An unusual burial of a Roman soldier, his iron sword, crossbow fibula and hobnailed shoes attesting to his profession and rank, has been discovered in Wales. He was buried face-down in prone position and large nails were found at the back of his neck, shoulder and between his feet. This atypical posture and the presence of the nails indicate he may have been bound in strong restraints before burial.

He was not enslaved or your garden variety criminal, as such a burial position might suggest.  He was not tossed into a pit, but carefully placed in a rock-cut grave edged with wooden planks. The sword found between his legs is the long and straight spatha type that replaced the short gladius as the standard infantry weapon in the 3rd century A.D. The silver crossbow brooch marks him as a person of high position in military or civil administration, and it is the first of its kind ever discovered in Wales.

Crossbow fibulae came into use in Late Antiquity, from the late 3rd century through the middle of the 6th century A.D., in the Western and Byzantine Empire. They were worn as cloak fasteners by military officials and civil servants and came to be strongly associated with military and civil authority. Richly ornamented examples made of precious metals were given as gifts for service to senior imperial officials by Roman emperors. Great general and power not-so-behind the throne Flavius Stilicho (365-408 A.D.) was depicted wearing one, and common Roman soldiers took up the trend, sporting cheaper versions in bronze and copper.

Analysis of the soldier’s burial dates it to the 3rd or 4th century. He was between 21 and 25 old when he died, and was suffering from a bacterial infection of the mastoid bone at the time of his death. Stable isotope analysis found that he was not a native of the area. He was born and raised east of Wales.

The grave was unearthed in Vale of Glamorgan in 2017 by Rubicon Heritage Services archaeologists in advance of a road building project. It was in a field used for agriculture in the Roman era, not in a dedicated cemetery, although another four burials were found at the site. One of them contained the remains of an individual who had been decapitated and his head placed at his feet. Decapitated burials and prone burials often occur together.

Researchers have begun to pay more attention to patterns of atypical burials in Western Europe during the Roman period, but so far, no single explanation for these kinds of burials has been found. Whether it was for low-status individuals, criminals or those their communities wanted to ensure “stayed dead,” cross-culturally, prone burials are never seen as a positive way of disposing of the deceased.

This Roman soldier is therefore something of a mystery — one that may never be solved. “It is interesting that he was buried prone but still with his ‘regalia,'” Collard said. “Raises more questions than answers!”

A cremation burial containing bronze jewelry and rare surviving textile fragments has been unearthed from the Early Iron Age (800-550 B.C.) burial ground at Hallstatt, Austria. Grave goods discovered in the burial include spiral discs of bronze wire placed on top of the cremated remains that were likely fibulae (large brooches used to fasten garments), a massive ribbed arm bangle, the blade of a bronze knife with fragments of the wooden handle still attached, a piece of sheet iron from a belt buckle and an animal bone from a food offering.

The finds were densely packed into the grave, and it was only when the objects were detached and examined closely that archaeologists recognized the surviving traces of fabric on the undersides of the spiral discs. These might be the first archaeological evidence that textile pouches were used to contain cremated remains for burial. Urns were used in other cemeteries of the period, but are very seldom found in the Hallstatt burial ground. The cremated remains are so compact, however, that archaeologists have long suspected they were buried in organic bags whose fabric or leather had decayed over the millennia.

Hallstatt is the site of a salt mine that drew seasonal visitors going back 7,000 years ago to the Neolithic. They attempted to extract the salt using picks made of deer antlers and stone axes, but systematic mining of the salt began in the 16th century B.C. Three prehistoric mines have been identified amidst the warren of subterranean tunnels, one Bronze age, one from the Early Iron Age, one from the Late Iron Age.

High in the Salzberg Valley is a burial ground connected to the mine that is one of the most important prehistoric burial grounds in Europe. The burial ground was in use from 850 B.C. through about 350 B.C. Luxury goods imported from all over the known world were buried with the dead, a testament to the great wealth and far-reaching trade relations generated by the mining of salt at Hallstatt. The variety, quality and distinctiveness of the artifacts found there prompted researchers to use “Hallstatt” as the name of a culture and an entire period of European prehistory (8th-5th centuries B.C.).

The Iron Age burial ground was first discovered in 1846 by Johann Georg Ramsauer, the director of the salt mine who had worked there since he was a 13-year-old apprentice and rose through the ranks to become Bergmeister (mining master) by the age of 36. Then, after discovering the first grave in a gravel pit, with zero training or education he transformed himself into a meticulous accidental archaeologist. From 1846 until 1863, he directed the excavations of the Hallstatt cemetery, and documented everything he found with incredibly detailed watercolors.

In 17 years of excavations, Ramsauer and his crew unearthed 980 graves containing almost 20,000 objects. He thought they had found all that there was to be found, but new graves were discovered in the 1930s and the Natural History Museum has found many more since it began annual excavations of the burial ground in 1992. As of now, more than 1,500 graves have been unearthed and documented, and the discovery of the latest grave suggests the burial ground is even larger than previously realized. Archaeologists estimate there may be another 4,000-5,000 unexplored graves at the site.

Archaeologists in southeastern England have discovered a prehistoric handaxe so big it would have been almost impossible to wield as a cutting tool. The handaxe is about 300,000 years old and is the third largest ever found in Britain.

A team from Archaeology South-East, UCL Institute of Archaeology, excavated Manor Farm in Kent ahead of construction of a new school (the Maritime Academy, which has given the finds their name). The team unearthed more than 800 Paleolithic stone artifacts in deposits of fluvial sediment from a prehistoric tributary of the River Medway. Several of them were handaxes and two of them were giants of a form known as a ficron, characterized by a rounded thick base tapering to a long, finely-worked tip. One is 23 cm (nine inches) long but missing its tip. The other is 29.6 cm (11.6 inches) long and intact. It is 11.3 cm (4.4 inches) wide at its widest point.

Senior Archaeologist Letty Ingrey (UCL Institute of Archaeology), said: “We describe these tools as ‘giants’ when they are over 22cm long and we have two in this size range. The biggest, a colossal 29.5cm in length, is one of the longest ever found in Britain. ‘Giant handaxes’ like this are usually found in the Thames and Medway regions and date from over 300,000 years ago.

“These handaxes are so big it’s difficult to imagine how they could have been easily held and used. Perhaps they fulfilled a less practical or more symbolic function than other tools, a clear demonstration of strength and skill. While right now, we aren’t sure why such large tools were being made, or which species of early human were making them, this site offers a chance to answer these exciting questions.”

The foot-long Maritime Academy ficron is in excellent condition with minimal abrasion and is larger than any of the other stone artifacts found in its bed of fluvial sand and gravel. Given those features, archaeologists believe it was found basically where it was deposited instead of having been battered over a long river voyage. Face 2 was a little more abraded and stained than Face 1, indicating the handaxe had likely spent a significant stretch of time Face 2 side up.

While archaeological finds of this age, including another spectacular ‘giant’ handaxe, have been found in the Medway Valley before, this is the first time they have been found as part of large-scale excavation, offering the opportunity to glean more insights into the lives of their makers.

Dr Matt Pope (UCL Institute of Archaeology), said: “The excavations at the Maritime Academy have given us an incredibly valuable opportunity to study how an entire Ice Age landscape developed over a quarter of a million years ago. A programme of scientific analysis, involving specialists from UCL and other UK institutions, will now help us to understand why the site was important to ancient people and how the stone artefacts, including the ‘giant handaxes’ helped them adapt to the challenges of Ice Age environments.”

The discovery has been published in the journal Internet Archaeology. Other notable Maritime Academy finds will be published in later papers.