4th Century AD skeleton found at an archaeology dig at Caistor Roman Town. Prof Will Bowden with the find

They say it is one of the best preserved but least understood Roman towns in existence but now a new discovery has left researchers even more puzzled.

Archaeologists who have been uncovering secrets of the ancient past at the Roman town of Venta Icenorum, at present-day Caistor St Edmund, just outside Norwich, over the past two weeks have unearthed skeletal remains of a fourth century body.

The skeleton, thought to be of a man, was discovered in a 3ft deep pit in an “unusual position”.

Mystery surrounds the discovery which has come midway into a three week excavation of the site.

Dr Will Bowden, associate professor of Roman Archaeology at the University of Nottingham, who is heading up the dig, said: “At first we thought we were in the cemetery area of the town but as it emerged it became very clear it was not a normal burial at all.

“It's lying on its side which is very unusual for a Roman burial where normally it would be laid flat or extended.

“This one has been seemingly put sideways into a shallow pit and the ground surface would have barely covered it. It's folded up and at first sight it seems to be a very strange-looking individual.

“The question is whether we are in a cemetery area of the town or if we are looking at something stranger. None of us who have worked on Roman cemeteries in the past have ever come across anything like this.

“It could be that they were executed as a criminal, murdered and shoved into a pit or it was someone who was deemed abnormal in some way so the body was not accorded the normal burial.”

As previously reported, the 35-strong team started the archaeological dig of the site, the first in more than 75 years, at the end of last month.

They hoped to discover more about the history of the Roman town which is thought to have been established in the aftermath of Boudicca's rebellion of AD60/61 in which the Iceni tribe sacked Colchester, London and St Albans before being defeated by the Romans.

As well as the newly-discovered remains, which will now go into storage for further tests, they have also identified activity dating right back to 10,000BC and the Iron Age.

Other material unearthed at the site, including coins and pottery, will also go through the testing process and ultimately will be part of an enhanced exhibition possibly at the Castle Museum.

Dr Bowden, whose team has kept a 24 hour presence at the site, said: “This strange burial has been certainly one of the most graphic things we have found. The bones are in good condition and we will get an enormous amount of information out of this individual in terms of diet, social class and whether it's someone local or from further afield.

“But we also now know the site has been the focus of human activity for millennia prior to the Romans.”

This latest excavation, which follows digs between 1929 and 1935, has heightened public interest in the site with more than 2,100 people visiting over the last two weeks. It is expected hundreds more will visit the location this week, including school trips, before the archaeologists pack up their equipment on Saturday.

They will return again next summer to carry out more excavation work as part of the project which has been funded partly through the University of Nottingham and partly through Caistor Roman Project Ltd for the further three years.


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