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Archaeologists have discovered 22 Roman skeletons in Lincoln - including two whose decapitated heads were laid at their feet 2,000 years ago.

PCAS Archaeology found the remains of men, women and children ahead of work starting on a rear extension to the Holiday Inn in Brayford Wharf North.

The site is part of a known cemetery for the earliest citizens of Lincoln, which was known as Lindum Colonia in Roman times.

It was located outside the walls of the city because burials were forbidden inside.

(Image: PCAS Archaeology)

There are three 'deviant' burials including two decapitated bodies - whose head may even have been removed to ward off bad spirits.

The 22 skeletons were buried either north to south or east to west - possibly reflecting changes in religious rites from paganism to Christianity.

(Image: PCAS Archaeology)

Colin Palmer-Brown, director of PCAS Archaeology Ltd, said: "One of these, who had been carefully placed in a wooden coffin, had been decapitated, presumably after death, with the head placed between the feet.

"A second decapitation burial also had the head placed between the feet with the body in a prone position, i.e. face down.

"Another prone burial was fully articulated. It is difficult to place accurate interpretations on such burial practices although easy to theorise when looking purely through modern eyes.

"As archaeologists, we label these things ‘deviant’, but decapitation burials, for example, are relatively common in Roman Britain."

(Image: PCAS Archaeology)

He added: "It could be these individuals were decapitated in order to suppress the spirits of criminal or other undesirable individuals.

"Or alternatively it could be this practice was rooted more deeply in history: in the pre-Roman Iron Age it has been speculated that the human head was a focus for special attention, when heads were sometimes removed and placed into rivers.

"Who knows, the practice of decapitation might well have been rooted in prehistory.

"The fact that we have at least one example of a decapitation burial being carefully placed within a wooden coffin could in itself imply that this individual was treated with no less reverence than any of the other burials discovered at the site."

The remains have been cleared from the site for lab testing to establish their ages, gender, possible causes of death and the foods they ate before they will be returned to the ground at a green burial site.

(Image: PCAS Archaeology)

Thirty bodies from the same Roman cemetery were excavated in 2016 at 64 Newland and in the same year 12 bodies were found at the site of the Sarah Swift Building in Brayford Wharf East.