Colchester Castle launching new exhibition Decoding the Roman Dead

Being the country’s oldest recorded town, or first city depending on who you ask, means all sorts of ground-breaking discoveries have been made in the town.

But the latest is a bit different.

A partnership between Colchester Museums and the University of Reading, backed by cash from Arts Council England, has uncovered new details about the inhabitants of Roman Britain by examining what happened to them after they died.

The study, the first significant scientific investigation of early Roman cremation burials in the UK, has helped piece together the lives and identities of 40 Romans - 15 of which are showcased at Colchester Castle’s upcoming exhibition.

Called Decoding the Roman Dead, the project has been a year in the making.

The Gosbecks Mercury. Picture: Colchester Museums/Douglas Atfield

Senior collections and learning curator Glynn Davis said: “Some of these remains were excavated more than 100 years ago and they have been stored here, but no-one has ever looked at them like this.

“In archaeology and osteology, cremations are known as the poor relative of burials because there is less you could learn from them.

“But in the last 20 years things have changed and you can analyse them and learn much more.”

Archaeological scientists are now able to determine things like sex, age and even what health conditions cremated remains suffered from by examining them.

For Decoding the Roman Dead, the Colchester Museums team worked with experts on human remains, chemical analysis and Roman archaeology from both Reading and Durham universities.

The work will see at least two academic papers published and Glynn says it has revealed new insights about our Roman ancestors.

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Using ground-breaking Isotope analysis of skull fragments, archaeologists discovered about 25 per cent of the remains were from those who spent their childhood as far away as Greece, Italy or Germany.

Experts also found evidence of locals adopting Roman practices faster than had previously been thought, with the majority of the cremations being of indigenous Britons.

A Roman Tile Tomb with face pot. Picture: Colchester Museums/Douglas Atfield

The resulting exhibition will showcase the stories of some of these individuals, as well as the science behind the project, and features more than 200 objects.

Mr Davis said: “The study has been very successful and we are already looking at working with Reading again collaboratively by creating a new Phd study so we can look at the rest of the cremations in the store as well as more recent ones discovered by Colchester Archaeological Trust.

“This is the first time a study on this scale has been done on Roman cremations.

“We would like to see other academics do this and there are other museums out there with collections like this.”

He added: “This has been an incredible opportunity to get beneath the skin of Roman Britain.”

Decoding the Roman Dead opens on Saturday, July 24, at Colchester Castle Museum and runs until January 6.

Darius Laws, Colchester Council’s heritage boss, said: “This exciting new exhibition highlights ground-breaking research of national importance.

“Finding out that so many of the early cremations examined were probably of indigenous people to Britain is fascinating.

“Experts are now wondering if this is why Boudica, less than 20 years after the invasion of Britain, did not discriminate between Colchester’s Romans and its natives when her forces burnt Colchester to the ground in AD 61.”

To book tickets to the exhibition, visit colchester.cimuseums.org.uk/DTRD.