Archaeology news: ‘Mystery’ pit skeleton discovered among UK Bronze Age burial items
ARCHAEOLOGISTS have discovered "mystery" human remains at a dig in Bishop's Stortford, Hertfordshire.
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The skeleton was found appearing to lean on the sides of a pit with legs outstretched. Archaeology experts described finding the skeleton “just lying in the bottom” of the two metre-deep pit during an excavation at Whittington Way.
Bronze Age and Roman burials were also found at the site among related items.
It’s the sheer amount of Roman stuff found that is so surprising
Oxford Archaeology East’s Louise Moan, project manager of the dig, believes the site was a “sacred place” for hundreds of years.
She hopes future analysis should eventually reveal the skeleton’s age.
However, exact reasons for the person’s demise in the pit will certainly remain a mystery.
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She said: “Could he have fallen in or was he put there and the pit was backfilled, or was he considered for some reason deviant, and they deliberately left him like that?”
A second excavation at the nearby Grange Paddocks leisure centre site revealed a possible supply post for the Roman army.
Approximately 1,000 metal objects, including coins, brooches, needles and knives, in addition to 200kg of pottery were also found, project officer Andrew Greef revealed.
The unearthed objects at the second excavation site have all been dated to the fourth centuries AD.
Mr Greef said: “It’s the sheer amount of Roman stuff found that is so surprising.”
Previously, finding items from the Roman era in the area was extremely rare.
However, Mr Greef said the team has now found a “huge amount of stuff” that has “put Roman Bishop’s Stortford on the map”.
Although the digs took place in 2019, the findings have only now been revealed.
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This was not the area’s only archaeological discovery of note dated to this era.
A discovery of a warrior warlord's burial site could transform historians' understanding of southern Anglo-Saxon Britain, according to archaeologists.
The 6ft "Marlow Warlord" was discovered in August 2020 close to the Buckinghamshire town of Marlow.
Archaeologists embarked on a dig of the area after metal detectorists discovered two bronze bowls.
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Dr Gabor Thomas said the find provided "new insights" into life after the collapse of Roman Britain.
The University of Reading’s early medieval archaeology expert said the burial suggested "people living in this region may have been more important than historians previously suspected".
The Marlow Warlord was buried alongside numerous luxuries and weapons, including a sword in a decorated scabbard, spears, and bronze and glass vessels.
Dr Thomas added: "What we found exceeded all our expectations and provides new insights into this stretch of the Thames in the decades after the collapse of the Roman administration in Britain.
"This guy would have been tall and robust compared to other men at the time, and would have been an imposing figure even today.”
