Roman Period bones at Brading Villa on the Isle of Wight

The press release and write up comes from https://phys.org/news/2026-08-roman-bones-potential-fourth-century.html … but the pull paper is available at https://doi.org/10.1017/s0068113x26100816 … Brading Villa was first investigated by antiquarians in 1880. They found a lot of scattered human bones within the villa complex. It has been re-excavated, in the 1990s and in the 2000s, in order to verify the initial antiquarian report. They also found a lot of scattered human bones. That set the archaeologists to thinking how this came about as they were not in a graveyard, as such. They were also able to arrive at a date for the bones, in the 4th century AD. The antiquarians did not of course have access to a C14 laboratory so they just noted they belonged somewhere in the Roman period, and specifically to a point in time when villas were established for the local elite. In addition, the new investigation found Roman coins dated between AD330 and 348. This then narrowed down the actual date of the  killing spree that had left behind so many bones. It may have coincided with a crisis in AD343 that caused the emperor Constans to visit Britain, or Britannia. However, the archaeologists have another possibility, a known bloody purge in the 350s when the emperor Constantius launched a brutal crackdown on Britain after a usurper, Magnentius, was defeated. His  supporters were hunted down and killed, including many who had played no part in the rebellion. The scatter of bones, they suggest, was because the victims had been hastily buried in shallow graves but were later dug up by scavengers such as foxes and feral dogs. Gnaw marks seem to suggest this as well as cut marks possibly made by swords or knives.