Archaeologists discover man whose tongue was replaced by a stone

Roman British skeleton found buried face down in Northamptonshire has tongue mutilation seemingly unique for the period

A gruesome and seemingly unique mutilation has emerged from a Roman Britain burial site in Northamptonshire - the skeleton of a man whose tongue had apparently been amputated and replaced with a flat stone wedged into his mouth.

The man had been interred face down, perhaps amid fears that his corpse would rise to threaten people once again, archaeologists believe.