317 medieval and post-medieval skeletons were discovered at the site of a department store that is being remodeled into a university campus.
This was hardly surprising, since even more skeletons—these others from the Roman and medieval periods—have surfaced since renovation efforts began in 2023.
Artifacts (though, not any skeletons) will be put on display once the new campus opens.
Most of us have skeletons in our closets, but they can also lurk in much less familiar places. Literally.
Hundreds of skeletons were recently unearthed at the site of an abandoned Debenhams department store in the UK. The remains of 317 individuals from medieval and post-medieval burial grounds were discovered by archaeologists from Cotswold Archaeology in Kings Square, Gloucester, as the site was being redeveloped into the University of Gloucester’s City Campus. The university actually commissioned Cotswold Archaeology to excavate at the site because artifacts have continued to crop up in the area.
“Every time we work in Gloucester, we make new discoveries,” Cliff Bateman, Cotswold Archaeology Senior Project Officer, said in a press release. “It’s a massively important place.”
Among the skeletons were artifacts such as a tobacco pipe and fragments of a wine bottle. Many earlier artifacts from the Roman period also surfaced, which makes sense, considering that what is now King’s Square is thought to have once been the northeast quadrant of an ancient Roman town. Since the project began in 2023, archaeologists have found many vestiges of the Roman period, including pottery, 83 brick burial vaults (which were cleared in the mid-1950s), the foundations of a wall from a townhouse, and what appears to be a road dating back to the 2nd Century A.D.
Other recent finds include brick burial vaults and a crypt from St. Aldate’s Church—the external wall and porch of which appeared when remodeling efforts started. It was built in 1750 to replace a church of the same name, whose origins traced back to before the Norman Conquest in 1066 (it was meant to honor a fallen bishop of Gloucester, who died in battle in 577). That church ended up so damaged from the English Civil War that it was finally torn down in the mid-1700s. The later St. Aldate’s stood until 1960, but has long since been demolished. Evidence of its medieval predecessor has not yet appeared, but is thought to be in the area.
Burials associated with the vanished medieval church were also found when the site was first being remodeled. The bones of twelve individuals were only exhumed for research before being reinterred in their original graves.
Bateman also said that he is just about positive “there will be Roman buildings in situ” beneath the post-medieval necropolis. This isn’t surprising to archaeologists, who first started finding mosaics and ruins of Roman buildings in the basement of the empty Debenham’s.
Preliminary studies on the teeth of skeletons have found that the people they came from likely consumed a diet high in sugar. While there is little else known about the remains—except that about half of them were not in burial vaults like some of the other skeletons found nearby—Gloucester is apparently one of those places where pieces of the ancient past are literally inches beneath your feet. Excavations in another part of the city previously revealed even more skeletons, this time from the Late Roman period, which were buried both on their backs and facedown. Some of them were even decapitated, then laid to rest with their heads between their feet.
While human remains will not be on display at the university, the Roman, medieval, and post-medieval artifacts found at the site will eventually have their own shrine.
“These objects have been retained on site, following archaeological recording, and will be displayed on site for students, staff and visitors to City Campus to appreciate once the site is fully operational,” Steve Sheldon, Acting Principal Manager of Cotswold Archaeology, said in a more recent press release.
The campus in progress will be opening in September. There could be no more epic way to kick off an ancient history class.
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