Funeral bed find proves Romans brought us flat-packed furniture
THE first Roman “flat-packed” funeral furniture ever found in Britain has been unearthed by archaeologists, who discovered an ancient cemetery beneath London’s streets.
An excavation conducted during the development of office space revealed a 2000-year-old burial site containing some of the earliest Roman artefacts in Britain.
Archaeologists uncovered the first complete funerary bed found in the UK, an object experts have likened to “flatpacked furniture” which would have been used to carry the deceased to the grave.
Such a furnishing would have been interred with the dead for them to use in the next life, and Roman artworks often depict the spirits of the deceased reclining on these beds drinking wine and eating grapes.
The oak bed, or “bier”, was found remarkably well preserved by mud of the now subterranean river Fleet which runs beneath the streets of central London.
Five rare timber coffins were also found at the site near Holborn Viaduct, leading archaeologists to infer the site was a cemetery outside the city walls of Londinium.
Heather Knight, project officer with Museum of London Archaeology, which has worked on the site, said: “We know the Romans buried their dead alongside roads, outside of urban centres.
“So, it was no great surprise to discover burials at this site, which during the Roman period would have been located 170 metres west of the city walls and next to the major Roman road of Watling Street.
“However, the levels of preservation we’ve encountered – and particularly uncovering such a vast array of wooden finds – has really blown us away.” Julius Caesar attempted an invasion of Britain in 55 and 54 BC, but it was the emperor Claudius who began a successful conquest in 43 AD.
The dig in central London appears to show that funerary practices were quickly embedded in the new province.
Cremation was the most popular early Roman funerary practice and burials, while often depicted in ancient artworks, are incredibly rare archaeological finds.
A procession would form behind the bier with the deceased’s family, professional mourners, musicians, and sometimes actors playing the parts of the ancestors following the body to the graveside.
The first complete object of its kind ever found in Britain, the bier found in London has been preserved in mud for 2,000 years and was unearthed six metres below street level. Skeletal remains and grave goods including beads, a glass vial, and an ornate glass lamp dating from the earliest period of Roman occupation were also found. Archaeologists have also discovered traces of the later London which grew on top of this Roman cemetery, with mediaeval timber-lined wells and a 16th-century pumping device found on the site which will now become office space for the law firm Hogan Lovells.