Remains of Victims of Stalin’s Great Purge Identified
Three Georgian victims of Stalin-era crimes whose remains were found near Batumi have been identified by geneticists from the Pomeranian Medical University in Szczecin.
The research is the last key part of the historical and archaeological work of the international team identifying victims of the Great Purge.
In total the remains of 27 victims murdered in 1937 were found in a monastery near Batumi. This is the first case of identifying victims of the Stalinist regime in the history of Georgia, and the first direct evidence of Soviet executions in this country.
Scientists from the Szczecin medical university, working as part of the Polish Genetic Database of Victims of Totalitarianisms – Pomeranian Medical University Research Centre, obtained good quality DNA from bone material and built the genetic profiles of victims and their families before then conducting comparisons and biostatic calculations, making it possible to determine the victims’ identities.
‘Based on historical data and anthropological research by Georgian and American anthropologists, a group of people who could be buried there was selected.
Anthropological research is inconclusive, hence the +last link+, or genetic research, was necessary’, says the head of Department of Forensic Medicine at the Pomeranian Medical University, Dr. Andrzej Ossowski.
He adds that for his team it was an interesting experience, and each matter of this type and specificity of work in each region of Europe or the world is different, because of the approach of both the state authorities and the public.
Ossowski said: “These are very delicate issues, they require understanding of many sides. We know that both Catholics and Muslims have been buried here, so the work is particularly difficult.
“The discovered remains were well preserved, and the samples allowed scientists to obtain very good quality genetic profiles, followed by the process of collecting comparative material.
“Collecting genetic material from the possible families of victims was a huge challenge for our colleagues in Georgia. We had a +hot line+ for some time, as we would often deal with multi-generational families and it was necessary to consult on from whom to sample the material.”
He added that researchers working in Georgia reached many family members of the victims who could have been buried in Batumi.
After confirming the identity of three people (their names were not made public) and providing information to their families, which, as Ossowski points out, was widely commented on in Georgia, the geneticists are now working on identifying more victims.
Work in Batumi was conducted by an international team participating in the Georgian Recovery, Documentation and Identification Project (GDIP). One of the goals is the genetic analysis of the remains found in mass graves in Batumi between 1937-38.
The project leader is Dr. Meri Gonashvili, a forensic anthropologist and President of the Georgian Association of Forensic Anthropology (GAFA).
The 1930s was a period of Stalinist repression (purges), which particularly intensified in 1937-38. In 1968, British historian Robert Conquest introduced the term the Great Terror to describe the peak period of Stalinist repressions.
Over 1.5 million people were arrested and approx. 750,000 were executed. The NKVD trials most often ended in a death sentence or a sentence to life in the Gulag labour camps.
Possible Use for Australia’s Ancient Boomerangs Tested
A new study into the multipurpose uses of boomerangs has highlighted that hardwood objects were used to shape the edges of stone tools used by Australian Indigenous communities.
The research, published in PLOS ONE, demonstrated how boomerangs could function as lithic (or stone) tool retouchers by investigating the use-wear generated on the boomerangs’ surfaces during retouching activities.
It was found that these use-wear impacts on boomerangs were comparable to those observed on Paleolithic bone retouching tools, which date back to more than 200,000 years ago.
The research adds to a previous study into boomerang uses led by the same team from Griffith University’s Australian Research Centre for Human Evolution, but also highlights the broader topic of the multipurpose application of many Indigenous tools throughout Australia.
ARCHE PhD Candidate Eva Francesca Martellotta said the study revealed a deep functional connection between bone and wooden objects – a topic rarely investigated in archaeological contexts.
“Studying the shaping techniques applied to stone tools is crucial to understanding our past,” Martellotta said.
“Thinking in modern terms, it is like understanding the difference between a butcher knife and a bread knife: their blades have different shapes – one straight, the other serrated – because they are used to cut different materials. That is, to perform different functions.
“Australian boomerangs are mainly used as hunting and fighting weapons. However, they also have many other functions, linked to the daily activities of Aboriginal communities.”
“In our article, we put together traditional knowledge and experimental archaeology to investigate a forgotten use of boomerangs: modifying the edges of stone tools.
“This activity is fundamental to producing a variety of stone implements, each of them with one or more functions.
PhD candidate Eva Francesca Martellotta.
