1,800-Year-Old Skeletons Were Found While Demolishing a Hotel in England
Construction workers have unearthed dozens of 1,800-year-old skeletons while demolishing a hotel in York, England, The Sun reported.
“The skeletons were found under the swimming pool,” said developer John Reeves.
At the site of the former Newington Hotel, which is being transformed into private residences, approximately 75 shallow graves filled with “men and women, and individuals of all ages” were discovered along with a collection of Roman artifacts.
According to a statement from the York Archaeological Trust, this isn’t the first time Roman cadavers have been unearthed in this area. The Newington Hotel (and its indoor heated swimming pool) sat on an extension of a Romano-British burial ground excavated in the 1950s, and mere yards from a collection of “Headless Roman” skeletons excavated in 2005.
York Archaeological Trust described the gravesite as “chaotic,” with bodies crowded together and pointed in all directions.
Interred with the bodies were a handful of ordinary objects, including pots, a jet-black stone pin, and a corroded copper alloy “head ornament” that left a distinctive green stain on the skull of the wearer.
“Roman burials have been uncovered by construction work in this area of York since at least the 19th-century,” the York Archaeological Trust statement said, adding that the latest discovery is “somewhat unsurprising.”
Featured photo from York Archaeological Trust via Facebook.
