A Ghostly Archeologist's Guide

I was told this story by a friend who said that he remembers hearing of  a torso of a Roman Ghost that haunted a medieval English ruin.   This vaporous torso wandered the medieval ruins seeming very out of place and appearing to so many visitors that some of them began to ask questions.   One visitor was a historian and archaeologist and they decided to do some digging, literally.  The ghost lead them to an enormous number of Roman ruins that were buried beneath the medieval ruins.  If it weren't for the ghost,   the Roman ruins would have been forever hidden.

I tried to research this story to find its location and its origins and I found that there are so many stories like this I couldn't sort one from another.  One such story was told by a plumber in York.  In 1953, the plumber was working beneath the Treasurers house when he heard a horn blowing from beneath the ground.  Shocked, the plumber stopped his work and looked around anxiously.  Suddenly, a Roman soldier emerged from the brick wall and walked right past him.  The plumber fell from his ladder in terror.   The Roman soldier was followed by other soldiers on horseback and several large carts and chariots.    When the plumber emerged, a man told him that they had been excavating a Roman Road beneath the house and that many people had seen the phantom soldiers.  These old Roman ghosts are some of the most famous and difficult to see ghosts in the UK and linger behind leaving a permanent paranormal footprint for historians to trace.

There are many other stories of Roman ghosts popping up at strange historical locations and helping historians across the UK and Europe.  So many, that I have never been able to find the origins of my friends mysterious torso story.   I'll keep looking, however, and hopefully I'll find it one day.


Pam Morris said…
that's a good one! my daughter studies the classics-specifically rome--have to tell her about this one.
laughingwolf said…
pretty neat, jessica :)

methinks you meant plumber, though?
Anonymous said…
cool stuff!

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