A high-status Roman woman buried in an ornate lead coffin, named the "Lexden Lady," went on display as part of a temporary exhibition last week at the Roman Circus Visitor Centre in Colchester, England.

The exhibit features both the woman’s remains and her coffin, and will run until May 2027.

Colchester Archaeological Trust, who had originally discovered the burial during archaeological work at the former Essex County Hospital site in 2023, announced the exhibit in a statement last Tuesday.

Her exact burial date is unclear, according to the Trust’s statement, but it was likely during the late Roman period - lasting from approximately the late 3rd century to early 5th century CE.

Initial analysis of the body and the burial suggests the woman was in her 20s and 30s when she died, and was a local of Roman-ruled Colchester.

She was buried alongside jet hairpins, a group of rare glass flasks, and other grave goods, indicating that her burial had been “carefully staged and richly furnished,” according to the Trust’s statement.

“The young woman was clearly cherished by her family and by her community,” said Robert Masefield, Archaeology Director at Tetra Tech Consulting Limited. “Over decades of working with Colchester Archaeological Trust on excavations of the Roman burial grounds around the Roman town, this is certainly the most spectacular I have seen, in terms of signifying the trappings of wealth and symbolism in death, of a fully Romanised citizen.”

Researchers also found frankincense inside the coffin, an “exotic resin” within one of the glass flasks, as well as traces of gypsum, indicating that the woman may have been coated in the plaster-like substance before her burial.

Liquid gypsum was often used in Roman funerary rituals in order to preserve the shrouded bodies of the dead. After being poured, the gypsum would gradually harden into a plaster cast and protect the textile fragments and any dyes or imprints.

The practice of using gypsum is being investigated by the British "Seeing the Dead” project, though the project’s focus is on Roman Yorkshire. Recently, the project discovered traces of Tyrian purple in preserved in cloth buried with two Roman infants in York.

These grave goods suggest the “usage of valuable imported substances in the treatment of the body after death,” the statement read.

“This is one of the most fascinating Roman burials we have worked on in Colchester in recent years,” said Adam Wightman, Director of Archaeology at Colchester Archaeological Trust. “The decorated coffin is a beautiful object in its own right, but it is the combination of the coffin, the grave goods and the scientific evidence that makes this burial so compelling.”

“Together they allow us to glimpse not just a person, but the care, ritual and belief that surrounded her burial in late Roman Colchester.”

A spokesperson for Essex Housing said that company is “delighted that this remarkable discovery, made during archaeological work at the former Essex County Hospital site, will now be shared with the public.”

They added that it is “wonderful to see an important part of Colchester’s past being preserved, studied and presented in this way.”