Romano-Saxon Site Found in England

Roundhouses of the Iron Age, Roman burials and Saxon pottery were found in a “hugely important and hitherto unknown settlement”.

In Warboys, Cambridgeshire, the seven-month dig also revealed “a rare example ” of “early Saxon occupation mixed with the recent Roman remains.”

Archaeologist Stephen Macaulay said: “We almost never find actual physical evidence of this.” The settlement reverted to agricultural use after the 7th Century.

“What makes this site really significant is we have evidence of early Saxon occupation mingled with the latest Roman remains,” said Mr. Macaulay, deputy regional manager for Oxford Archaeology East.

Saxon pottery, beads, worked antler and metalworking residues were uncovered.

He added: “This a rare example of the Roman to Saxon transition in the east of England.”

The earliest finds include eight roundhouses, some of which date back to about 100BC, three crouched human burials and 2,500-year-old pottery remains.

The 10-acre (four-hectare) site provided evidence of Roman rural industry, including a 15ft (4.6m) corn dryer and kilns.

Archaeologists uncovered human cremations and six burials.

They also “seem to have stumbled upon a shrine” and discovered cattle skulls and a largely intact horse skeleton, which they believe could be votive offerings.

The site was excavated ahead of a housing development by Bellway Homes.

An initial evaluation in May last year revealed extensive Roman remains, but the Iron Age settlement was not revealed until the main excavation began later that year.

Mr. Macauley said the dig has uncovered “a hugely important and a hitherto unknown settlement”.

Well-Preserved Roman Eagle Unearthed In London

Archaeologists have discovered an extraordinary Roman sculpture in the form of an eagle firmly grasping a writhing serpent in its beak.

Working on a site in the City of London, ahead of development of a 16 storey 291 bed hotel by Scottish Widows Investment Partnership (SWIP) and its development partners Endurance Land, the team from MOLA were at first hesitant to announce the discovery and to proclaim its Roman origins, owing to its almost unbelievable preservation.

A symbol of immortality and power, it was carefully preserved when the aristocratic tomb it decorated was smashed up more than 1,800 years ago – and is regarded as one of the best pieces of Romano-British art ever found.

The preservation is so startling that the archaeologists who found it at the bottom of a ditch, on the last day of excavation on a development site at the Minories, were worried in case they had unearthed a Victorian garden ornament.

Excitement spread as it became clear from the context that it really was Roman – but carved in Britain, from Cotswold limestone. Archaeologists are itching to research it further but first after a quick clean – and a frame to support the only damage, a broken wing – it is going on display for six months at the Museum of London, just 30 days from ditch to gallery.

Martin Henig, an internationally renowned expert on Roman art, said: “The sculpture is of exceptional quality, the finest sculpture by a Romano-British artist ever found in London, and amongst the very best statues surviving from Roman Britain.

Its condition is extraordinary, as crisp as on the day it was carved. All it has lost is the surface paint, probably washed away when it was deposited in a ditch.”

The only comparable find in Britain is the sad stump of a bird, lacking head, wings, and feet, found at a Roman villa site at Keynsham in Somerset in the 1920s. The closest from across the Roman empire was an eagle and serpent found in Jordan, now in the Cincinnati Art Museum.

Eagles are found across the empire, usually as symbols of imperial clout, but they were also used as funerary emblems: there are extraordinary contemporary accounts of live eagles trapped within the funeral pyres of emperors, freed to soar towards the sky as the flames crackled, symbolizing the moment when the dead man became a god.

The London eagle was carved in the first century AD, at a time when the Roman city was exploding in population and wealth. It is believed to have stood on an imposing mausoleum, on the roadside edge of the eastern cemetery just outside the city walls. The road was once lined with the monuments of the wealthiest citizens, like the Via Appia outside Rome.

Possibly only a few decades later, many of the monuments were demolished – probably as ownership of the plots changed and new ones were built. There is even evidence suggesting that some of the old bones were left scattered in the open air.

Most of the stone was reused as hardcore or building stone, but the eagle was carefully laid into a ditch, probably just beside its former perch.

Michael Marshall, finds an expert at the Museum of London Archaeology, believes that superstitious awe probably protected such a powerful religious symbol, even when the tomb of its original owner became builders’ rubble.

There it lay for almost 2,000 years, surviving in almost pristine condition while Tudor cellars, Victorian warehouses, and 20th-century concrete piling punched through the earth all around it. until the Monday morning last month – the last day of the excavation before a 16-story hotel is built on the site.

When Antoinette Lerz and David Sankey lifted the mud-caked lump of stone from the ground, they set it on the edge of their pit, and first began to clean off the clay with a trowel – and then as they saw the delicacy of the carving, with a dentist’s pick.

When they had revealed a wing and the sharp-beaked head was emerging, they phoned site supervisor Simon Davis to suggest nervously that they thought they had found something extraordinary. “We were a bit nervous at first about proclaiming it as Roman, because the condition was so extraordinary,” Davis said.

The bird’s front is intricately carved, but the back is flattened and plain – like a Staffordshire china mantelpiece dog – suggesting that it was originally sheltered by a niche, or stood within a tomb building. Scattered animal bones and pottery nearby suggest funeral feasts or that family members revisited the tomb to dine with the spirits of their dead.

