Give the God a Bone

According to icSurreyonline 25th April 2006 a bunch of archaeologists are in the village of Ewell recovering the secrets of lost Roman shrines.

The first finds were made there in the 1840's, in deep ritual shafts cut into the chalk, and today's archaeologists are hoping to uncover more of a stone building and a further deep shaft found in 1977.

The Surrey website says that "Shafts like these have been found containing pottery vessels, coins and the bones of many dogs," and quotes Bourne Hall Museum curator Jeremy Harte as saying "This is a very exciting opportunity."We are looking at one of the most mysterious aspects of life in Roman Ewell - the cult centres where offerings were made to native gods."

If the bones are from dogs that were put into the pit as votive offerings, it sort of makes you wonder what Roman god they were honouring. Pluto? Or maybe they were just dyslexic God worshippers? Whatever, send Tony Robinson's Time Team over post haste!

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update 28/04/05 more information on the This is Local London website

(The image by the way is of a statue of Augustus dressed as the Pontifex Maximus (High Priest) that is in the Palazzo Massimo of The National Museum of Rome. Sadly it isn't to be found in Ewell).