Violence in the Domestic Sphere
Although bog bodies have attracted a high degree of prominence due to their extraordinary levels of preservation, there is evidence that similar practices were carried out in a range of other contexts.
Much of this relates to lethal violence inflicted on individuals whose remains were deposited in settlements, often within pits, houses or communal areas. Although it is far more difficult to extract detailed information on the nature of these killings from skeletal remains than it is from the soft tissues of bog bodies, there are some instances where a comparable level of ritualisation can be recognised.One such instance comes from Hornish Point, in the Western Isles of Scotland, where the remains of a young boy had been placed into four separate pits under the floor of a small stone roundhouse dating to the first or second centuries bce.[909] The boy had been fatally stabbed in the back, recalling Strabo's statement, written in the first century ce, that the Gauls made prophecies by studying the death spasms of sacrificial victims killed in exactly this way.[910] After death, the boy's body was allowed to decompose sufficiently to enable it to be pulled apart for deposition, yet many of the small bones remained articulated: it thus appears that the body was deliberately preserved in some way, perhaps for months or years. Finally it was deposited along with the remains of young animals that been cooked and eaten, in a feast to mark the foundation of the building.
Other sacrificial killings, though on a rather larger scale, come from the settlement complex at Acy-Romance, in north-eastern France, where around twenty young adult males were buried in an unnatural, seated position in individual pits. Their constricted position suggests that they may have been buried in wooden boxes, perhaps when still alive.[911]
Many human skeletons, both partial and complete, are also found in the disused grain pits that commonly occur in hill fort interiors in southern England and northern France.[912] No single explanation can account for the varied state of these bodies, but some exhibit clear evidence for violent injury, including decapitation. They are frequently associated with unusual animal deposits, including an over-representation of dogs, ravens and horses. Some individuals appear to have been bound and may have been buried alive.[913] It seems likely that these individuals, whether prisoners, witches or social outcasts, were sacrificed to chthonic deities to ensure (or give thanks for) the fertility of the crops.