Oxfordshire's earliest recorded resident: Roman tombstone goes on display

The tombstone had been smashed into pieces to form part of a wall

It is known that in a long lost town in the Oxfordshire of AD 79 an Italian immigrant died.

The discovery of the tombstone of Lucius Valerius Geminus - a veteran of the Second Augustan Legion - has revealed to archaeologists the first known biography of any person to have lived in the county.

It was discovered in fragments in a field, once the bustling Iron Age town of Alchester, near modern day Bicester. It has been reassembled so it can go on public display.

Dr Chris Ferguson, curator of archaeology at Oxfordshire Museum Service, said: "His biography is probably the earliest for a veteran in the entire province of Britannia, and he is certainly the earliest for this region of Roman Britain."

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