Archaeologists left baffled after bizarre discovery in rare Medieval cemetery
Archaeologists have been left utterly baffled after making a bizarre discovery in the form of a rare Medieval cemetery in the UK.
Some of the well preserved skeletons in the cemetery in Cardiff, Wales have been found lying in unusual positions, leaving the experts scratching their heads.
Unexpected artefacts are also emerging from the site, with the comprehensive dig beginning to unearth some answers about the local community.
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However, it is also raising a lot of questions that archaeologists currently do not have the answers to.
The digging has taken place over two summers in the grounds of Fonmon Castle, close to the end of the runway at Cardiff airport.
A team of experts have been removing the thin layer of topsoil to allow access to the graves that were carved into the bedrock many years ago.
Despite being around 1,500 years old, Summer Courts, an osteoarchaeologist from the University of Reading, has said the skeletons are in a good condition.
"We have some teeth that are very worn in a kind of a funny way that might indicate the use of teeth as tools," she said, as per the BBC. "Maybe for textile work, leather work or basketry - they're pulling something through their front teeth."
Dr Andy Seaman, an archaeologist from the University of Cardiff and the man leading the dig, told the MailOnline that his team have 'only just scratched the surface of the site'.
"There's much greater variability within the burial rite than we would expect," he said.
"For instance, a cemetery in Somerset of a similar period has got 400 burials and two of them are crouched. We've so far excavated 18 and four of ours are crouched."
Not only is the way the skeletons being positioned left the experts baffled, but also the fact one burial being placed with a 'large quantity of stone' above them.
"Clearly, some individuals are being marked out as in some way different," such findings make archaeologists think people of high importance could have been buried at the site.
"We tend to think of the West of Britain as the Celtic Fringe but it is anything but, it was fully a part of the wider post-Roman world," Dr Seaman added to the MailOnline.
"The presence of the important pottery and glass suggests activity of some status and significance."
More evidence could be on the way to determine the importance of the site, as Dr Seaman concluded: "The cemetery is enclosed by a series of ditches which might well suggest that there's something more going on here.
"This is already evident from the animal bones and evidence of feasting, eating, and drinking taking place there."
Callum Jones