Ancient Roman Remains Hint At 2,000-Year-Old Child Slave Murder

31 August 2012

 

 

A child who was possibly murdered at one of Britain's most important Roman sites 1,800 years ago came from the Mediterranean, an expert said on Tuesday. The discovery implies the young victim was either a child slave or the son or daughter of a soldier serving on Hadrian's Wall - giving more weight to the theory that they brought their families with them to the wilds of Northumberland.
The skeleton was found two years ago in a shallow pit in the corner of a barrack room floor at Vindolanda Roman fort.

As human burials in built-up areas were forbidden in Roman times - the dead had to be buried or cremated away from settlements - experts believed the child's body had been concealed.

The remains, found at Vindolanda fort, are those of a roughly 10-year-old child
It has not been possible to determine whether the body was male or female, but Dr Trudi Buck, a Durham University biological anthropologist, has judged it to be aged about 10.
Dr Buck said: "I think this is definitely a murder or other unnatural death because of the way the body was deposited.

"This is very circumstantial, but possibly it was hit over the head with something because we have very good preservation of the body down to wrist bones that are 1cm in size, but not very much of the head.
"Maybe a harsh blow to the head caused a fractured skull." Tests on the child's tooth enamel, carried out for a National Geographic Channel TV programme, showed he or she grew up in the Mediterranean.

The investigators speculate the child could have been used in slave labour to build Hadrian's Wall
"It turns out the child is not from the local area as I originally assumed, and is not even from Britain," Dr Buck said."Until the child was at least seven or eight, they have been in southern Europe or even North Africa."This asks lots of questions about who this child was, how did they get from North Africa to northern Britain in the last two years of their life, and then get killed?"

Dr Buck said Romans' use of child slaves was well-documented, so perhaps that explained how the youngster came to live by Hadrian's Wall. It has long been assumed soldiers serving on the wall were separated from their families, but the child's presence added to the counter-theory that some brought their relatives with them.

Love - The Second Time Around

This morning we toured the Accademia Gallery in Florence. I fell completely in love for the second time in my life with the same man -- The David. We had a guided tour of the museum with a charming women from Florence named Anna. Her passion for the art was completely contagious. We did brief preview of a couple of pieces but quickly got down to the reason for coming. Michelangelo's The David. It was every thing that I remembered it being from the last time I saw him circa 1970. He hadn't changed and of course I hadn't either! The sheer magnitude of this piece and the attention to detail are incredible. Even more amazing is the fact that the artist was in his 20s and allythe statue in only three years.(I stood there thinking how many pieces of paper I throw away trying to write one thing. Can't exactly do that with a chunk of marble!)  He was created in the early 1500s -- now there's an older man I could really go for!

In the afternoon we toured the Uffizi Gallery again with a local woman whose passion enriched her knowledge of the wide variety of artists represented in this museum. The building was originally a palace for the Medici family. It now houses a wide collection of world famous artwork including the work of DaVinci, Botticelli, Carravaggio, Michelangelo, Raphael, and Rembrandt. I don't think that 500 years from now anyone will have anything comparable to these pieces to view from American art. I think the most impressive piece here (but still a 2nd by far to The David was Botticelli's The Birth of Venus. One feature of interest was the portion of the museum that was originally built to be offices. It has been seen in numerous movies including A Room With A View. The decorated ceilings and walls were amazing.

Tomorrow we head to a tour of Tuscany!

Flying in to Florence

Florence Station

The day dawned early and so did our foursome. We were going to Florence! We dawned so early that we arrived at the Venice train station a full two hours before our train time. Actually, Travel Master Dan has done an amazing job of coordinating our transportation between cities, train stations, water taxis, and road taxis. As mentioned earlier, our first train trip had a few bug-a-boos, but this time we went from being the helped to the helper -- or at least Dan did. He very gallantly help a young lady hoist her bag into and out of the overhead bin on the train. He was somewhat amazed to find any person who had a suitcase heavier than Peggys. Our taxi driver was skilled and strong, SHE easily hoisted all four of our suitcases into her car without any help from Danno! Off we flew through the streets of Florence -- emphasis on the flew!
  

Our hotel, The Plaza Lucchesi, is right on the banks of the Arno River and within walking distance of the Uffizi Galleria! Since the restaurant had closed at 2:30 and we arrived at 3:30, we set out in search of food! Another slightly less exciting taxi ride followed to the nearby market. After a quick lunch at a local tourist establishment, ccwe headed off to find leather -- lots and lots of leather! We had been referred to a local establishment at the recommendation of a friend of Dan and Peggy's. There we encountered Massimo and his friendly crew. We departed a couple of hours later and severa (and I do mean several) Euros lighter than anyone expected!

Then we wandered through the market area in search of a watch for Dan. His watch seems to have suddenly died. Near the Uffizi Galleria we finally found a Fossil shop which meant Dan had escaped buying an overpriced neon colored Swatch watch for the remainder of his stay in Europe. We found the Arno River and used it to guide us back to the Hotel Lucchesi. We capped off the evening we our first "gormet" dinner in the hotel restaraunt. While the food was excellent the courtesy of the Maitre'd was clearly lacking! I tried to post last night but as has been the case the Tech Gods were not smiling. Seems my phone had died and I could not access the net. Today we head to the Accademia in the morning and the Uffizi in the afternoon. We have purchased "Jump the Line" Tour Tickets to speed up our entry to these two fine art extravaganzas. 

