50 Roman Slaves Found Buried with Care at Roman villa in London

A burial ground for Roman slaves has been found near what was once a great ancient British villa. Many of the graves are very unusual and offer a glimpse of Rome ‘s impact on the culture and beliefs of the local Briton. This discovery also helps researchers understand better the existence of slavery in Roman Britain.

In Somerton, Somerset, southwestern England the cemetery was found. The site was uncovered by workers during the construction of a new school. They alerted the authorities concerned and the South West Heritage Trust investigated it.

Researchers found that it was a Romano-British cemetery dating back to the first century A.D. centered on the discovery of the fragments of pottery and coins. It was located near the outskirts of a large villa while in the city.

Strange Burials

Altogether, approximately fifty Roman slave tombs were discovered and they varied considerably from the burial practices before the invasion. The deceased were placed in the ground with great care, in graves that were capped and sealed with slabs.

In one burial, these slabs were used to create a box-like feature, known as a cist, in which the dead person was placed before being buried. Steve Membery, who works with the South West Heritage Trust and who took part in the dig, told The Guardian that “they’ve actually built these graves. There’s been a lot of more care taken over these.”

At first, the archaeologists believed that the dead were members of the local elite. This was on account of the great care taken over their burial and the fact that the cemetery was once near a villa complex. Moreover, the presence of grave goods, such as a coin from the reign of Emperor Vespasian would suggest that they were affluent during their lives.

It was initially assumed that the dead came from the villa and were members of the local Celtic population who had been Romanized.

The Graves of 50 Roman Slaves

Now it is believed that all of those buried in the cemetery were members of the lowest class. Membery, a historic environmental officer with the trust, told Live Science that “we are very confident that all the burials are people who worked on a Roman villa estate.”

They were almost certainly agricultural workers who labored on the estate of the villa owners.  Some more may have been domestic servants in the villa.

The exact status of the dead is not known, but it is unlikely that they were paid for their work. Membery explained that “many may have technically been slaves,” according to BBC .

While others may have been dependent on their masters who lived in the villa and who had a status that was only a little better than that of slavery. In the Roman Empire , slavery was pervasive, and it took many forms and had different characteristics.

Insights into Ancient Roman Slavery

The fact that agricultural laborers and servants were buried with care and even grave goods, may tell researchers much about their lives. Clearly some people, possibly their family members, went to great efforts to see that they were given a decent burial.

Additionally, the grave goods found with some of them, indicate that the slaves may even have been able to accumulate personal wealth.

Some very small nails were found in a number of the graves. These are believed to have come from hobnailed boots, which long ago decayed in the earth. These boots would have been needed by slaves and others when working in the fields. This could indicate that, if as believed they were Roman slaves, their masters provided them with footwear and clothing.

A local representative Councilor Faye Purbrick told The Guardian that “we will be able to understand so much more about the lives of Roman people in Somerton thanks to these discoveries.”

The cemetery is providing researchers with a unique insight into the lives of Roman slaves. These discoveries reveal that their conditions may have been better than often assumed. All the retrieved artifacts from the Somerton site are going to be the subject of further scientific analysis.

Dorset’s Viking mass grave skeletons on display in London

Some of the skeletons have now gone on display at the British Museum in London.

At the time, archaeologists from Oxford Archaeology said it was one of the “most exciting and disturbing” archaeological discoveries in Britain in recent years.

Subsequent scientific analysis of the skeletons concluded that it was a mass grave of executed Vikings.

The excavation combined traditional archaeological methods with “revolutionary” digital and three-dimensional recording to identify the exact position of each individual.

The skeletons were removed and experts undertook forensic laboratory-based studies to find out what circumstances led to their dramatic and gruesome demise.

Oxford Archaeology said the results suggested the burial took place at the time of, or shortly after, the men’s execution which had probably been performed at the graveside.

They estimated that between 47 and 52 individuals were present.

The men may have been stripped of their clothes prior to burial, but were unbound.

Archaeologists said defence wounds on the hands, arms and skulls imply that not all men died without a struggle.

