Reconstruction of a Roman Lady's face from Londinium
Sixteen hundred years ago in Roman London (Londinium), a young woman in her early twenties died. Her body was wrapped in rich cloth woven of silk and gold, and under her head was placed a pillow of bay leaves. She was laid in a coffin of lead, placed in a limestone sarcophagus.She is being investigated by archaeologists of the Museum of London, and specialists from archaeological laboratories at a number of British universities.The lady was was buried in about AD 375 at a Roman cemetery in the Spitalfields area in east London, now being studied. Earlier in the Roma era the dead were usually cremated, but by the 4th century AD, the number of extended burials increased.