Vikings Buried Headless Slaves With Owners

Sleuthing archeologists think they've figured out a grisly characteristic of the Vikings: They buried slaves with their owners—after chopping off the servants' heads. As USA Today explains, the theory comes from a gravesite dating back about 1,200 years on an island off the Norwegian Sea. Some of the bodies still had their skulls, and tests of their remains show that these people ate diets rich in beef and milk. Other bodies were headless, and those folks apparently ate what they could scavenge from the sea.

"It must've been a rough society," says the University of Oslo scientist who led the study. "I often think I'm grateful that I didn't live in that time myself." (More archeology stories.)