From Rome to Yorkshire - Words of ancient Britain unveiled in Leeds
Dr Samuel Gartland, a lecturer in Leeds’ School of Languages, Cultures and Societies , led the resiting of the stones, one of which weighs 600lbs. A special crane had to be brought in to shift it into its new position.
“The larger stone really is a superstar inscription, one of the longest and largest ever to be found in ancient Britain and unlikely to ever be surpassed as a record of the world of Roman Yorkshire,” he said. “Appropriately enough for our launch during Black History month, the stones tell of a period where Yorkshire came under the rule of the first African emperors of Rome, as well as the dynastic jostling and assassinations in the imperial family.
The stones were initially built into the wall of a barracks building but they had subsequently been reused as foundations for a Roman road and spent much of the past two millennia upside down in a muddy field.