Man hid inside giant Roman storage jar 1,600 years ago and never came out
Archaeologists in Bulgaria have discovered human remains inside a large Roman storage jar at the ancient site of Deultum. The discovery suggests a person hid inside the vessel during a violent attack on the settlement around 400 A.D.
Why it matters
This provides rare physical evidence of the chaos and human desperation during the collapse of Roman settlements in the late antique period.
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.
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