Once I was a clever boy learning the arts of Oxford... is a quotation from the verses written by Bishop Richard Fleming (c.1385-1431) for his tomb in Lincoln Cathedral. Fleming, the founder of Lincoln College in Oxford, is the subject of my research for a D. Phil., and, like me, a son of the West Riding. I have remarked in the past that I have a deeply meaningful on-going relationship with a dead fifteenth century bishop... it was Fleming who, in effect, enabled me to come to Oxford and to learn its arts, and for that I am immensely grateful.


Tuesday, 13 January 2026

Roman gypsum burials


I wrote early last year in Gypsum burials in Roman Yorkshire about research being undertaken into burials in the region during the Roman period where the body of the deceased was covered in gypsum as part of the preparation for burial. 

Some of the results of this new study can be read about in an online article from Live Science, and which is accessible at 'They had not been seen ever before': Romans made liquid gypsum paste and smeared it over the dead before burial, leaving fingerprints behind, new research finds

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