Who killed the hill fort nine? Mystery find shakes our iron age assumptions

Gruesome discoveries in Peak District dig challenge accepted wisdom about 'peaceful' life in ancient Britain.

Fond hopes that ancient Britain enjoyed a golden age of peace before Roman and other invasions have been shaken by a gruesome discovery in a Derbyshire hill fort's defensive ditch.

For the first time in the UK, archaeologists have found carelessly-buried iron age skeletons which suggest a selective massacre of women and children.

The tumble of scattered bones has come as a surprise to those taking part in one of the biggest community digs in recent British archaeology.

More than 400 schoolchildren joined specialist archaeologists and local volunteers to research Fin Cop in the Peak District, which dates from between 440BC and 390BC.

The finds include the skeleton of a pregnant woman crushed beneath a collapsed stone wall, one of a number of defences which appear to have been built hastily before some kind of catastrophe.

The remains of a teenage boy were discovered huddled at the bottom of the ditch, along with seven more skeletons, all women or children....