Healing trepanation reveals Viking-age skeleton in Cambridge mass grave
TL;DR Summary
Archaeologists excavating near Cambridge’s Wandlebury Iron Age hillfort uncovered a Viking-era mass grave containing a tall young man with a healed trepanation in his skull, dating to AD 772–891 among nine other dismembered remains. Scientists propose the trepanation may relate to headaches from a pituitary tumour; it remains unclear whether the individuals were Viking invaders or Saxon captives. Post-excavation work including DNA and isotopic analyses and a geophysical survey aim to clarify health, kinship, origin, and the site's broader history.
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