Germanic Human Sacrifice

[Jona Lendering]

According to a news item I read today (in Dutch), German archaeologists have found a human skull that had been fixed to a doorpost with a big nail. The archaeologists found it at Kobern-Gondorf near Koblenz, and say it probably was a Roman legionary. The press release says: 55-53, so it may have been one of Caesar's men. Did anyone read more about this?

[Sascha]

http://www.merkur-online.de/weltspiegel/art8915,957219

(German)
This article reference it to an Celtic village.

8)

[M. Demetrius]

Would the various bog people be considered in the category of "human sacrifice"? Sure looks like a sacrificial offering to some deity or other...they were fed, triple killed and thrown in the swampy mire.

Or maybe they were just executed for some crime or other. :?:

[Jona Lendering]

Would the various bog people be considered in the category of "human sacrifice"?

According to Tacitus, yes. But it would be reassuring (if that is the word when we are discussing a human's violent death) if we would know that this or that bog was also recognized as a sacred place. For instance, if we found one of those wooden idols (like these ones) near the body.

[Ironhand]

I agree. A little too much supposition without actual evidence for my tastes.

[Sardaukar]

Would the various bog people be considered in the category of "human sacrifice"? Sure looks like a sacrificial offering to some deity or other...they were fed, triple killed and thrown in the swampy mire.

Or maybe they were just executed for some crime or other. :?:

Maybe people that time just had soft spot for them...(sorry, could not resist little joke relating to bog)

[M. Demetrius]

Good one! :lol: :roll:

[Wander]

I won't repeat the "soft spot" pun, at the risk of the conversation getting bogged down.

By the way, wouldn't a modern execution of a criminal look a lot like a human sacrifice? Ritual last meal, for instance?

Of course, we have a lot of records for everything, but that mention that it might be an execution got me thinking.

[M. Demetrius]

One thing about it, they were making sure! Some have their heads cracked open, were strangled (some with cords still tied on) and their throats cut deeply enough to sever the jugular and/or carotid. Any one of those would do the trick, odds are.

So for whatever reason, they wanted those people dead even before they threw them into a "grave" from which it would be unlikely someone could swim away from even if their hands weren't tied...some were. Man. Give me the head bash first, so I don't know about the rest, please, if that's the way I'm going out. :?

[Sascha]

This one (available in english too) is a good book:
http://www.amazon.com/Menschenopfer-Mir ... 394&sr=8-2