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Could this be Whittlesey=E2=80=99s earliest known resident?
Story by: ANDREW =
PAPWORTH=20
Friday, 20 August, 2010
13:18 PM
A SKELETON discovered at a building site could be = Whittlesey=E2=80=99s earliest known=20 resident.
Archaeologists dug up the site of Eastrea=E2=80=99s proposed village = hall and found=20 ancient bones amongst the rubble.
It is thought the skeleton dates back more than 2,000 years to a time = when=20 Whittlesey was a settlement during the Roman Empire.
Excited villagers have called their new-found oldest neighbour = Maximus =E2=80=93 the=20 same name as the Russell Crowe character in the blockbuster film = Gladiator.
Professor Brian J Ford, who led the campaign to build the new village = hall,=20 said the discovery of a Roman burial site in Whittlesey is =E2=80=9Cbig = news=E2=80=9D.
Residents have battled to get the community facility complete with an = office,=20 sports facilities and function rooms for the town since 1945.
They triumphantly won their bid last year when a planning inspector = gave the=20 green light to a new hall and 14 homes in Coates Road costing around=20 =C2=A3300,000.
Fenland District Council had previously ditched the proposal but its = ruling=20 was overturned.
And as part of their plans, developers were forced to pay = =C2=A325,000 for an=20 in-depth archaeological survey.
What was unearthed by the Archaeological Project Services team, based = in=20 Heckington, Lincolnshire, has surprised many people in the village.
Television personality Prof Ford said it =E2=80=9Call has resonances = for me=E2=80=9D as one=20 of the few people licensed to exhume human bodies by the Home = Secretary.
The scientist=E2=80=99s past work includes digging up skeletons as a = biologist and=20 getting an official exhumation certificate from the Government.
A newsletter by residents says: =E2=80=9CThe name Maximus was chosen = not because of=20 the Gladiator movie but to commemorate the size of the bill this survey = has=20 cost.
=E2=80=9CThe total is fortunately paid for us by our = developers.=E2=80=9D
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