Roman Dead: Death and Burial in Roman London


Fascinating exhibition at the Museum of Docklands looking at the rituals around death and burial in Roman London.

The displays round the edge looked in general at the rituals while in the centre twenty seven skeletons and cremated remains highlighted the points already raised. The remains were shown with their grave goods and it was fascinating to read that you find less gave goods in London than other parts of the empire as the population was quite transitory. Sounds a bit like now too.

The research work done on the remains was fascinating. Most of the people showed signs of malnourishment despite the probably expense their funerals. It easy to be pulled in to viewing the bodies purely as museum exhibitions and sobering to stop and think of them as real people who lived in the same city as me. I found the show very moving.

The star of the show was a sarcophagus discovered in Southwark in 2017. There was a super video with it showing its discovery, how it was opened and conserved and what we know about the woman found inside. The research is ongoing and I will look out for new discoveries. One up side of all the building work in London is the amazing archaeological finds that they are discovering.

Closed on 28 October 2018

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