Gruesome archeological find world’s best evidence of crucifixion

By Ben Turner via SWNS

Archaeologists have uncovered what they claim is the "world's best evidence of crucifixion" after finding a Roman slave's heel bone embedded with a nail.

Experts say it is the clearest physical example of the Roman-era capital punishment practice to ever emerge.

A skeleton - believed to be that of a slave aged 25-35 - was found during an excavation of a Roman settlement inFenstanton, England in 2017, but it has only now been fully analyzed.

The man's right heel was embedded with a 5cm iron nail and his body was buried alongside a timber structure, believed to be a bier - or wooden board - that he had been bound and nailed to.

Experts believe he was crucified on a wooden board rather than a wooden cross which is the conventional punishment written in biblical texts and this may have been a local variation.

David Ingham, project manager for the dig, said: "It's essentially the first time that we've found physical evidence for this practice of crucifixion during an archaeological excavation.

"You just don't find this. We have written evidence but we almost never find physical evidence."

David said that it beats the previous evidence found in Israel in 1968 when a heel impaled by a nail was also found - however, this find was controversial due to the body being reburied and not found intact, as in this new discovery.

Experts say that the man was from the local area and was around 5'7 tall - the average height for the time.

It is believed he was crucified on a roadside around half a mile from where he was buried and that he died between AD 130 and AD 337, according to radiocarbon dating.

His skeleton was buried in a cemetery alongside six other graves and was one of 48 sets of remains that archaeologists found in Fenstanton's five cemeteries during excavation work in 2017 and 2018.

Despite the link between crucifixion and Christianity, experts believe there was no religious element in this case. Crucifixion was the main form of capital punishment in Roman times until Constantine the Great is believed to have banned the practice during his reign in AD 306-337.

No other nails were found in the man's body, suggesting that he was tied to the oak frame by rope and the heel bone nail was to "stop him wriggling" rather than to support his weight.

Corinne Duhig, an archaeologist at Cambridge University, examined the body and established crucifixion as the only likely explanation.

She found signs of punitive injuries and immobilization before and around the time of death, suggesting the victim may have been a slave.

The man suffered thinning around his lower legs and is believed to have been shackled at some point prior to his death.

David said the crucifixion may have been a "local variation on a theme" to the "textbook" example, such as that of Jesus in the Bible.

David said: "Crucifixion was relatively common in Roman times for criminals or people who had fallen out of favor.

"You can look up the textbook example of how Romans were meant to be crucified but, in practice, people took their own approach. It must have been a local variation on the theme.

"The nail was 51.5mm. That was with the top of the nail broken off. It was probably 7 or 8 cm originally, Whereas in the history books you would expect twice that."

The first skeletal evidence for crucifixion was found in 1968 during an excavation of a cemetery in Giv’at ha-Mivtar, just outside of Jerusalem, Israel when a heel bone with an embedded nail was discovered.

But the man's bones were moved into an ossuary - a family bone box - shortly after his death, meaning the skeleton was not found fully intact.

Other skeletons with holes in their heels were discovered in Gavello, near Venice in Italy during an infrastructure project in 2006-2007, and in Tell El-Ruba in Egypt in the 1990s, though it is not certain that either victim was crucified.

David said that the new finding offers the world's clearest evidence of crucifixion as the man's skeleton was fully intact and still had a nail embedded through the heel.

He added that the man's roadside crucifixion would have lasted more than a day and was intended to be public as a deterrent to others.

David said: "If you were nailed to a cross you would be up there for a day or more. It was meant to be visible. It was a punishment and deterrent to others.

"Officially you die from suffocation with the arms being pinned up you can't get enough air into the lungs.

"Most would be put into a pit or left out somewhere, we almost never find them buried."

Oak samples were found on the nail embedded in the man's heel bone, suggesting that he was nailed to an oak board.

The Fenstanton settlement covered around six hectares was akin to a village and was home to a cattle bone processing site.

Experts also found a 1cm-deep hole besides where the nail was embedded in the man's heel, suggesting that an initial attempt to nail his body to the wood may have failed.

Other discoveries at the Fenstanton settlement include 239 cattle bones that had been split by expert butchers and soap made from the fats of cattle bones.

The Fenstanton village was located on a Roman road between Cambridgeshire's two major settlements at the time of Cambridge and Godmanchester.

The site was excavated ahead of contractors building a new housing development.