codes about not showing fear and never fleeing in the face of the enemy except when completely outnumbered.

Antikythera Mechanism

The Antikythera mechanism is an ancient analogue computer designed to calculate astronomical positions. Recovered in the 1900's from a ship wreck, its complexity has not been understood until very recently. The artifact is dated to the 1st Century BC, with artifacts of its level of mechanical complexity dating no earlier than the 14th century AD. 

Professor Michael Edmunds of Cardiff University, who led a 2006 study of the mechanism, said:

"This device is just extraordinary, the only thing of its kind. The design is beautiful, the astronomy is exactly right. The way the mechanics are designed just makes your jaw drop. Whoever has done this has done it extremely carefully ... in terms of historic and scarcity value, I have to regard this mechanism as being more valuable than the Mona Lisa " 

—30 November 2006

Screaming Mummies

Imagine excavating a sarcophagus, opening it up to find yourself face to with this screaming mummy. In the past, archaeologists assumed, after finding these mummies that they must have been buried alive as seen on in The Mummy film (1999). Now however, they tend to agree that it is a result of the head falling back after burial, causing it to look like the individual was screaming at the point of death. 

Examples of this include the discovery of "Unknown man E" a mummy discovered in Egypt in the 1880's. Some believe he may be the murderous son of Ramses III. These examples are not just a feature of Egypt, the photo on the left shows the remains of a mummy with his hands covering his face in what appears to be terror. It was amount a number of remains of the Chachapoya indians, found in Peru.