“Traditionally handcrafted experimental replicas of boomerangs proved very functional to shape stone tools.
“Our results are the first scientific proof of the multipurpose nature of these iconic objects.”
“While our results for the first time scientifically quantify the multipurpose nature of daily tools like boomerangs, this is something that Aboriginal people have known for a very long time.”
Study co-author Paul Craft, a Birrunburra / Bundjalung / Yugambeh / Yuggera / Turrbal man, contributed two of the four hardwood boomerangs used in the lithic tool knapping (shaping) experiments, which were performed in the Griffith Experimental Archaeology Research Lab located outdoors at the Nathan campus.
The findings ‘Beyond the main function: An experimental study of the use of hardwood boomerangs in retouching activities’ have been published in PLOS ONE.
Chicken bones and snail shells help archaeologists to date ancient town’s destruction
Spring 107 BC destruction layer of the Seleucid settlement of Tell Izṭ abba.
According to new research, the combined analysis of animal and plant remains, as well as written evidence, is leading to more precise dating of archaeological finds.
“We can now often determine not only the year but also the season. This allows us to reconstruct the events that produced the finds much more precisely,” say archaeologists Prof. Dr. Achim Lichtenberger from the Cluster of Excellence “Religion and Politics” at the University of Münster and his Tel Aviv University colleague Prof. Oren Tal.
“The destruction of the Greek town Tell Iẓṭabba in present-day Israel by a military campaign waged by the Hasmoneans, a Judean ruling dynasty in the 2nd and 1st centuries BC, has so far been dated to between 111 and 107 BC,” say Lichtenberger and Tal.
“More recent research dates it to 108/107 BC, based on coin finds and the siege of the city of Samaria at the same time.
Now, using our multi-proxy approach that makes use of several analytical methods, we can for the first time date the events with certainty to the spring of 107 BC.”
“We came across chicken leg bones in the dwellings destroyed by the Hasmoneans. Analyzing them revealed residues containing medullary bone deposits in the marrow that served to produce eggshells during the laying season in spring.
This indicates that the chickens were slaughtered in spring,” explain Achim Lichtenberger and Oren Tal. “We also discovered the shells of field snails, which were often eaten at this time of year.”
Botanical examinations of the remnants of flowers on the floors of the dwellings reveal that these plants flowered in spring.
Analysis of the objects is always accompanied by an analysis of written evidence: “The contemporary Hebrew scroll of Megillat Ta’anit about the Hasmonean conquest, also known as the Scroll of Fasting, reports the expulsion of the inhabitants in the Hebrew month of Sivan, which corresponds to our May/June.”
‘Only the multiplicity of analytical methods makes precise statements possible’
“From an archaeological point of view, this makes spring the season of destruction,” says Lichtenberger and Tal, which underlines previous findings on Hellenistic warfare, as military offensives usually took place in spring and early summer.
“The individual data taken on their own would not justify determining such a clear chronology,” emphasizes Lichtenberger, who, together with his colleague Oren Tal and an interdisciplinary team comprising natural scientists, is leading a research project on the archaeology of the Hellenistic settlement Tell Iẓṭabba, in ancient Nysa-Scythopolis, a Greek city in the ancient Near East.
“Only by taking an overall view of the results from all analytical methods can we provide more precise information about the time of the destruction of Tell Iẓṭabba, and thus about the course of the Hasmonean campaign.” The finds must therefore be interpreted in the light of the seasons.
Reconstruction Offers a Glimpse of the Face of “Penang Woman”
GEORGE TOWN: Five years after researchers from Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM) found a prehistoric human skeleton, dubbed the “Penang Woman”, believed to be at least 5,000 years old, they scored another major breakthrough.
Prehistoric 5,000-year-old ‘Penang Woman’ finally has a face
This time around, the same researchers have put a face to the Penang Woman using the Forensic Facial Approximation method. The skeleton was found during the construction of a gallery for the Guar Kepah neolithic site in Kepala Batas in 2017.
With the help of Cicero Moraes, a 3D graphics expert from Brazil, they used the 3D virtual reconstruction method to create the Penang Woman’s facial features based on a scientific date obtained from a CT scan performed on the skeleton.
The same team was also instrumental in reconstructing the facial features for the more than 10,000-year-old “Perak Man” using the same method last year.
