Mysterious Medieval Burial: Face-Down Girl with Tied Ankles Sparks Theories
Originally Published 2 years ago — by CNN
Archaeologists have discovered the remains of a 15-year-old girl buried face down with her ankles potentially tied together in an Early Medieval settlement in Cambridgeshire, England. The burial position suggests that extra measures were taken to prevent her from "returning" from the grave, indicating she may have been considered an outsider or of low social status. Analysis of her bones revealed signs of childhood malnutrition and spinal joint disease, suggesting a life of tough manual labor. The burial location, on a boundary and near a wooden post, is similar to another burial of a woman in the late 8th to 9th century, indicating the significance of borders and boundaries in burial practices during that period. Radiocarbon dating places the girl's death between 680 AD and 880 AD.