Archaeologists discover human remains and artefacts which give 'new insight'

ARCHAEOLOGISTS from Bournemouth University have discovered human remains and artefacts which give new insight into how early Britons adapted to life after the Roman invasion.

Amongst the grave goods excavated from the 2000-year-old burial pits and graves were Roman-style wine cups and flagons, which suggest that Mediterranean alcohol had become popular addition to British life around the time of the Roman conquest in AD 43.

Students and staff from Bournemouth University (BU) have been excavating Iron Age settlements at the site at Winterborne Kingston for more than fifteen years.

Whilst they have previously discovered human remains and artefacts from before the Romans arrived, these are the first finds that can tell the story of people who lived through the invasion of Dorset.

Dr Miles Russell, principal academic in archaeology at BU, who is leading the dig, said: “Being incorporated into the Roman Empire was one of the biggest societal changes in British history.

“It’s all very well learning about the Roman legions and their conquests, but we wanted to find the farmsteads and burials that tell us what life was like for ordinary Britons and what happened to them at the time – did they become part of the wider empire, did they resist, or did they carry on living as they had always done? So finding a site like this was critical.”

Three graves in particular indicated the extent to which the local Durotriges tribe partially integrated into certain Roman ways of life.

The first contained the bodies of two women, aged in their thirties who had been buried together.

The student archaeologists found a roman-style wine flagon and goblets alongside the remains.

“The women were buried in the traditional Iron Age way – on their side in a foetal position. So, although the grave was dug ten to twenty years after the Romans arrived, in the mid to late first century AD, it’s clear that the local people are not becoming Roman in a big way, merely taking things from the Romans that enhance and improve their life, in this instance wine.", Dr Russell explained.

The dig will continue for another two weeks, after which the archaeology will be returned to farming.