Shaiful Idzwan Shahidan, the team’s correspondent author, said they took between three and four months to come out with the facial features, which was completed on July 5.
A paper, titled “Forensic Facial Approximation of 5000-Year-Old Female Skull from Shell Midden in Guar Kepah, Malaysia”, was published in the Journal of Applied Sciences on Aug 5.
Shaiful said when they found the skeleton back in 2017, one of their objectives was to conduct a more in-depth study about the life of the Penang Woman.
“We were curious to know how the Penang Woman really looked back then. From the facial features, we can tell that Penang Woman is possibly a mixture between the Australomelanesoid and Mongoloids.
“It is likely that the Guar Kepah population then was a mixture of the Australomelanesian and Mongoloid races,” he said.
Shaiful, however, said a more detailed study could be conducted if Malaysia brought back the 41 skeletons from three shell middens in Guar Kepah, which were excavated by British archaeologists between 1851 and 1934 and are currently at the National Natuurhistorisch Museum in Leiden, Holland.
When the Penang Woman skeleton was found in April 2017, researchers came across a skull, a femur bone and a rib cage beneath the floor of a house which had been demolished to make way for the gallery.
The skeletal remains were the first and only remaining Neolithic skeleton found in a shell midden in Malaysia. Shell middens refer to mounds of kitchen debris consisting mostly of shells and other food remnants and indicate ancient human settlements and are sometimes used as burial sites.
The remains were discovered in shell midden C with her arms folded and surrounded by pottery, stone tools and several types of shells, a sign of her important position in her society.
In total, 41 skeletons from three shell middens, identified as A, B and C in Guar Kepah, were excavated by British archaeologists between 1851 and 1934 and those skeletons are now at the National Natuurhistorisch Museum in Leiden, Holland.
The original Penang Woman is being carefully conserved in USM as it had to be in a temperature and humidity-controlled environment, which meant the skeleton currently showcased at the gallery is a replica of the original.
A stately home’s “ghost gardens” have become visible after the recent extreme heat.
The Elizabethan house features impressive gardens, housing a safari park
Grass on parts of Longleat’s baroque garden in Wiltshire has dried out to such an extent it has revealed historic features long buried in the landscape.
New overhead drone images of the imprints show what the grounds would have looked like in the 17th Century.
The parch marks have been described as an “invaluable window” into the site’s history.
Evidence shows possible remains of a 17th-century flower bed or fountain
Outlines of pathway fountains, long-lost walls and statues, as well as a maze and bowling green have emerged.
The images hint at what the 70-acre (4,046 sq m) gardens would have looked like four centuries ago.
The earliest visible features discovered so far are parts of the walled gardens to the front of Longleat House.
These date back to earlier in the 17th century and were painted by the renowned Flemish landscape artist Jan Siberechts in 1675, in what is believed to be the first painting of Longleat.
Jan Siberechts created the first ever painting of Longleat
“It is fascinating to be able to see these ‘ghost’ gardens and other features literally appearing out of the ground around the house,” said curator James Ford.
“While we are extremely fortunate to have contemporary engravings and paintings here at Longleat, there is nothing to compare with actual physical evidence.
“These parch marks, that will entirely disappear again when the rain and cooler weather return, provide us with an invaluable window into a lost world and an opportunity to accurately plot the design and layout of these important elements of Longleat’s history,” he added.
As with many of the great estates, Longleat’s formal gardens were transformed into naturalistic parkland in the 18th century by landscape gardener ‘Capability’ Brown.
The 17th Century canals were transformed by teams of workmen, digging by hand, to create Half Mile Pond, which is now home to a colony of California sea lions and a pair of hippos.
The cache of Ancient Knucklebones Discovered in Israel
In this vale of tears, any help peering into the future would be useful. Now, archaeologists report finding over 600 astragali – small bones from quadruped feet – in the ancient city of Maresha, central Israel. Dating to the city’s Hellenistic period some 2,300 years ago, what the bones were used for must remain in the realm of speculation. But there are clear indications that some were used to attempt to contact the gods and others were used to play games.
Ovine or caprine knuckle and ankle bones, or even artificial versions thereof – and sometimes small bones from cow feet or gazelle as well – were popular throughout the Levant and classical world, and even beyond. However, the amount found in recent excavations in Maresha was unusually large. Their discovery was reported recently in the British archaeological journal the Levant, by Dr. Lee Perry-Gal of the Israel Antiquities Authority, Prof. Adi Erlich of the Zinman Institute of Archaeology at the University of Haifa and Dr. Ian Stern of the Hebrew Union College, Jerusalem.
