Skeleton Found In Roman Jar: archaeologists uncover 1,600-year-old victim; find hints of desperate escape

More than 1,600 years ago, as fire engulfed a Roman settlement in what is now Bulgaria, a young man appears to have made a desperate decision: he climbed inside a huge storage jar and hid. He never came out. Archaeologists uncovered his remains inside the vessel during excavations at the ancient Roman colony of Deultum in southeastern Bulgaria. The discovery, first reported by Live Science and subsequently detailed by Archaeology Magazine, offers a rare glimpse into the chaos of an ancient attack.A skeleton hidden inside a Roman storage jarThe remains were discovered on August 10 inside a Late Roman turret forming part of Deultum’s western gate. The individual was found at the bottom of a large ceramic vessel known as a dolium, which Romans used to store commodities including wine and olive oil.The surviving portion of the vessel measures roughly 1 metre across. Some ancient dolia were enormous, capable of holding more than 1,000 litres. Finding human remains inside the city was unexpected. According to excavation leader Lyudmil Vagalinski of the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, such remains are particularly unusual in ancient urban settlements because the dead were generally recover...