20 Roman skulls found in Crossrail project dig

Crossrail tunnellers have discovered about 20 Roman skulls while building a utility tunnel at Crossrail’s Liverpool Street station site.

About 20 Roman skulls were dug up from an old river bed near Liverpool
Street station in London [Credit: Crossrail]

Working under the direction of Crossrail’s archaeologists, the construction workers have carefully removed the human skulls and Roman pottery, found in the sediment of the historic river channel of the River Walbrook.

The skulls have been found below the Bedlam burial ground established in the 16th century, where 3,000 skeletons will be carefully removed during major archaeological excavations next year.

For safety reasons, the archaeologists have had to leave the archaeology work to the tunnellers as the skulls were located up to six metres below ground.

Roman skulls have been found along the historic Thames tributary, the River Walbrook, throughout London’s history and led to speculation they were heads decapitated by Queen Boudicca’s rebels during the rebellion against Roman occupation in the 1st Century AD.

However, later archaeology suggested that the River Walbrook had possibly eroded a Roman cemetery located under Eldon Street in the Liverpool Street area and the skulls and other bones had been washed downstream.

The latest skulls have been located in clusters indicating they had been caught in a bend in the river. The location of the skulls indicate that they were washed out of the burial ground during Roman times.