After a first century B.C. visit to Britain, the Romans came back with horrific stories of sacrifice by high-ranking priests of the Celts.
First-century historian Pliny the Elder even suggested that the Celts practiced ritual cannibalism, eating their enemies' flesh as a source of spiritual and physical strength.
Now, according to a report in National Geographic News, recent gruesome finds appear to confirm the Romans' accounts.
One of the most incriminating evidence is the 2,000-year-old, bog-mummified body of Lindow Man, discovered in England in the
1980s.Lindow Man's manicured fingernails and finely trimmed hair and beard suggest that he may have been of high status-possibly even a Druid himself, who was the victim of a carefully staged sacrifice.
Recent studies have revealed that Lindow Man's head had been violently smashed and his neck had been strangled and slashed.
Another clue lay inside the body's well-preserved gut: pollen grains from mistletoe, a plant that was sacred to the Druids.
Lindow Man may have been sacrificed to persuade the Celtic gods to halt the Roman advance, according to Aldhouse-Green. [Their idols are silver and gold, the work of men's hands. They have mouths, but they speak not: eyes have they, but they see not: They have ears, but they hear not: noses have they, but they smell not: They have hands, but they handle not: feet have they, but they walk not: neither speak they through their throat. They that make them are like unto them; so is every one that trusteth in them. Psalm 115:4-8]
Other grisly clues come from a cave in Alveston, England.Skeletons belonging to as many as 150 people and dating back to about the time of the Roman conquest were discovered there in 2000.
Druids may have killed the victims, who show evidence of skull-splitting blows, in a single event. It may have been the Roman invasion itself that escalated the Druids' ritualized slaughter, according to the researchers .....Professor Horton continued: "In the middle, there is marrow. The way to extract the marrow is to split it with a chisel...into two halves, and then you have the marrow". He explained cannibalism is the "inescapable conclusion".....
According to archaeologist Simon James of the University of Leicester, UK, "There has always been a suspicion that what the Romans were saying was atrocity propaganda. But, some recent finds like Lindow Man suggest that there were dark and bloody goings-on."
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