Skeletons Found at a Late-Roman Villa in England

BOURNEMOUTH, ENGLAND—Five skeletons that could represent three generations have been unearthed at a Roman villa in southern England. The skeletons, which date to the mid-fourth century, are the first to have been found at a villa in Roman Britain. “This could provide us with significant information, never retrieved before, about the state of health of the villa owners, their ancestry, and where they came from,” Miles Russell of Bournemouth University told The Bournemouth Echo. The team wants to know if the villa was owned by Britons who became Romans, or if people from another part of the Empire moved to the rural area. “These remains will shed light on the final stages of the golden age of Roman Britain,” said co-director Paul Cheetham.