Why were dozens of people from Roman York coated with liquid gypsum as part of their funerary rites? An ongoing interdisciplinary project at the University of York is exploring this enigmatic practice and the wealth of evidence that it preserves about the individuals who were buried in this way. Carly Hilts spoke to the initiative’s Principal Investigator Professor Maureen Carroll to learn more.
Lucy Gordan describes a temporary exhibition Treasures of the Pharaohs, which displays priceless artefacts from ancient Egypt in Rome for the first time.
Amandine Marshall investigates the magical significance of the various hairstyles that ancient Egyptians adopted.
Following his introduction to the Harrogate Collection in the last issue, Ken Griffin takes a closer look at some of the objects that are on loan to the Egypt Centre in Swansea.
Researchers from the University of York, York Museums Trust, and Heritage360 have recently carried out a 3D scan of a Roman gypsum burial – a practice in which liquid gypsum was poured over the body before interment. This project, the…
Understanding burial practices and funerary customs is a vital part of any attempt to understand an ancient culture – for while the need to separate the living from the dead is common to all human societies, the way in which…
Around ten percent of the excavated individuals were missing skulls, with many clearly decapitations, evidenced by visible cut marks and placement of the head between the legs.
Archaeological investigations just outside Salisbury have uncovered echoes of early Bronze Age activity, including the burial of an infant who was laid to rest with a scaled-down beaker. Rachel McMullan reports.