Human Sacrifice in Iron Age Britain: The Ones Thrown Into Storage Pits Were Outsiders
The five sets of human remains in the storage pits at the Duropolis site in Dorset are not like the bog bodies: they were not venerated elites but malnourished, hard-labouring outsiders with their wrists bound.
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Romans condemned human sacrifice while watching gladiators
Roman writers described the Britons as barbarians who practised human sacrifice, cannibalism and married their sisters, and Caesar's wicker man is part of that propaganda. But Miles points to a double standard: the Romans thought killing to please the gods was wrong, yet they crucified thousands and let gladiators be torn apart by wild beasts in the arena as public entertainment. The difference is not whether you kill but who you kill for — killing for a god is barbaric, killing for an audience is enforcement. That cultural blind spot is the starting point for understanding every Roman account of human sacrifice.
— Miles RussellNinety-nine per cent of Britons never entered the burial record
To judge whether there was human sacrifice, you first need bones. But in most of late Iron Age Britain there is almost no skeletal remains at all; Miles estimates that roughly 99% of the population does not appear in the archaeological record — they may have been cremated, left exposed, or thrown into rivers or bogs. Only a few regions, such as Dorset and East Yorkshire, have large inhumation cemeteries. That means ‘no evidence of human sacrifice found’ and ‘no human sacrifice’ are two different things: the silence of archaeology is itself a sampling problem, not a conclusion.
— Miles RussellLindow Man was killed by four methods stacked together
Lindow Man is England's most famous bog body, with the upper body beautifully preserved: neatly trimmed nails, groomed hair, good nutrition, suggesting he was well treated in life. But he died what Miles calls a ‘fourfold death’ — a heavy blow to the head that fractured the skull, a cut throat, strangulation, and finally being placed face down in the bog possibly still alive, with water found in his lungs. The cut throat plus strangulation was to make the blood spray further, a dramatised execution. In his stomach were an oatcake and mistletoe, the latter possibly used to induce hallucinations or dull pain, bringing him closer to the gods.
— Miles RussellThe bones in the storage pits were discarded, not buried
At hillforts such as Danebury, human bones often appear at the bottom of disused cylindrical storage pits, mixed in with animal bones. Some are just a skull with mandible and a few cervical vertebrae, indicating death by decapitation rather than the head being taken after death; others were thrown in whole. Miles stresses that this is not a formal burial with grave goods, laid down by grieving relatives, but ‘somebody being disposed of in a very dramatic, violent way’. Yet the bones in the pits could also be heroes who fell in battle, so bones alone cannot distinguish execution, death in combat and human sacrifice — the key is whether the depositional context is anomalous.
— Miles RussellWinterbourne Woman had her throat cut and was thrown onto a bone platform
In 2010 an adult female was found at the bottom of a storage pit at Duropolis, face down on a layer of long-weathered horse, cattle and pig bone forming a platform. Her skeleton shows a heavy blow to the chest a few weeks before death, with a cracked rib healing, plus head injuries, and the fatal wound was a deep cut on the cervical vertebrae — someone had cut her carotid artery from behind with a blade. DNA shows she was unrelated to any of the families in the cemetery, isotopes show she did not grow up on the chalk, and severe compression of her vertebrae indicates long-term load-bearing. Miles concludes she was probably a slave or prisoner of war, an ‘outsider’, and that is why she was chosen.
— Miles RussellThis society was matrilocal, so they did not kill their own
DNA research by Laura Cassidy and University College Dublin shows that at Duropolis women stayed on the same land for generations while men came from further away and were less closely related to the women, that women had more grave goods, and that land may have passed down the female line. This explains a brutal logic: the people thrown into the pits were not local women, because they were the landholders and possibly the spiritual leaders who presided over rituals. Miles says that looking at their roundhouses and settlements you would think it was a utopia, but seeing the human sacrifice makes you realise their attitude to life was completely different from ours.
— Miles RussellAt the pit edge the archaeologist sees a crime scene
Five probable human sacrifices have been found at Duropolis: four clearly thrown in, with limbs scattered; one face down but with its legs tucked under the body, possibly having been bound. One adult male had one leg against the pit wall and his foot in the topmost layer — the archaeologists reached the foot before the body, so they could reconstruct clearly how he was thrown down from the pit mouth after being killed. Miles says that normally you excavate people who were buried, but this time ‘you're actually dealing with a murder victim’: you can see the victim, the manner of death and the place of death, but you will never find the killer.
— Miles RussellThe bog holds elites, the pits hold the bottom of society
Miles proposes a stratified theory: bog bodies such as Lindow Man and the Irish examples have clean nails and no calluses on their hands, did no heavy manual labour, and may have been priests or ruling elites — some scholars even think they were kings, with power traded against ‘ultimately sacrificing yourself’. The people in the Duropolis storage pits did heavy work, were malnourished and had their wrists bound; they belonged to the bottom of society and were seen as more expendable. Both are human lives given up, but the bog is ‘claimed by the gods’ while the storage pit is merely ‘thrown in with the rubbish’.
— Miles RussellIn their own words · checked verbatim
the romans are very keen to say this is horrific killing people for religion is bad but the romans of course commit mass atrocities for entertainment
Miles Russell5:08
you'd say about 99 percent of the population are not appearing in the archaeological record
Miles Russell7:14
if you're killing someone and trying to do it in a theatrical way you want to make the blood spurt further
Miles Russell15:33
It's definitely an execution. But I think the fact that this is someone who has been killed in this obviously theatrical over the top way.
Miles Russell41:49
you're dealing with a crime scene effectively
Miles Russell45:10
it's the theatrical element it's the overkill element that makes something a sacrifice
Miles Russell52:27
Figures
| Share of the population absent from the archaeological record | about 99% | 7:14 |
| Number of probable human sacrifice individuals at Duropolis | 5 (4 certain, 1 possible) | 33:09 |
| Years of excavation at Duropolis | 17 years | 2:05 |
| Late Iron Age cemeteries excavated at Duropolis | at least 6 | 32:08 |
| Number of ways Lindow Man died | fourfold death (blow to the head, cut throat, strangulation, drowning) | 13:27 |
| Date of Clonycavan Man | about 400 to 200 BC | 22:48 |
| Date of Ballymacombs More Woman | about 343 BC to AD 1 | 23:50 |
Glossary
- bog body
- An ancient human body preserved in acidic, oxygen-poor peat bog, where skin, internal organs and even stomach contents can survive.
- liminal space
- A transitional zone between two worlds, such as rivers and bogs, believed to be inhabited by gods and to offer passage to another world.
- matrilocal
- A social form in which men move after marriage to live with the woman's family, with land and status often passing down the female line.
- isotope analysis
- Inferring an individual's place of upbringing, diet and migration from isotope ratios in bones and teeth.
- ergot
- A fungus parasitic on grain that can cause hallucinations, speculated by some scholars to have been used before sacrifices to alter the sacrificial victim's state of consciousness.
How to listen
Listeners interested in Iron Age archaeology, the credibility of Roman texts, prehistoric religion and ritual violence; anyone who wants to see how archaeology reasons back from bones to social structure.
The first 2 minutes of small talk and T-shirt chatter can be skipped; the mid-episode Gone Medieval ad can be skipped outright.