Mystery Skeleton in Roman Sarcophagus Beneath Westminster Abbey May Be a Medieval Abbot, Study Says
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For two centuries, Westminster Abbey has harbored a mystery: Whose skeleton was discovered within a Roman sarcophagus unearthed beneath its foundations? Two Anglo-Saxon abbots are in the running, according to a new archaeology study.
The limestone sarcophagus was discovered in 1820 and officially excavated in 1869 from what is now a grassy strip along the north side of the abbey’s nave. In the Middle Ages, it was the yard of the Great Sacristy, built during the reign of Henry III. How, then, did a fourth-century Roman sarcophagus end up beneath the yard? Deepening the mystery, no Roman artifacts were found in successive investigations of the site, even though the sarcophagus bears a Latin inscription to one Valerius Amandinus.
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