Skeletons unearthed in giant UK train line excavation
Tucked beside one of London’s busiest railway stations, a small army of archeologists dig through clay as they clear a burial site of 40,000 bodies to make way for a new train line.
They have already unearthed the first 1,200 skeletons from St. James Gardens — a park next to the Euston terminal — which was a cemetery between 1788 and around 1853.
It is one of Britain’s largest ever digs, and one of more than 60 archeological sites that have emerged during the construction of a new highspeed rail link from London to Birmingham, AFP reported.
Since experts began work at Euston a few weeks ago, the site has been transformed into muddy, stepped trenches and excavations as deep as eight meters.
Dozens of archeologists in high-visibility orange suits and hard hats swarm one section of the plot under an 11,000 square-meter roof that protects them from the rain and prying eyes.
Their work has exposed remarkably well-preserved graves, protected from water damage by the clay that characterizes much of the ground in London.
In one, the stone cover was removed to reveal an intact wooden coffin, in which lay a skeleton with a twisted spine and a full set of teeth.
Such discoveries on a large scale will help researchers understand how people lived and died at a crucial stage in Britain’s industrialization.
“This is probably the biggest assemblage of skeletons from the 18th, 19th century ever excavated under archeological conditions in this country,” said senior osteologist Mike Henderson.
“When you’ve got such a large data set we can really start to ask some important questions... like disease prevalence, mortality rates.”
So far the team has found evidence of tuberculosis, of traumatic injuries including broken bones, proof of early dentistry — false teeth — and surgery including sawn skulls.