sourceArchaeologists discovered a rare Roman limestone sarcophagus containing a headless skeleton at the site of a historic London church, authorities said Friday.
The find dates to about 410 A.D. and lay 10 feet below the
grounds of the St. Martin-in-the-Fields church near central
London's busy Trafalgar Square, outside the boundaries researchers
had established for London's Roman city walls."The find has opened up an exciting new area of Roman London
for study," said Taryn Nixon, director of the Museum of London
Archaeology Service.Excavators and archaeological teams discovered 24 medieval
burial sites in the area above and around the Roman sarcophagus
during work on the church grounds this summer. The discovery lies
in view of the National Gallery art museum and the square, which is
often congested with tourists.The sarcophagus was made from a single piece of limestone from
Oxfordshire or Northamptonshire, about 60 miles northwest of
London, researchers said. The skeleton, headless and missing
fingers, is a 5-foot-6-inch male who died in his 40s. Researchers
speculated that Victorian workmen building a sewer stumbled upon
the sarcophagus and took the head.The site is about a mile west of the boundary of Roman London
established by researchers, said Roman history expert Hedley Swain.Archaeologists made two similar finds in London during the 1970s
and once at Westminster Abbey during the 19th century.
Tags: skeleton | Site | SARCOPHAGUS | rare | limestone | historic | headless | grounds | discovered | containing | church | authorities | Year-Old | roman | London | COFFIN | archaeology
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