Colchester Museums have been working with archaeologists and specialists to ‘decode’ the hidden stories of 40 of Colchester’s earliest inhabitants.
Through new scientific research techniques, they have reconstructed the identity and lives of these people: where they came from in the empire, what illnesses they lived with, and how they were cremated at their funerals.
Decoding the Roman Dead is an exhibition that explores the results of new scientific analysis and archaeological research into Colchester Museums’ Roman cremation burials. The project, a collaboration with the University of Reading and supported by our partners, Durham University and the Colchester Archaeological Trust, has already shed new light on the lives of those who lived occupied and lived under Roman occupation almost 2000 years ago.
Recently, Dan Snow visited Colchester Museum and spoke to some of the leading archaeologists, osteologists and scientists to find out more about the ‘Decoding the Roman Dead’ archaeological project.
Rediscovered at the beginning of the 20th century through the work of British archaeologist Sir Arthur Evans, the Minoan Civilization, whose earliest beginnings were from c. 3500 BC on the island of Crete, became one of the most developed, complex urban civilizations in antiquity. Yet we still kn...
He was one of the greatest enemies the Romans ever faced. An excellent general and a larger-than-life figure, who led an army across the alps and dealt a series of crushing defeats upon the Romans on Italian soil. His achievements have become a thing of legend and his name has become immortalised...
In 60/61 AD turmoil seized southern Britain. A massive anti-Roman revolt reared its ugly head in East Anglia, as tens of thousands of Britons attempted to evict the recently-arrived Romans from the island by the spear. At its head was one of the most famous figures in the whole of British history...
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