Hotel Lucchesi

The Best Laid Plans

Sadly as I suspected, I came down the "bug" that my roomie had. I fell ill during the night, but thought I could still make it this am -- no such luck! I did make all the way to The Isle of Murano to look at all that beautiful glass. However, it soon became evidence to me and those with me that I needed to be in bed. Dan came back with me while Peggy and Linda toured the Doges Palace and the Cathedral of San Marco. After a long trek through the streets of Venice we finally made it back to the hotel where I slept while the others shopped and went on line. Tonight I did make it out for dinner -- a bowl of vegetable soup. Well, at least it was Italian vegetable soup!

 Our hotel is right on the Grand Canal. The crowds in Venice are outrageous. I hate that I mis sed today, but I am determined to be ready for Florence tomorrow. I did get to do the gondola ride last night and a water ferry today. Traveling in a foreign country certainly drive home the feeling of those who landed at Ellis Island in the United States. The land and culture here is beautiful. However it does drive home how accustomed we become as individuals to our own surroundings.

Not much for tonight as I want to get to sleep and hopefully wake up refreshed for the trainride to Florence tomorrow. Tomorrow we check in and get accustomed to our surroundings. We will be in Florence for three days and then head on to Rome -- and Pompeii!

The View from Venice

After a large complementary breakfast at the hotel, we  left Milan literally holding the trunk of the taxi shut. The four of us and the bags were a bit much for this driver. Fortunately the station was a short ride from our hotel. We found the train and easily boarded and stashed our cavalcade of baggage in the appropriate spot. We had settled in and I was up and taking some picture only to discover we were in the right seats -- wrong car! A mom on holiday with her three kids was more than happy when we surrenedered her seats to her. We began treking through cars to try and determine our correct seat locations. Apparently we almost lost Danno in the process. Seems he lost control of a bag and lurched off the train only to be pushed back on by a gent who was standing on the station bank. Nevertheless, we did get seated and enjoyed a lovely 2 hour 30 minute ride through the countryside to the Venice stations. Once in Venice we boarded a water taxi to our hotel, the Realto. We quickly checked in and headed for the Grand Canal. The crowd was horrific. One young man attempted to help with my purse by trying to lift it from my shoulder. When I turned to grab it, he looked at me and informed me I was about to lose it. I informed him I with my elbow that I was not!

We first stopped for a bottle of chianti by the canal. Afterwards we wandered to the Cathedral of San Marco and the surrounding shops. After a light dinner, we went for a gondola ride. This was fun trying to get four seniors into one gondola. Paulo, the gondoleer, was knowledgable and well acquainted with all his colleagues. He spoke to everyone we met by name. He also shared that he and his gondola was actually in one of the Indiana Jones movies -- twenty years ago. We sauntered back to the hotel when I decided to go for my second helping of gelato today. I have a new passion -- lemon gelato! It is so perfect for the heat and humidity!  Tomorrow we are headed to the island of Murano. Hmmm, me on an island the specializes any making colored glass . . . need I say more. I had planned to post pics, but the Tech Gods are still frowning on us. I will try to do so tomorrow.

Musings from Milan

Our trip to Milan was a breeze. I was a tad concerned about crowds at Heathrow and there were none. Interestingly the trip to the hotel in London was about 45 minutes or so while the return journey to the airport was a mere 20 minutes. Hmm . . .?I also thought customs could be a sticky wicket -- but is was not. We had a driver waiting for us at the airport. He drove us to the hotel very efficiently. The flight took an hour and a half.

Once at the hotel, we crashed! After a brief nap we strolled down the street outside the hotel. It is clearly the holiday season here. Many stores were closed for holiday. We managed to pass two or three Mickey Ds on this one street. Dinner was at the hotel that night. I opeted for pasta -- Italian pasta!!!  During dinner I began to realize how truly tired I was after our luggage-laden trek across London the day before. Peggy, Dan, and Linda opted to go for Gelato while I opted for SLEEP! I woke up this morning rested and feeling much better but Linda, my roomie, woke up too ill to go today.  She slept in all day while we headed out for the subway. We went to the Duomo Square here in Milan. It was very quiet and empty when we arrived. We had coffee and croissants at a sidewalk bistro. Then we met up with our tour guide, Margarita. We had a walking tour of the town cathedral, the third largest Catholic cathedral in the world. Many of the stained glass windows were from the 1400s. The cathedral was built over a period of 5 centuries! From there we walked through a nearby shopping area and over the the world famous opera house, LaScala. We toured the theater and the attached museum. Afterwards we boarded a bus and headed to the local Castle and on to view The Last Supper by Leonardo DaVinci. This was a high point of the day. The painting is housed in a monastery here in Milan. You must have an appointment to view the painting and are allowed only 15 minutes to do this. To enter and view the painting, you wait in line and pass through a series of climatically controlled waiting rooms. I was surprised to learn the original is not a fresco -- but is painted on a wooden wall in the local monastery. It has been restored to the original condition -- which is a bit faded as it took DaVinci 40 years to finish the painting. It ranks above the Mona Lisa in my list of famous art I have seen. I think the magnitude of size has something to do with that. The colors were truly inspirational and soothingat the same time.

From there we adjourned to the Duomo area to lunch on pizza and chianti. I am back at the hotel and going back to check on my sick roomie. More later -- the technology gods willing! Tomorrow we board the train for Venice!