When one finds bones from the feet of herbivores in a cultural context, they’re usually remnants from meals, Perry-Gal points out. Sheep and goat have been staples in the Levantine diet since their domestication about 10,000 years ago in southeast Turkey. The hint to archaeologists that a bone is more than a bone is when it is found in disproportion, she explains.
Say you find a thigh bone; fine; with it you find a few toe bones, fine; if you find 500 toe bones per thigh bone, you have a phenomenon that begs interpretation, Perry-Gal says.
It bears adding that another vast collection of astragali had been discovered at Megiddo, about 680 of the things. Around the ancient world, sometimes astragali were found in the context of foundation deposits (built into the house foundations), likely because of their association with fortune (hopefully good).
Cave dwellings at the biblical site of Maresha, central Israel.
Forecasting and fun in Maresha
Located in the Judean foothills, Maresha appears in the Bible in the context of the inheritance of the tribe of Judah, which included – among many other cited names – “Libnah, and Ether, and Ashan; and Iphtah, and Ashnah, and Nezib; and Keilah, and Achzib, and Mareshah; nine cities with their villages” (Joshua 15:42-44). It was one of the cities King Rehoboam fortified, according to the biblical account, which also cites it as the site of Asa of Judea’s fight against an invading army led by Zerah the Ethiopian.
In the Hellenistic period from the fourth to the second centuries B.C.E., Maresha was not Judahite. It was a multicultural city with as many as four or five different populations living together, Perry-Gal says.
The profession, or art, of divination using knucklebones, is called astragalomancy and, at least in the historic period, the practice was based on markings on the bones: names of gods and goddesses, other words, numbers. The underlying theory is that casting dice – or in this case, small bones – is a way to invoke or contact the superpowers. How the osteo-mediated message from the invoked deity is interpreted is another matter.
Dr. Lee Perry-Gal of the Israel Antiquities Authority held some of the knucklebones discovered at Maresha.
Some believe cleromancy using bones goes back to prehistory, in some form, though if it was used before writing, the bones presumably wouldn’t have alphabetic cues. In any case, by the classical period astragali were so prized that “bones” sculpted in glass have even been discovered at Tel Kedesh in Galilee and in ancient Greece, also from the Hellenistic period in the third and second centuries B.C.E. Examples also exist of ersatz astragali in ivory, stone and metal. Bone astragali have also been discovered in ancient Jerusalem.
In fact, Perry-Gal observes, ethnographic studies find astragali used in games to this very day in Australia and the Near East, though just for games: presumably their users have gotten over the hope that deceased feet can serve in divination.
Back to Maresha, the site of the huge collection of astragali dates to the Hellenistic period. Bones for forecasting and fun, as well as some possibly employed in the hope of persuading the deity to torment other people, were found in artificial caves carved into the bedrock of the lower city. Many of the astragali were found, the archaeologists say, in large concentrations in specific caves.
Asked if none were found aboveground, Perry-Gal says Maresha consists of its upper part above ground, of which little remains following serial conquests (as is typical of this region). Beneath the homes, however, people carved caves in the soft limestone. There are hundreds of these caves, which served for sundry purposes, including storage for grains and water cisterns – and possibly worship.
In the context of the perennial unease and hostilities in the Middle East, “all the materials from the domestic areas above-ground were tossed into the underground areas. They became a time capsule,” Perry-Gal explains. So we cannot say whether the astragali of Maresha were used in the glare of sunshine or dank inner sanctums, only a small proportion of which have been excavated.
A burial cave from the Hellenistic period is located at Maresha.
Cops and robbers, Maresha style
But there are clues. “In Area 89, underground, there is a small altar with wall etchings, and there we found a huge collection of astragali and ostracons [pottery with writing on it],” Perry-Gal says. “This cave may have served as a place of worship. So the astragali there may not have fallen from above-ground.”
In worshipful contexts one finds astragali bearing the names of Aphrodite and Eros, the great Hera herself, Hermes, and others. Meanwhile, in the domestic neighbourhood of Maresha, the team found astragali bearing the name of Nike, the goddess of fortune, and speculate that those found in that context served to play games. “It’s a peek into their lives,” Perry-Gal says.
