Excavations at Knobb's Farm, Somersham, Cambridgeshire, uncovered three small late Roman cemeteries, positioned at the edge of a farming settlement. The 52 burials found included 17 decapitated bodies and 13 prone burials – far higher than the British average. In two cases, cut marks show decapitation to have been the mechanism of death, and cuts on two other bodies indicate they experienced extreme violence. We conclude that the decapitations were the result of judicial execution. The significance of the prone burials is less clear, but it is demonstrably related to decapitation. Supplementary material is available online (https://doi.org/10.1017/S0068113X21000064) and comprises a detailed osteological report and skeleton catalogue, specialist reports, DNA and isotopic analyses, and a complete description of the settlement's development.

Archaeological and cultural heritage is always at risk of damage and destruction in areas of conflict. Despite legislation to protect sites and minimise the impact of war or civil unrest, much archaeological data is still being lost, not least in the Middle East. Careful research design and methodological recording strategies tailored to sites destroyed by conflict or looting can, however, provide much more information than previously imagined. This is illustrated by a case study focusing on the Roman settlement and temples at Hosn Niha in the Biqaʾ Valley, which were severely damaged in the 1980s during the Lebanese Civil War. Sufficient information was recovered to reconstruct many details, including the chronology and development of the site.