Serpents could be either benevolent symbols or harbingers of evil: some eagle and serpent carvings show the two beasts quite companionably entwined.

There is nothing benevolent about the London serpent, carved wreathed around the bird, its tongue still flickering on the feathery chest, but the great beak is about to snap shut: “It’s all over for the snake – it just doesn’t know it yet,” Michael Marshall said.

The eagle’s triumph is greater because the snake is equipped with an alarming row of sharp teeth.

“This may suggest that the artist had never got up close and personal with a snake,” Marshall said. “We did have a go at identifying the species of the snake when we had some zoologists in – but they just said ‘it’s a snake’.”

Mysterious 2,000-year-old Roman Era wooden arm found in English well may have been a spiritual offering

Archaeologists think the finely carved arm could have been an offering to the gods and it is considered to be of national and international importance.

A rare 2,000-year-old wooden arm has been recovered from the bottom of a Roman well.

The “finely carved” limb was found by archaeologists excavating land at the Warth Park industrial estate in Raunds, Northamptonshire.

This discovery is so important because of its location and how well preserved the artifact is.

Researchers working at the Warth Park industrial estate in Raunds were carrying out an excavation before more development was supposed to occur in the area.

The arm discovery came as a surprise and it is thought to have survived so well because it lay in waterlogged conditions.

The ancient well had been filled into a lack of oxygen prevented any deterioration from happening.

Wood specialist Michael Bamforth wrote in a report that he thinks the arm was “carved from a single branch, which makes use of a natural curve to form the elbow, and is very well made, as no tool marks are visible on its surface”.

It is thought that the artifact was designed to resemble the arm of a small adult or teenager, as it is quite slender and has a graceful open palm pose.

Archaeologists at Oxford Archaeology East also think that the arm was made to be a single object and not part of a larger sculpture as there is no joint evidence.

A small part of the wooden arm has been carbon dated and revealed to be from between 86 and 240 AD.

Bamforth thinks the object was probably thrown into the well as a religious offering.

Although the Romans were known to use wooden limbs for prosthetic purposes, this particular arm is thought to have been purely for ritual purposes because it has no obvious way of attaching to the human body.

Louise Moan from Oxford Archaeology East told The BBC: “It’s extremely improbable that this arm would have been used for a prosthetic.

“It would be heavy and cumbersome to have a large piece of wood like this attached to you if you did it is unlikely that you’d be able to lift it or use it in any meaningful way to aid with everyday life.

“There is also no evidence on the arm to show that it originally had attachments to connect it to anything. 

It is far more likely that this is a single piece which was carved specifically to be thrown down the well as a ritual votive offering.”

Other examples of carved wooden body parts seemingly used for ritual purposes have been found across Europe but they don’t date as far back as the wooden arm in question and have never been found in Britain before.

Workers Laying Pipe In Britain Discover Grisly Remains Of Roman-Era Human Sacrifice Victims

When engineers were tasked with the routine laying of water pipes in Oxfordshire, England, they likely did not expect to find a nearly 3,000-year-old settlement, Iron Age and Roman-era tools — and dozens of Neolithic skeletons.

According to CNN, the remains of 26 people were found at the site, many of which were likely victims of ritualistic human sacrifice. One of the victims had their skull placed by their feet. Another, a woman, had her feet cut off and her arms tied behind her back.

Meanwhile, the tools unearthed ranged across a variety of historical periods but were certainly thousands of years old — before the Romans invaded Britain.

According to The Telegraph, evidence of animal carcasses and household items such as knives, pottery, and a comb, were also found.

As for the human remains, archaeologists are confident these unfortunate victims belonged to the same community that helped create the Uffington White Horse — a prehistoric sculpture made of chalk, found on a nearby hill.

“These findings open a unique window into the lives and deaths of communities we often know only for their monumental buildings, such as hillforts or the Uffington White Horse,” said Paolo Guarino, project officer at Cotswold Archaeology.

“The results from the analysis of the artifacts, animal bones, the human skeletons, and the soil samples will help us add some important information to the history of the communities that occupied these lands so many years ago.”

All of the unearthed evidence has since been removed and taken in by experts for forensic investigation. The engineers who stumbled upon this substantial find were conducting engineering work on behalf of a Thames Water project focused on protecting a local chalk stream.

Neil Holbrook, Cotswold Archaeology chief executive, said the discoveries “provided a glimpse into the beliefs and superstitions of people living in Oxfordshire before the Roman conquest.

Evidence elsewhere suggests that burials in pits might have involved human sacrifice.”

“The discovery challenges our perception about the past, and invites us to try to understand the beliefs of people who lived and died more than 2,000 years ago,” said Holbrook.

This news follows that of an incident in which two Danish workers found a medieval sword in a sewer.

But as for this latest find, it’s certainly added substantial insight to our previous understanding of the time period in question. Human sacrifice and ritualistic burial practices, for instance, can now arguably be considered as a standard custom of that region during that time.

Fortunately, the right people are hard at work at extracting as much functional information from the discovered artifacts and human remains as possible. Hopefully, there will be even more illuminating data to share in the near future.