TOMB RAIDERS UNCOVER
ROMAN CEMETRY
Copyright 2005 www.tombraiderchronicles.com
[ April 15th 2005 ]
A team
of British archaeologists has uncovered yet more
remains thought to belong to an early Roman settlement
in York. The skeletons, numbering 50 adults and
7 children, are being excavated by the York Archaeological
Trust at a site in Driffield Terrace, reports
The
Yorkshire Post. Archaeologists are now confident
the bodies will provide perhaps the clearest indication
yet on the Roman attitude to death.
Experts
believe the Romans may have beheaded corpses to
release the human spirit, which they believed
was contained in the head. Mike Griffiths, a consultant
archaeologist for the developers, Shepherd Homes,
discovered the 57th body - the first his team
has unearthed. "The latest finds could prove to
be very important," he said. "The last time anything
was found on a similar scale was in the Victorian
times, but the finds were often not recorded correctly
and have been lost through the passage of time."
"These
skeletons could provide us with the clearest indication
yet as to how the Romans treated death and the
passage to the afterlife." Griffiths concludes.
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