The last resting place of some of the first Roman Londoners has been uncovered in Holborn.
Five oak coffins and a funerary bed - possibly used to carry a high status individual to their grave - were found preserved by the damp mud of the River Fleet six metres below street level by archaeologists working on a site near Holborn Viaduct.
A team from MOLA (Museum of London Archaeology) explored the site ahead of the construction of a vast new office block for law firm Hogan Lovells and made the discoveries along with skeletons, glass beads and a decorated lamp thought to date from the early years of Roman rule between AD48-80.
Historians are used to seeing depictions of beds being used in funerals across the Roman world but this is the first complete example ever found in Britain – the strikingly modern looking bed is made from high quality oak and has carved feet and joints fixed with wooden pegs.
It was dismantled before being put in the grave but may have been used to carry the body and was probably intended to be used in the afterlife.
MOLA Project Officer Heather Knight 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.”
The team also found evidence of a 13th century tannery, a 16th century cemetery and houses and a pub built on the same site after the Great Fire of London in 1666.
