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People Town Life Invasion and Settlement Army Beliefs Crafts Roads and trade

People: who were they?

Photograph of a trench containing a partly visible skeleton. At the top of the picture is an archaeologist crouched in the trench working Magnifing glass image

Enlarge image

Excavated skeletons can tell us lots about people's lives

We know about the people of Londinium from the evidence they left behind. We have evidence of their homes, the things they made and used, even their bones. It isn't a complete picture though. Some types of evidence don't survive.

 
Contemporary images of people e.g. from mosaics, sculptures, reliefs Magnifing glass image

Enlarge image

A rich woman having her hair arranged, artist's reconstruction

If you lived in Londinium, who would you be?

Out of you and 9 friends, five of you would have died before you became an adult. Only one would have lived past the age of 45.

You would have been about 6cm shorter than people today. You might have been a rich merchant, a shopkeeper, a craftsperson or a slave.

You would probably have been born in Britain rather than moving here from abroad. But you may have lived in a Roman style house, spoken Latin and copied Roman hairstyles and clothes. You might have enjoyed trips to the public baths or to see games at the amphitheatre and you might have had a pet dog or cat.

What is a bathhouse?
download the movie
link to movie

 
Excavation photo showing brick floor

Discovering people

None supplied

Evidence of people

Photograph of a masonry wall with a parallel ditch in front. One archaeologist sits to the right with a clipboard, the other stands behind the wall

What is archeology?

Photograph of an archaeologist crouched on the left. A pale area runs to the right, which contains the burial, and is surrounded by a dark area that is evidence of a decayed timber mausoleum. In the foreground are four glass vessels still set into the soil.

People: in detail

Black and white close-up photograph of a stone wall with 2 stripes of thin bricks running through

Play Londinium!
A game to play on your own or as a class