as well as the postholes of a probable doublepost gallows (Figure 14). Some
of the dead had been buried face down, two were kneeling, and some had been
beheaded. A kneeling burial was also found at Hinchingbrooke near
Huntingdon, facedown in a pit. Another execution victim was found at
Stonehenge, and has been dated to somewhere around the end of the sixth
century. This man, aged between thirty and forty, had been beheaded. Like
other sites, Stonehenge lies on a hundred boundary, and other burials found
there may also have been execution victims. Graves of execution victims are
sometimes multiple–two or three together. One pit was probably dug to take
the bodies of several individuals executed on the same day. Graves were not
always oriented east─west like normal Christian burials, but were dug at all
sorts of angles, often in a ring around the central gallows.^3
The Guildown cemetery in Surrey near Guildford may hold the evidence
for a particularly famous case of murder, which took place in 1035. At this
time, king Canute (or Cnut), a Dane who had seized the throne of England in
1016, died. There was an immediate attempt by the descendants of the Anglo
Saxon kings to retake the crown. Alfred Aetheling, the heir presumptive,
landed in England with some Norman mercenaries. The AngloSaxon
Chronicle records the events that followed. Alfred was trying to reach
London, but as he approached Guildford, he was met by Earl Godwin of
DARK AGE CRIMESFigure 14. Sutton Hoo sand body