The Woman and Three Babies: the story of an ordinary life and extraordinary death in early Roman Baldock

The study of human burials can tell us a lot about ancient populations’ health and surprising little about how they died.

The ancient town of Baldock is well known for its cemeteries – over 23 have been discovered – giving us a unique insight into its people. One burial excavated in 1989 instantly stood out as unusual: the skeleton of a woman buried with three eight-month term babies tells a tragic story of a life cut short by a lack of medical attention.