CIRENCESTER, ENGLAND—A well-preserved Roman tombstone dating between the first and third centuries A.D. has been unearthed in a parking lot in western England, at the site of the Roman town of Corinium. According to Neil Holbrook of Cotswold Archaeology, the inscription on the stone reads: “To the spirit of the departed Bodica [or Bodicaca], wife, lived for 27 years.” Blank space on the piece of carved limestone may have been intended for the use of a spouse or another family member. A skull found near the stone may have belonged to the woman named on the stone. The remains of three children were also uncovered in what may have been a family burial plot. “Perhaps Bodica is a local Gloucestershire girl who’s married an incoming Roman or Gaul from France and has adopted this very Roman way of death,” Holbrook told BBC News. To read about a spectacular Roman-era artifact unearthed in the same town, see "Cirencester's Bronze Cockerel."
