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Archaeologists excavating the track of the HS2 high-speed railway discovered a group of Roman statues in an abandoned church.
The collection was unveiled at St Mary’s Medieval Church in Stoke Mandeville, Buckinghamshire.
Two complete statues of what appears to be a man and a woman with a child’s head have been found.
Image: The statues have been described as ‘extremely important’ and ‘rare’ in the UK
A Roman hexagonal glass jug was also discovered with large pieces still intact, despite being underground for what is believed to be over 1,000 years old.
The only other item that can be compared is a ship on display at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.
Dr Rachel Wood, chief archaeologist at Fusion JV, the HS2 contractor, said the finds were “extremely significant” and “rare in the UK”.
Photo: Archaeologists in Buckinghamshire made the discovery while digging at the site on HS2 Road Photo: A jug believed to be 1,000 years old was found
“Finding one stone head or one set of shoulders would be really amazing, but we have two full heads and two shoulders plus a third head,” she said.
“It’s more important to us archaeologically because it really helped change our understanding of the site here before the church was built in the Middle Ages.”
Image: A statue of a man and woman has been found and is believed to be over 1,000 years old Image: Archaeologists were digging along HS2 Road when they made the discovery
Finds at the church site, which is believed to have once been the site of a Roman shrine, were sent to a laboratory for specialized cleaning and analysis.
Dr. Wood added that she hopes the show will end up being seen by the local community.
About 3,000 bodies have been removed from the Norman church and will be reburied at a new location after the finds.
HS2 is a new high-speed rail line that will connect London, the Midlands, the North and Scotland.
Its first phase, which will see the establishment of links between London and Birmingham, is currently under construction.
In July, hundreds of rare Iron Age coins were found in Hillingdon, west London, by archaeologists working on HS2 Road.
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