Body of Roman mercenary discovered?
Archaeologists are claiming to have discovered the remains of a Roman mercenary buried with his sword near the Whitton Lodge Roman Villa in the Vale of Glamorgan, South Wales.
The man was buried prone with a long iron sword, a silver crossbow brooch, and hobnail boots, all contained inside a wooden coffin closed with iron nails. The weapon and brooch are typical of military panoply dating to late antiquity (late fourth to early fifth centuries AD), suggested the researchers.
The man, described as a ‘mercenary’, had a “quite peculiar” burial, according to excavation project director Mark Collard, an archaeologist and director of Rubicon Heritage. “It’s in the middle of a field near the Roman villa looking out over the valley and over the sea … It’s a great place to be buried.”
A bronze Roman crossbow fibula, dated to the fourth century AD. Such brooches became popular from the second century onwards.
The man originally stood up to 1.75 metres (5 feet 9 inches) tall. He may have suffered from
