Roman bones found by archaeologists on his way home

An archaeologists spotted Roman bones and pottery in a trench dug by the utility company as he was walking home from work.

Mike Heyworth, president of the Council for British Archaeology, was trudging home after a long, hot day in the office when he was startled to find fragments of Roman bone and pottery lying on a heap of soil at the end of his road.

The trench dug by a utilities company in York, which had sliced through an ancient cemetery, was on the corner of a residential street near the city’s racecourse.

But it was also just across the road from a site that made headlines worldwide:, a pit under suburban back gardens where more than 80 skeletons of young gladiators – including one with bite marks from a lion, and decapitated skulls with the marks of hammer blows – were excavated.

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Story: Maev Kennedy, The Guardian | Photo: The Guardian