Accessing Scotland's Past Project
Event ID 560613
Category Descriptive Accounts
Type Accessing Scotland's Past Project
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/560613
An assortment of human bones was unearthed in 1939 during road widening at a junction near Roxburgh Barns steading.
Members of the local archaeological society excavated at the site and, although many of the bones were disordered, they concluded that a number of bodies had been placed into a trench complete and had been disturbed at a later date. One almost complete skeleton offered a clue as to the nature of this discovery: its arms were behind the back as if the hands had been tied together above the wrists. It was claimed that several skulls showed marks compatible with axe or sword cuts.
One possibility explanation of this site is that it was a medieval execution site, or the burying place for the executed. If this were an execution site, it would have lain at the side of the road to the old burgh of Roxburgh and would have served as a grisly reminder to passers-by of the penalties for breaking the law.
Text prepared by RCAHMS as part of the Accessing Scotland's Past project