It bears noting that astragali around the ancient world usually weren’t marked at all; some bore names of divinities, which are associated with attempts at divination or worship; some bore numbers, which are associated with games; and some apparently served for that age-old hobby of cursing one’s enemies.
“During the Roman and Hellenistic period, astragali were used a lot in divination, at Maresha as well. This amount is extraordinary – especially ones with writing, names of gods and goddesses, found in the context of ostracons of prophecy,” Perry-Gal stresses.
Some of the words found on the “divination bones” found at Maresha.
Or parlor games. She suspects that astragali with words like “thief” on them were used in play. Some astragali were weighted with lead (much more than other metals) and likely served in gaming: they would roll better than mere bone, she observes.
Who might have used the astragali for play, prophecy or to (fruitlessly) implement a foul intention? No idea. “Maresha had Phoenicians and Idumaeans and Nabataeans and Jews, though it wasn’t Judahic,” she says. “We couldn’t associate the find with a specific ethos.”
It bears noting that all the ostracons, which are being studied by Dr. Stern, are in Aramaic and include curses and prophecies, but those astragali that bear writing do so in Greek.
Astragali found at Maresha. Their supposed powers of divination couldn’t save the Hellenistic city from its fate.
Curses? More like formulae: “If you do x, y will happen,” Perry-Gal explains. Sort of an attempt to cajole the gods into doing evil to somebody. Okay, Maresha wasn’t the only Hellenistic city in town. What was so special about it to warrant massive use of astragali – or, at least, such a vast collection of them, relatively speaking?
Possibly, the critical mass was achieved under special conditions of extreme multiculturalism (all those peoples): other places could also be mixed, but the extent here may have been unusual, Perry-Gal suggests. Under the pax Hellenistica, conditions were open, global, tolerant and maybe all that came together at Maresha, which really was a special place – this is the first place in the west that chickens seem to have been cultivated, she adds, back in the third millennium B.C.E.
Apparently the magic in the animal feet did not help the city folk foresee the future. Maresha underwent more upheavals and finally met its maker in the year 40 B.C.E., by the Parthians roaring out of ancient Iran, and activity would move next door to the city of Beit Guvrin.
Ancient Roman chariot unearthed ‘almost intact’ near buried ruins of Pompeii
An ornate Roman chariot has been discovered “almost intact” near Italy’s buried city of Pompeii, the archaeological park announced on Saturday, calling it a discovery with “no parallel” in the country.
A view of a chariot, with its iron elements, bronze decorations and mineralized wooden remains, was found in Civita Giuliana, north of Pompeii.
The four-wheeled processional carriage was found in the portico to a stable where the remains of three horses were unearthed in 2018, including one still in its harness.
Pompeii was buried in boiling lava when Mount Vesuvius erupted in 79 AD, killing between 2,000 and 15,000 people.
“A large ceremonial chariot with four wheels, along with its iron components, beautiful bronze and tin decorations, mineralized wood remains and imprints of organic materials (from the ropes to the remains of floral decoration), has been discovered almost intact,” a statement issued by the archaeological park said.
“This is an exceptional discovery… which has no parallel in Italy thus far — in an excellent state of preservation.”
The excavation site is known as the Civita Giuliana, a suburban villa that lies just a few hundred meters from the ancient city of Pompeii. The site is one of the most significant ancient villas in the area around Vesuvius, with a panoramic view of the Mediterranean Sea on the outskirts of the ancient Roman city.
Archaeologists last year found in the same area the skeletal remains of what is believed to have been a wealthy man and his male slave, attempting to escape death.
The casts of what is believed to have been a rich man and his male slave fleeing the volcanic eruption of Vesuvius nearly 2,000 years ago are seen in what was an elegant villa on the outskirts of the ancient Roman city of Pompeii.
The chariot’s first iron element emerged on January 7 from the blanket of volcanic material filling the two-story portico. Archaeologists believe the cart was used for festivities and parades, perhaps also to carry brides to their new homes.
While chariots for daily life or the transport of agricultural products have been previously found at Pompeii, officials said the new find is the first ceremonial chariot unearthed in its entirety.
The excavation is part of a program aimed at fighting illegal activity in the area, including tunnel digging to reach artefacts that can be sold on illicit markets.
