Shackled skeleton tells grim story of slavery in Roman Britain By Jack Guy and Katie Hunt, CNN Updated 1507 GMT (2307 HKT) June 8, 2021  The lockable iron fetters were placed around the man's ankles. London (CNN)Archeologists working in central England have found a shackled skeleton which, they say, provides physical evidence that slavery was practiced in Roman Britain. The adult male was buried in a ditch with iron fetters locked around his ankles, Museum of London Archaeology (MOLA) said Monday. The remains were found by builders working on a home extension in Great Casterton, in the central English county of Rutland, archaeologists from MOLA said, adding that this is the first time this kind of restraint has been found on a skeleton from Roman Britain. Radiocarbon dating has revealed that the remains date from between 226 and 427 AD, according to the press release. The Romans occupied large parts of Great Britain between 43 BCE and around 410 AD. "We do know that the Roman Empire relied quite heavily on slave labor. It underpinned much of the empire throughout history. And it was true of Roman Britain as well. We have lots of literary evidence from wood, writing tablets and stone carvings," said Chris Chinnock, a human osteologist, or bone specialist, at MOLA. "What we haven't found before is the physical remains of a person we think, we strongly suspect, could have been a slave."