Another facial reconstruction....and the most disturbing back story

[Imperial Dave]

http://www.pasthorizonspr.com/index.php/archives/02/2017/facial-reconstruction-of-pictish-man-brutally-murdered-1400-years-ago

Superb reconstruction but its the back story that got my attention

[Patrick Waterson]

A blow to each side of the face with a heavy stick or cudgel followed by a coup de grace delivered with extreme prejudice ... do you get the impression someone did not like him?

[Imperial Dave]

extremely violent and premeditated even for that period in history.....very graphic reconstruction

[Erpingham]

A blow to each side of the face with a heavy stick or cudgel followed by a coup de grace delivered with extreme prejudice ... do you get the impression someone did not like him?

What the weapon was is an interesting question if the fourth blow with it "was driven through his skull from one side and out the other as he lay on the ground." 

[Patrick Waterson]

What the weapon was is an interesting question if the fourth blow with it "was driven through his skull from one side and out the other as he lay on the ground." 

Yes, I too had a hard time envisaging this particular blow as a sideways stroke from a heavy stick.  If however the writer means the end of a quarterstaff smashed through from one side of the head to the other while the victim lay on the ground with head to one side following the fall, that might bring it within the realm of possibilities.

[Imperial Dave]

although an even more intriguing question is....why the fifth blow if the 4th was so...erm.....devastating?!

[Patrick Waterson]

Perhaps some people just do not know when to stop ...

[Imperial Dave]

the ancient equivalent of 'getting your gun off' ? 

[Patrick Waterson]

Accidental discharge, maybe.

The fifth wound was inflicted "where a hole, larger than that caused by the previous weapon, was made in the top of the skull."  We might conjecture that a club or cudgel was used for this, but a 'golfer's swipe' with a quarterstaff against the crown of the head of the recumbent now-corpse could have done it.