Archaeologists uncover 2,000-year-old ‘murder mystery’ while filming Sandi Toksvig TV show
Human sacrifice uncovered at Iron Age site in Dorset
- Archaeologists, including Sandi Toksvig and Miles Russell, investigated an Iron Age settlement in Dorset for a Channel 4 series, uncovering secrets of the Durotriges tribe.
- They discovered the 2,000-year-old skeleton of a teenage girl buried face down in a pit, suggesting a potential murder mystery.
- Further analysis indicated the girl suffered violence before death and was likely a human sacrifice, given the unusual but careful burial.
- DNA evidence from the burial site suggests the Durotriges tribe was a matrilineal society, where women likely owned the land.
- This finding marks the first known documentation of matrilineal communities in western European prehistory.