AN ancient dugeon was discovered by archaeologists under a bustling UK market.
The 2,000-year-old site spans the Roman, Medieval, and Victorian eras of history.
While the archaeological site revealed 2,000 years of Leicester’s history, the remains of the ancient dungeon are estimate to be 500 years old.
Discovered beneath Leicester Market in Market Square, the dungeon was once described as “a most vile prison”.
Researchers from the University of Leicester’s Archaeological Services have been conducting a series of excavations in the area ahead of a £7.5 million redevelopment project.
The stratified layers of the site span centuries, leading researchers to describe the site as an “archaeological cake”.
WOULD YOU KNIGHT A MAGNUM?
Medieval knight’s ancient tomb is unearthed under ice cream shop
STRUCK GOLD
Breakthrough as ring unlocking secrets of ‘vanished’ kingdom is unearthed in UK
One find was a dungeon that once connected to a civic building in Leicester known as the Gainsborough Chamber.
The building was first recorded in writing in the 1530s and once held judicial proceedings, the business of the mayor, and local celebrations.
It housed a small and deep dungeon that historians believe was a sturdy and uncomfortable space.
They attested this to the thick stone walls and the account of a 16th-century prisoner who described lying “upon hard planks without bed or straw and without company or comfort”.
Roman era
And long before the dungeon was contructed, Romans established the first considerable settlement in the area in the 1st century C.E.,calling it Ratae Corieltauvorum.
This was developed into a regional trade hub and administrative center, with the modern market place sitting in what was once the southeast corner of the Roman city.
Archaeologists uncovered two buildings from this era as well the grave of a Roman infant beneath the floor of an 1,800-year-old timber building.
Roman pottery kilns, small stone cubes used for mosaics, known as tesserae, as well as items of jewelry and coins were also uncovered.
But the discoveries didn’t end there, the team also found prehistoric tools that predate all of the above.
Historic Leicester
“It’s rare opportunity to investigate what lies beneath this important site,” the lead archaeologist Gavin Speed said in a statement.
“We anticipated finding evidence of Roman occupation, but the discoveries have surpassed our expectations and help us piece together the daily life and economy of Roman Leicester.”
Meanwhile, evidence of the Medieval market place was found just beneath the modern layer of concrete.
The presence of long-lost market stalls endures through post-holes that mark where the stalls once stood.
The market site is due to be repaved and reopened to traders by the end of 2026 and it’s expected that some of the finds from the dig will be put on public display.
Leicester has been the site of numerous archaeological discoveries in recent years.
In 2023, a Roman cult room was discovered by the university researchers alongside Leicester Cathedral.
And in 2016, the same team found a bronze ornament that suggested lions had been used in public executions in Roman Britain.
But most famously, in 2012, the lost grave of King Richard III was discovered beneath a car park in the city.
More on archaeology
The remains of a lost Roman city have been uncovered on a popular holiday island.
And the lost tomb of a 1,700-year-old king was uncovered in Mayan temple.
Plus, the eerie “hybrid” skull that belonged to a “half human, half neanderthal girl”.
OMAZE-ING
I went from council flat to winning £4m house… But this is why I’m selling up
BOTTOMS UP
Wetherspoons reveals opening dates of 5 new pubs starting next week
An ancient lost city from 3,500-years-ago that played home to the oldest civilization in the Americas’ was uncovered in Peru.
And AI has deciphered a hymn on a 4,000-year-old clay tablet, which is said unlock the mystery of the ancient city of Babylon.
