PAULJAMIESON•YouTube•UNIVERSITYofBRADFORD Scientists have discovered a complex of mortuary caves in remote Scotland

The grisly shrines to the dead were uncovered at the remote site near Lossiemouth on the Moray Firth in north-eastern Scotland. Human sacrifices are said to have taken place at the caves, which are so cut-off they can only be accessed from land at low tide or by climbing down a sheer cliff face. New evidence also suggests the caverns, which have stone carvings of leaping salmon, broken spears and other symbols of the Celtic Pict tribe, may have been in constant use from as long ago as Neolithic times. The main area to have been investigated is called the Sculptor's Cave, at Lossiemouth, which is accessed by a mile-long shingle beach at low tide. Radiocarbon dating found mass of dismembered body parts, including children's heads, which were left there more than 3,200 years ago in the late Bronze Age from 1,200 BC. At that time it is believed the cave was used as a supernatural place where the dead would decay and pass from one world to another, rather than a place of human sacrifice.

PAULJAMIESON•YouTube Children's heads are believed to have been left on poles in the cave entrance

PAULJAMIESON•YouTube The desolate coast where the caves are located

Bizarrely, researchers believe children's heads were cut off post mortem and placed on poles in the entrance as a sign of reverence rather than a warning.High-value personal possessions, including amber beads, precious material, hair rings and bronze rings were also found, and are thought to have been part of the grisly displays.However more recent skulls, dated to 200 to 400AD, showed signs they had been violently severed, indicating human sacrifice took place in the caves.Professor Ian Armit, of the school of archaeological sciences at the University of Bradford who was part of the excavation team, said: "What really sets Sculptor's Cave apart from other archaeological sites in Britain is the disarticulated human remains. We found 1,800 disarticulated bone fragments there at least."We could start to tell from the list of parts of bodies left in the cave that they were not representative of what you expect."There were lots of extremities - finger bones to bones from the foot. It suggests the bodies were brought in intact."The team has deduced that corpses were brought to the cave to be dismembered and parts such as heads were displayed on poles as some sort of shrine.It is believed as part of a funerary process bodies were not burned or buried, but laid out in the cave to decay, as it was remote enough to protect the rotting corpses from wild animals and birds.

UNIVERSITYofBRADFORD Bones found by the archaeologists include parts of the sacrificed men and Stone-Age mandible (right)

UNIVERSITYofBRADFORD Some of the Bronze-Age personal possessions found in the cav

Mr Armit added: "But complete bodies were not left to remain. Skulls, and long bone fragments like arms and legs were hugely under represented among the bones." "Certain parts were removed and you can start to see some sort of complex burial and funerary process that is very rarely seen as part of archaeology." They have managed to conclude they have the parts of a minimum of 28 individual people's bones from Sculptor's Cave - but probably "a much larger number were buried there" Mr Armit said: "In the entrance passage were bones from heads, mandibles and crania, all which belonged to young individuals aged from two. "There were eight or nine remains of children's heads and also pieces of hair rings. "We believe they would have been there for some sort of display of human remains at the entrance passage to the cave.

UNIVERSITYofBRADFORD This image shows where was excavated in Sculptor's Cave

"So you would have preserved human heads with finery hair rings displayed at the entrance disintegrating. "Quite a disturbing and striking image. The mandibles had probably rotted off and fallen where they were." But the scientists found no evidence of violence, in the case of these children, and believe the macabre body mutilation would have been seen as a sign of reverence. Mr Armit said: "There is no evidence of violence in the late bronze-age material - no suggestion this was head hunting or trophy taking. "They were letting dead the dead decay to be absorbed back to the earth and removing some bones for other purposes. "It is a very, very alien kind of treatment of the dead we are not used to or comfortable with, but it is confirmed with other ethnographic discoveries. "On the floor of the entrance passage there were a lot of stake holes."

PAULJAMIESON•YouTube Modern-day visitors appear to leave bones and other items in some sort of eerie nod to the occult

PAULJAMIESON•YouTube Other items left there include bundles of sticks tied up, often used in witchcraft

"One possibility is the entrance was blocked and bodies protected, sealed off from the outside world, or it was the footing of some form of structure on which the bodies were allowed to decay." Some of the child skulls had abrasion marks - a sign they may have been polished - as part of the display Mr Armit said: "In the late Bronze Age it was a secondary funerary treatment seen as reverential and caring and intended to facilitate transition from life into death. "The cave was obviously a natural place to act as a conduit between the living and dead." Example of bodies dated to between 200 and 400AD - the Roman Iron Age - have also been found, which suggest a much more sinister use in later years. Among a haul of tweezers, coins fake Roman coins from the time, and hair pins, thought to have been deliberately left as offerings to Gods, were remains of six decapitated people. Mr Armit said: "The cervical vertebra upper bone in the necks of all of them have got cut marks indicating decapitation. "Six individuals had their heads violently removed in the cave itself. "Unless the individual bodies were brought to the cave, it is more likely, these individuals were executed in the cave.

UNIVERSITYofBRADFORD Pict carvings found in the Sculptor's Cave

UNIVERSITYofBRADFORD Archaeologists carry out surveys inside Sculptor's Cave

There was some evidence of pre-mortal trauma injuries around the time of death. A cranial blunt-force injury, either a fall or bash around head. Professor Ian Armit

"They possibly died at once and it may have been an event. "By the consistent way it was done, with, in some cases 11 cut marks in each vertebrae, it indicates a brutal and deliberate act. "All were attacked in the same way - assaulted from behind with their chin held down to the chest, so more than one person was involved in their execution. "In a cave that already has more than 1,000 years of funerary activity, it could have been a sacrifice, not just military or political. It was heavily ritualised and potentially witnessed by a great many people." Sculptor's Cave was investigated in the 1920s, when several bones were removed, and later in the 1970s, but this is the first time any have been radiocarbon dated. In the first instance many of the bones were thrown away and the team believes it has found them in a spoil pit near the entrance which it continues to excavate after finding 120 bone fragments there already. Part of a spine found in the pit has suggested another violent death during the Roman Iron Age due to a distinctive spinal fracture believed to have happened when the person was alive. They have also now found two more caves housing bones.

GETTY Illustration of Pict warriors from the Bronze Age

UNIVERSITYofBRADFORD The team getting down to Sculptor's Cave during one of the expeditions

The first is currently impossible to access after a landslide, but they hope to get in at some point. They know bones were found there as museum records show items were brought in from there in the 1960s. A mandible found there has now been dated as far back as 2278 to 2027BC - indicating it was used further back during the Stone Age. A third cave has been visited where a lot of bones were found, including many from the late Bronze Age in a similar condition to those in Sculptor's Cave. But, whereas the former contained mostly extremities, this other cave included more heads and fewer smaller body parts. The remains included more evidence of violent death.

UNIVERSITYofBRADFORD An Iron-Age pin found among bone fragments in the third cave

JONAUSTIN Professor Ian Armit reveals details of the finds at the British Science Festival at his university