Walkington Wold burials

The Walkington Wold burials in the East Riding of Yorkshire, England, comprise the skeletal remains of 13 individuals from the Anglo-Saxon period which were discovered in the late 1960s, during the excavation of a Bronze Age barrow.

Subsequent examinations have concluded that they were decapitated Anglo-Saxon criminals, and that the site is the most northerly of its kind known in England.

Theories of their identity included victims of a late Roman massacre, Anglo-Saxon executions, or even a Celtic head cult.

Examination of the skeletons revealed that their owners were subjected to judicial execution by decapitation, one of which required several blows.

While the burial site is ideally situated for public display on a rise by a road, the absence of jawbones from most of the skulls suggests that they fell off as the heads decomposed on the poles.