Gloucester's Roman Mass Grave Skeletons were Plague Victims

[Primus Pilus]

A mass Roman grave, discovered in Gloucester in 2005, may have contained the victims of an acute disease of epidemic proportions, possibly plague. This is the startling conclusion to a new report by Oxford Archaeology and archaelogical consultancy CgMs, who have been conducting an 18-month programme of scientific study on the grave, which contained around 91 skeletons.

 

The discovery of a mass grave of Roman date is almost unparalleled in British archaeology and archaeologists now believe the remains were of individuals who had been thrown in over a short period of time during the late 2nd or early 3rd century AD...

 

24 Hour Museum

[caldrail]

A startling reminder that roman cleanliness wasn't enough to defeat the usual unhealthiness of urban life in former times.