LONDON, ENGLAND—According to a report in The Guardian, the disassembled pieces of a complete Roman funerary bed have been recovered from waterlogged soil near the underground River Fleet in central London. The well-made oak bed, which has carved feet and was joined with small wooden pegs, came from the grave of a man who died in his late 20s or early 30s. Archaeologist Michael Marshall of the Museum of London Archaeology (MOLA) explained that there are accounts of Romans being carried on beds like this one in funeral processions, and that they are sometimes found depicted on tombstones. “We didn’t know that people were buried in these kinds of Roman burial beds at all,” he said. “That’s something that there is no previous evidence for from Britain.” Five rare oak coffins were also found in the Roman cemetery. To read about other Roman artifacts uncovered in the city, go to "Roman London Underground."
