Archaeologists discover rare liquid gypsum burial of ‘high-status individual’ from Roman Britain

Archaeologists in England have discovered a Roman-era cemetery with an unusual burial at its center — a stone coffin holding a deceased individual encased in liquid gypsum.

This practice is known from Roman times, but archaeologists still don’t fully understand it. The mineral was made into a cement or plaster and then poured over the deceased person to make a hard cast. This process sometimes preserved organic remnants such as clothing or a burial shroud. The gypsum from the newfound burial is fragmentary, but it retains impressions of the individual’s shroud and preserved a small piece of fabric.