A cemetery of secrets
The Sunday Times Magazine, The Sunday Times, March 26, 2006
A Roman graveyard has been dug up in York. The skeletons all belonged to tall, strong men — and most are headless. Were they gladiators killed in the arena or victims of a deranged dictator? Richard Girling reports ...
And that's the header (and link) for the article on the skeletons from York. It's well worth a read. The actual printed magazine has some nice pix of the skeles and the excavations. But, the premise of the argument about it being early third century in date is possibly not corrrect; there is later material in some of the graves. The Timewatch programme is on in couple of weeks, but perhaps look out for an update in a few years, when all the results are fully analysed.
posted by Alex Bordessa @ Sunday, March 26, 2006
3 Comments:
There's probably a novel in there somewhere but the theories put forward in the article don't immediately appeal -- there must be another reason...
I'll be sure to see the Timewatch programme -- thanks for the heads up (or off, in this case).
Fascinating article, many thanks for the link. How much later is the later material you mention? - if confirmed, would it shift the date by a few years, or a few decades, or a century?
Some stuff is later - late 3rd pottery, late Roman, even a piece of Anglo-Saxon pottery. Suffice to say the decapitations are not a single event - some cut into other decapitation burials.
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