Archaeologists Find Grisly Evidence of Medieval Public Punishment

Archaeologists in England have uncovered gruesome evidence of a Medieval-era public punishment which occurred along the River Thames more than 1,200 years ago, according to a new study (via Ancient Origins).

Researchers conducted a full bioarchaeological analysis on the remains of a woman, known as UPT90 sk 1278, who had been beaten to death and was originally unearthed in 1991.

“The burial treatment of UPT90 sk 1278 lets us know that her body was meant to be visible on the landscape, which could be interpreted as a warning to witnesses,” said the study’s lead author, Madeline Mant. “We can tell from the osteobiography that she was executed, but the specific offense is impossible to know for certain.”

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Mant and her team found that, as opposed to traditional burials of the time, the woman’s body was not buried but left out in the open to decompose, likely as a warning to other residents of the community. Her body was placed in an area between the river and the shore, which would ensure her corpse would be alternately revealed and hidden by the tides. This was a location frequently chosen for those found to be “socially deviant.” She had been placed between two sheets of bark on top of a reed mat with pads of moss affixed to areas on her face, which Mant believed to be symbolic gestures from her peers.

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The analysis revealed the woman, aged between 28 and 40 at the time of her death, had suffered “dietary distress” at some point in her life, which the researchers believe to be related to childhood starvation or a drastic shift in diet. There were also signs that she had suffered as many as 50 “traumatic” injuries during two instances of violence which preceded her death, leaving her with blunt-force injuries to the torso and skull as well as a bilateral scapular fracture, which is often seen in car accident victims.

Mant believes the woman endured a particularly grisly death because rules surrounding crime and punishment were extremely nebulous during this period. “As time passed, more crimes were associated with the death penalty,” she explained. “This was a time of legal evolution.”

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Archaeologists Find Grisly Evidence of Medieval Public Punishment first appeared on Men’s Journal on Jun 7, 2025