Went up to “Gurney Benham House” again [to examine excavations for air raid shelters], and completed section. While doing so, discovered a child-burial, on the north side of the road, approximately 63 feet from its centre. The child, newborn I imagine, had been thrust into a grey cook-pot. The urn was now broken, but I collected all the fragments and the bones.
The Romans buried their dead in cemeteries outside the boundaries of their towns and in Colchester the roads leading out of the town were lined with burials. Eric's discovery of a child burial beside the Roman Road was in keeping with many found in this area. Cremated remains were often placed in a pot for burial and some graves were marked with elaborate tombstones, such as those now displayed Colchester Castle Museum.
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