Small iron nails laid across three skeletons' chests preserve an unusual detail about ancient Roman burial practices: 1,800 years ago, someone tried to protect the living from the dead.
The discovery of nails in burials "is a practice well documented in the Roman period and in later phases," Diletta Menghinello, an archaeologist with the Italian Ministry of Culture's Special Superintendency of Rome and the leader of the excavation project, told Live Science in a translated email.
