By Mary Harrsch © 2025
I was surprised by this article I read in the New York Post by Ben Cost describing a recent archaeological find in an Iron Age cemetery of the Celtic Durotriges tribe in ancient Britain.
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| Teenaged female victim of Durotriges sacrifice found buried face down in a "deviant" burial Image courtesy of Bournemouth University |
I had read about the various Celtic tribes in Britain while studying Roman history and assumed the tribes considered matriarchal would not have engaged in ritual violence against women. Yet the discovery described in the Post article challenges the assumption that social systems centered around women were nonviolent or egalitarian.
Apparently, the team found the remains of a young female victim who had been bound and sustained injuries to her arms and upper body, indicating she had been brutalized before her death. She had then been buried facedown—a burial that would have been considered “deviant.”
I dug a little deeper and learned that the description of the Durotriges as a “matriarchal” society—where women owned land and men moved to their wives’ villages—is based on classical sources (like Roman historians) and some archaeological evidence (such as rich female burials). However, modern historians and archaeologists caution against seeing this as a true matriarchy in the sense of women holding all political power. A more accurate term might be matrilineal or matrifocal.
In a matrilineal culture, descent and inheritance are traced through the mother’s line. This would explain why land ownership was tied to women—it stayed within the mother’s clan. In a matrifocal culture, the family and household are centered around the mother. For example, a matrilineal society might trace inheritance through the mother’s kin group, while a matrifocal one—like some Mediterranean peasant communities—centers household authority on the mother even when property is nominally male-owned. In such a system, women could have high social and economic status, but it does not mean that all women were powerful or that violence against them was absent. Power was likely still concentrated within certain elite families, many ultimately controlled by males.
The key explanation for the violent sacrifice of a young female by the Durotriges is suggested by the lead archaeologist’s comment mentioned at the end of the article. He proposes that the victims “straddled the lower strata of society” and may have been “from elsewhere.”
Even in societies where elite women held power, there was still a social hierarchy. The victims of sacrifice might have been slaves or captives taken from other tribes, social outcasts including criminals or individuals who had broken sacred taboos, or simply the expendable—those from the lowest rungs of society whose lives were deemed necessary to offer to the gods for the community’s benefit (e.g., for a good harvest or to avert disaster).
Other examples of female ritual violence can be drawn from many other Celtic tribes in Britain as well. At Wetwang Slack, a young Parisi woman was found buried in a grain storage pit. She was placed on her side in a crouched position, which might seem respectful, but a large, sharp piece of bone (a goad) had been violently thrust through her body, piercing her lung and heart. This is strongly interpreted as a ritual killing—perhaps a dedicatory offering when the storage pit was first dug or last used.
Excavations at Danebury Hillfort, associated with the Atrebates, revealed burials of both sexes thrown into disused storage pits. The victims were bound, with no sign of traumatic injury, indicating the sacrificial nature of the deposit.
A pre-Catuvellauni sacrifice, dubbed the Goddess of Ivinghoe, was found at the bottom of a hillfort’s ritual shaft. She had been thrown in headfirst and was accompanied by ritually killed animals. Her death is interpreted as a foundation offering for the hillfort’s defenses.
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In 2023, archaeologists uncovered the skeleton of a young woman who had been placed facedown in a ditch in the territory of the Cornovii tribe. Her spine showed signs of a severe, chronic joint disease that would have caused a hunched posture and significant pain. The theory is that her physical difference may have marked her as an outcast or someone with a special (perhaps sinister) connection to the spirit world, leading to her being killed and buried in a “deviant” manner to prevent her spirit from rising.
These cases reveal several patterns that help explain why women were victims of this type of violence. In the ancient world, foundation offerings have been found across cultures. Burying an individual (male or female) in a grain storage pit, under a house post, or in a hillfort’s rampart was likely seen as a way to consecrate the site and ensure its success and fertility. The Wetwang Slack woman is a prime example.
Individuals deemed “different,” whether through physical disability, illness, social status (such as foreign slaves), or behavior (accused of witchcraft or breaking taboos), became potent scapegoats or offerings because of their “otherness.” The Cornovii woman and the “expendable” Durotriges victims fit this pattern.
In a worldview where death and fertility were closely linked, the killing of an individual (representing a life force) could be an offering to the gods to ensure the cycle of life, a good harvest, or the turning of the seasons. It’s vital to note that men were also frequent victims of ritual violence, often in even greater numbers. The difference lies in the potential reasons. While male victims are often linked to warfare and warrior cults, female victims are more frequently interpreted in the context of fertility, earth deities, and domestic rituals (such as the dedication of a storage pit).
Evidence from ancient Gaul (modern France, Belgium, Luxembourg, and parts of Switzerland, Italy, and Germany) provides some of the most compelling and well-documented cases of ritual violence against women in the Celtic world. The classical sources on Gaul paint a picture of a staunchly patriarchal warrior society.
At Ribemont-sur-Ancre (Somme), a site often associated with the Ambiani tribe but likely used by a broader confederation of the Pictones or Santones, a vast open-air sanctuary was found containing the remains of hundreds of young warriors, arranged in a “bone house” where their corpses were left to be defleshed by the elements—a clear war trophy dedicated to a warrior god. Crucially, nearby, archaeologists found a separate enclosure containing the skeletons of at least six women. They showed no signs of battle trauma but had been executed, likely by strangulation or throat-cutting. Their bodies were then left exposed in the same manner as the warriors.
At the Arverni site of Gournay-sur-Aronde (Oise), another major nemeton (sacred sanctuary) similar to Ribemont, among the human remains, skeletons of women have also been found. While the emphasis was on male warriors, the presence of female victims indicates they were part of the ritual spectrum.
There was also a case of female ritual sacrifice discovered among the dynastic burials at Heuneburg (Germany). While technically in the area of the early La Tène culture that influenced Gaul, a stunning discovery was made in a lavish burial mound near the Heuneburg hillfort: a high-status princess buried on a bronze couch. However, in an adjacent chamber, the skeleton of a young girl (around six or seven years old) was found. She showed no signs of disease or trauma, leading to the strong conclusion that she was a retainer sacrifice, killed to accompany the princess into the afterlife.
Unlike some of the Celtic tribes of Iron Age Britain, inheritance and lineage in Gaul were traced through the father. While Celtic women in Gaul are noted to have had more freedom and legal rights than their Roman counterparts (they could own property and engage in trade), they did not hold systemic political power. The famous story of Boudica is from Britain, not Gaul, and was seen as an exception born of crisis. So, in the patriarchal context of Gaul, the ritual killing of women makes a different kind of sense, aligning with the themes of a warrior culture. Destroying the enemy’s warriors was one thing; but by also sacrificing their women, the victors were symbolically destroying the enemy’s future—their ability to reproduce and continue their lineage.
Celtic societies in Britain, even with a notable capacity for women to hold power—especially as queens (e.g., Boudica of the Iceni, Cartimandua of the Brigantes)—were still generally patriarchal. A woman from a powerful royal family, with a combination of lineage and personal achievement, could inherit power and rule, much like a man. But for the most part, all were fundamentally patriarchal, where acts of ritual violence were part of a religious and social system controlled by a male-dominated elite.
The archaeological record reminds us that reverence and violence often coexisted in ancient ritual. Even societies that celebrated female fertility and lineage could sanction the ritual destruction of women’s bodies—offered as vessels of renewal or scapegoats of misfortune. The paradox is not unique to the Celts; it speaks to a deeper human tension between power and sacrifice.
References:
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and genomic research. Bournemouth University.
https://www.bournemouth.ac.uk/research/projects/durotriges-project
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