Wounds to necks and shoulders indicate that the process of decapitation was no less chaotic, and in some cases several blows of the sword were required to remove the heads.

This picture slows a clean cut through the jaw of one of the skeletons.

Most of the men were found to be 18-25 years old. The youngest was in his early or mid teens, while the oldest was over 50.

One had “deliberately filed teeth”, which Oxford Archaeology said may have been a symbol of status or occupation.

Chemical analysis of the teeth suggested that none of the men were from anywhere in Britain, but that they originated in the Arctic and sub-Arctic regions of Norway, Sweden, Iceland, the Baltic States, Belarus and Russia.

Oxford Archaeology project manager David Score said: “To find out that the young men executed were Vikings is a thrilling development.

“Any mass grave is a relatively rare find, but to find one on this scale, from this period of history, is extremely unusual.”

Many of the individuals suffered from infections and physical impairment, and none showed convincing evidence for previous war wounds – hardly the picture of an elite group of Viking warriors.

The burial was radiocarbon dated to AD 970-1025, which places it in the reign of Aethelred the Unready or Cnut the Great.

This was a time in England of Viking raids, war, hostages and retribution, but experts admit that ultimately questions of how the men came to be in Dorset remain open.

Experts said this picture shows sharp force peri-mortem trauma one some of the bones.

Elements of the exhibition, including the skeletons, will then move to the Museum of Prehistory and Early History in Berlin from September to January .

The remains will then return to Dorset and go on show at the county museum, where they will form the centrepiece of its newly refurbished £350,000 Ancient Dorset gallery of archaeology.

Archaeologists crack mystery of London’s lost Black Death graves

Archaeologists in Britain said on they had solved a 660-year-old mystery, citing DNA tests which they said proved they had found a lost burial site for tens of thousands of people killed in medieval London by the “Black Death” plague.

The breakthrough follows the discovery last year of 13 skeletons wrapped in shrouds laid out in neat rows during excavations for London’s new Crossrail rail line, Europe’s biggest infrastructure project.

Archaeologists, who say the find sheds new light on medieval England and its inhabitants, later found 12 more skeletons taking the total to 25. They will further excavate the site in July to see if more bodies are buried nearby.

Last year, they said the remains probably belonged to victims of the plague, which killed about a third of England’s population following its outbreak in 1348. Limited records suggest up to 50,000 victims were buried in the cemetery in London’s Farringdon district, one of two emergency burial sites.

On , they said DNA testing of some of the skeletons’ teeth had uncovered traces of the Yersinia pestis bacterium, which was responsible for the Black Death plague, confirming that theory.

“Analysis of the Crossrail find has revealed an extraordinary amount of information allowing us to solve a 660 year mystery,” said Jay Carver, Crossrail’s lead archaeologist.

“This discovery is a hugely important step forward in documenting and understanding Europe’s most devastating pandemic,” he added. “Until Crossrail’s discovery, archaeologists had been unable to confirm the story.

Some of the victims had been buried in 1348-50, and others in the early to mid 1400s, carbon dating showed.

Testing of the remains showed that 13 of the skeletons were male, three female, and two children. The gender was undetermined in the other seven skeletons.

It also revealed information about their lives. Many had serious spinal damage, suggesting they had carried out heavy manual labor. Some had injuries to their upper bodies consistent with being involved in violent altercations.

One of the victims had also been a vegetarian; many had suffered from malnutrition. Experts said 40 percent of them had grown up outside London, possibly as far north as Scotland, showing that 14th century London attracted people from across the country, just like the British capital .

Crossrail’s Carver said the find had relevance for modern disease research.

“What’s really exciting is the bringing together of many different lines of evidence to create a picture of such a devastating world event as the Black Death,” he said.

“Historians, archaeologists, micro-biologists, and physicists are all working together to chart the origins and development of one of the world’s worst endemic diseases and help  researchers in ancient and modern diseases better understand the evolution of these bacteria.”

Crossrail is a 15 billion pound ($24.96 billion) railway link connecting east and west London.