Opening a Roman Coffin

Wessex Archaeology is excavating a Roman burial site at Boscombe Down in Wiltshire. They filmed the opening of a sarcophagus and posted it on YouTube.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/v/y7yrSjG8FE8&w=430]

It’s a wonderful find, unique in the UK due to the presence of two pairs of shoes belonging to the mother and daughter interred in said coffin, and it’s great to see the excitement of the excavators when they realize what they’ve just dug up.

3 thoughts on “Opening a Roman Coffin

  1. When I first clicked on it, and saw it was 9 minutes long, I thought it would be a dragging home video with a few good bits here and there.

    But it just flew past.

    I’d love to go for a beer with those folks and find out everything they found in the sarcophagus.

    1. The original video on the WA site is a little longer. They trimmed a minute or two of background noise/mumbling/footsteps time to make this version. That small edit really pays off in the pacing.

      I’d love to ply them with liquor and convince them to take me to the site to show me the goods in the dead of the night too!

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