Viking remains found in Great Britain with traces of trepanation
In the vicinity of the British city of Cambridge, archaeologists have discovered a mass grave from the Viking age, including the skeleton of a giant with holes in the skull and numerous dismembered remains. This was reported on February 10 by the publication Live Science.
During a training excavation in the summer of 2025, conducted five kilometers south of Cambridge, a pit was discovered with four whole skeletons, several skulls without bodies, and individual leg bones. Scientists suggest that some of the dismembered remains could have been displayed as trophies.
Special attention was drawn to the skeleton of a man with a height of 195 cm — 30 cm above the average height of men of that time. The man's skull had an oval hole about three centimeters in diameter. Experts believe that the hole could have been made for medicinal purposes. The unusual size of the skeleton may indicate an excess of growth hormone, which often leads to headaches, and in ancient times trepanation was used to relieve this — an operation to remove part of the skull to reduce intracranial pressure.
Radiocarbon dating of one of the skeletons has shown that its age ranges from 772 to 891 years. In the 9th century, the area where the burial was found was located on the border between the Saxons and Vikings, and researchers suggest that the burial may be related to the conflicts of that time.
Arkeonews magazine reported on January 19 that recent archaeological discoveries at the Bair Mound monument shed new light on the religious and cultural diversity of the region in the 3rd century BC. Among the most significant finds are a terracotta figurine of a dancing woman and a processed quartz artifact dating from the late period of the Mauryan dynasty and the beginning of Indo-Greek rule.
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