ROME-ING AROUND

Lead Coffin Leads to Amazing Discovery of Roman Aristocrat’s Remains

The remains are believed to be more than 1,000 years old.

Remains of a Roman aristocrat believed to be more than 1,000 years old have been found in England. Archaeologists dug up the aristocrat in a lead coffin, alongside the remains of 62 others from Rome and the early Anglo-Saxon era in a previously unknown site in a hidden cemetery in Northern England last year. “We certainly got more than we bargained for,” David Hunter, principal archaeologist with West Yorkshire Joint Services, told CNN Monday. The lead coffin the aristocrat was found in is “very rare” and signifies “it’s a very high status Roman body,” according to Hunter, who said the mix of ancient communities in the burial site is “highly unusual.” “This has the potential to be a find of massive significance for what we understand about the development of ancient Britain and Yorkshire,” Hunter said in a press release.