Lost London River Yields Roman Skulls, Pottery

LONDON, ENGLAND—Some 20 Roman skulls and near-intact pieces of pottery thought to date to the third and fourth centuries A.D. have been found near London’s Liverpool Street Station, beneath a large cemetery where deceased mental health patients from Bedlam Asylum had been buried for hundreds of years. The skulls were found in the bed of the Walbrook River, which was paved over in the fifteenth century. “Forensic studies show that when the body disintegrates near a watercourse, the skull travels furthest, either because it floats or it can roll along the base of the river,” said osteologist Don Walker from the Museum of London Archaeology. The skulls and their teeth will be studied to learn more about these Romans.