Looters missed the room where the chariot had lain for almost 2,000 years, tunnelling by on both sides, the park’s statement said.
The villa was discovered after police came across the illegal tunnels in 2017, officials said. Two people who live in the houses atop the site are currently on trial for allegedly digging more than 80 meters of tunnels at the site.
A detail of the decoration of a chariot, with its iron elements, bronze decorations and mineralized wooden remains, was found in Civita Giuliana, north of Pompeii.
Specialists took great care to unearth the vehicle, for example by pouring plaster into voids “to preserve the imprint of any organic material” that had decomposed, it added.
The park said this had allowed it to emerge well preserved down to the imprints of ropes, “thus revealing the chariot in all of its complexity.”
“Pompeii continues to amaze with all of its discoveries, and it will continue to do so for many years yet, with 20 hectares (50 acres) still to be excavated,” Culture Minister Dario Franceschini was quoted as saying.
“It is an extraordinary discovery for the advancement of our knowledge of the ancient world,” added Massimo Osanna, outgoing director of the park.
“What we have is a ceremonial chariot, probably the Pilentum referred to by some sources, which was employed not for everyday use or for agricultural transport, but to accompany community festivities, parades and processions.”
Pompeii’s remarkably well-preserved remains have slowly been uncovered by teams of archaeological specialists.
It is Italy’s third most visited tourist site, drawing more than 3.9 million visitors in 2019. The ancient city was closed since the start of the pandemic and only reopened on January 18.
50 Graves of Slaves Who Toiled at a Roman Villa Unearthed in England
This woman was buried with her head resting on a pillow, suggesting that she held an elite position in her community.
Archaeologists have uncovered what may be the graves of 50 enslaved workers who laboured at an elite Roman villa just under 2,000 years ago in what is now southern England.
These burials date to the Roman period in the United Kingdom, from about A.D. 43 to A.D. 410. Many of the deceased were buried with grave goods, such as pottery and brooches, in what is now Somerset, a county in southwest England.
“It’s relatively rare to excavate this number of Roman burials in our region, but in particular, in this case, we are very confident that all the burials are people who worked on a Roman villa estate,” said Steve Membery, a senior historic environment officer at South West Heritage Trust in the United Kingdom, which oversaw the archaeological excavation.
These labourers likely weren’t paid for their work, he noted.
“They are most likely household servants, agricultural workers, and many may have technically been slaves,” Membery told Live Science in an email. “So, this is a rare opportunity to study a sample of a community.”
That community appears to be a culture native to the area and seems to have merged Iron Age and Roman era burial practices. Some of the buried individuals likely held a high status within their community, Membery added.
For instance, an older woman buried with her head on a pillow in a stone-built, coffin-like box (known as a cist) was likely an important person, he said.
Archaeologists also found small nails at the foot of the burials, indicating that many of the people were laid to rest in leather hobnail boots, according to The Guardian.
This stone-lined coffin with a cooking pot dates to the late fourth century A.D. A later excavation showed that the pot contained the bones of a chicken wing.
“The burials also show early adoption of Roman burial practices, such as offerings, alongside traditionally Iron Age characteristics,” Membery said in a statement. It’s likely that these were British individuals who began following the customs of the Roman invaders, but DNA tests will be needed to support that idea, Membery noted.
Archaeologists found the burials while surveying the area ahead of the construction of a new school.
The graves were dug into the bedrock, many with tops and bottoms lined with flat stones to create a coffin. Some of the graves had tented stone roofs, which are less common for this area, Membery said.
Archaeologists also found traces of Iron Age round-shaped houses as well as a Roman building, in the area. The villa itself has yet to be found, but an outhouse and a barn that may be part of it have been discovered, The Guardian reported.
Almost all of the burials included pots that sat next to the deceased’s head.
During the excavation, researchers from Wessex Archaeology found a number of treasures, including pots that were placed next to the heads of most of the deceased. These pots were likely offerings, Membery said.
In addition, the team found coins with the likeness of the Roman emperor Vespasian (who reigned from A.D. 69 to 79), the carved bone that once was likely part of a knife handle and an unusual lead weight that was probably part of a survey tool called a groma, which is similar to a sextant.
“This site is a significant discovery — the most comprehensive modern excavation of a Roman cemetery in Somerset,” Membery said.
