The Archaeology Thread

[BrianSoddingBoru4]

Crucifixion In Roman Britain

Archaeologists found the burial of a man in a wooden structure (possibly a bier), aged between 25 to 35 years of age in a small cemetery near the Roman settlement at Fenstanton, between Roman Cambridge and Godmanchester.

He has an iron nail penetrating his right heel bone (calcaneum) in a horizontal position, which the researchers believe is consistent with the practise of crucifixion, where his feet would have been nailed to the sides of an upright timber.

The nail was not identified until conservation occurred off site. Prolonged analysis by Corinne Duhig, an archaeologist at the University of Cambridge who examined the human remains, established crucifixion as the only likely explanation. Signs of punitive injuries and immobilisation before and around the time of death, says Duhig, suggest the victim may have been a slave.

Boru