Caves of death: Caverns littered with corpses & children's' heads found in remote Scotland

A NETWORK of remote caves where people were 'sacrificed' and children's heads gruesomely displayed on poles has been uncovered by archaeologists, Express.co.uk can exclusively reveal.
The macabre shrines to the dead were based at the remote site at Moray Firth in north-eastern Scotland.

Human sacrifices are also said to have taken place at the caves, which are so cut off they can only be accessed from land at low tide or by climbing down a sheer cliff face.

New evidence also suggests the caverns, which have stone carvings of leaping salmon, broken spears and other symbols of the Celtic Pict tribe, may have been in constant use from as long ago as Neolithic times.

The main area to have been recently investigated is called the Sculptor's Cave, which is accessed by a mile-long shingle beach at high tide.

Radiocarbon dating found an array of dismembered body parts, including children's heads, were left there more than 3,200 years ago in the late Bronze Age from 12,000 BC.

At that time it is believed the cave was used as a supernatural place where the dead would decay and pass from one world to another, rather than a place of murder.
It is believed children's heads were cut off once dead and placed on poles in the entrance as a sign of reverence rather than a warning.

High-value personal possessions, including amber beads, precious material, hair rings and bronze rings were also found, and are thought to have been part of the grisly displays.

But more recent skulls, dated to 200 to 400AD, showed signs they have been severed, indicating human sacrifice took place in the caves.
www.express.co.uk...

So the Caves of dead children were used over a very long period of time ,some involved sacrifice some did not depending on the era, what striking though if i am reading this right is the sacrificed ones were dated from a later and presumably more civilized period, please klik the link for some astounding but morbid pics and more info.

originally posted by: Spider879

But more recent skulls, dated to 200 to 400AD, showed signs they have been severed, indicating human sacrifice took place in the caves.

So the Caves of dead children were used over a very long period of time ,some involved sacrifice some did not depending on the era, what striking though if i am reading this right is the sacrificed ones were dated from a later and presumably more civilized period, please klik the link for some astounding but morbid pics and more info.

I didn't think that sacrifice or ritual killing would be attributed to very early cave dwellers, the thinking is that the cave dwellers looked after one another.

You can find a 40 page excavation report here
PDF Sculptors cave

SAWNEY BEAN! Run away!

The site was excavated, studied in detail by Benton (1931) (marduk's pdf above, is the report)& Shepherd (2007).

But when some newspaper tries to make it a breaking news kind of thingy , as if it was discovered just a week ago, it doesn't go down well.