Archaeologists unearth the lead-lined coffin.Credit: Pre-Construct Archaeology (PCA)
Posted on 04/05/2022 7:09:06 PM PDT by SunkenCiv
Archaeologists working on an excavation at Grange Farm, near Gillingham, discovered 15 kilograms of litharge—a material associated with the extraction of silver from other metals. This is the largest amount ever found on a British Roman site and greatly exceeds the amount that archaeologists would normally expect to find on a rural settlement such as that at Grange Farm, suggesting that the refining of silver was taking place on an industrial scale.
However, the excavation team did not unearth any signs of the infrastructure that could have supported the size of operation required to produce this amount of material...
The team was confronted with another mystery when they also uncovered a stone mausoleum—a grand funerary monument usually found at Roman villas, not aisled buildings. Dating to the late 3rd century or early 4th century AD, this was the height of a two-story building and would have been visible from the nearby river Medway. Inside, the mausoleum had a "tessellated" floor of plain red mosaic tiles which was very unusual for mausoleums in Roman Britain, say the archaeologists.
Inside the ruins of the mausoleum, the archaeologists found a lead-lined coffin containing the body of an elderly lady. Isotopic analysis of the lady's teeth suggests she was probably local, while radiocarbon dating suggests she was buried around the same time the mausoleum was built. Although it wasn't unheard of for people to be buried in lead caskets in Roman Britain, it wasn't a widespread practice. The discovery was also unusual because the team did not find any evidence that the lady had been buried with any personal items or grave goods, which was common at that time.
(Excerpt) Read more at phys.org ...
Archaeologists unearth the lead-lined coffin.Credit: Pre-Construct Archaeology (PCA)
This should be the last one tonight, but I've got more in the "to-do" list from the past 10 days or so.
Lead coffin with no burial goods, remains of silver making around the area and a special building in which to place the special coffin.
Did someone find a way to kill a vampire? Did they think she was a vampire and wanted to make sure?
Inquiring minds want to know.
It's "late 3rd century or early 4th century AD", so circa 1700 years ago.
Lead coffins indicate higher status. Usually good preservation of contents is expected, but there’s often toxic “air” inside it, assuming the seal is good.
You wouldn’t want a corpse breathing that crap in.
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