Yorkshire Remains May be Child Sacrifice

Submitted by Milica on Wed, 2003-06-18 21:03
Yorkshire Post: A child's remains discovered in an ancient burial site in the Yorkshire Dales may have been a human sacrifice. Archaeologists excavating a site near Kettlewell in Yorkshire, England, have found a second skeleton of a child. The site is believed to be a ritual cairn which could be as much as 4,000 years old. The graves, which circle the cairn, are thought to be ritual burials leading the scientists to believe that the children may have been sacrificed.

"We can only speculate the reasons for them being there," said Roger Martlew of Leeds University. "They could have been the children of the local chieftain, and there's some evidence of disease in the first skeleton, and there may be some connection. But we can't rule out sacrifice. I think these burials were made for very significant reasons."

The discoveries have come at the end of a two year field study by Dr. Martlew and his students.

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