Roman ghost stories

My home town of York (not been? You should!) holds three records of particular note: the only place in England where you can see evidence of every major historical period, the most haunted place in the country (per capita I assume), and the most pubs per square mile. I always assumed the last two claims were linked somehow.
Anyway, today I spotted a news story that builders had dug up a Roman coffin complete with 'gypsum mummy'. Apparently the technique was to encase the body in gypsum so that when it decayed it left a perfect cast of the corpse behind.
How nice - you could put it on the mantle piece.

There's a short video of the story here, it's quite interesting. Note the authentic York accents - sadly mine's long gone, though it comes out when I'm angry.
The building site is actually behind my old school - spooky.

One of the most famous York ghost stories concerns a plumber and his assistant in the 1950s who were in the cellar of the Treasurer's House, an old Tudor mansion (I think) next to the Minster. They apparently saw a ghostly legion of Roman soldiers walking through the cellar - the weird thing being that the army could only be seen from the waist up, everything else was below ground level.
When people began digging around later they discovered an old Roman road running underneath the building - and the depth of the road was such that anyone standing on it would come waist high to the new ground level...

I wish I hadn't told you that as it's now my bed time and it's suddenly gone very cold.

Oh well, while I'm at it...

A pub on Goodramgate, just inside the city walls, has a few ghosts but one of them was of an American pilot who stayed there during the second world war, during which he was killed. For years his ghost haunted his old bedroom - quite a friendly spirit apparently.
Anyway, this ghost was well known in the city as I was growing up (I mean well known as in 'known about' rather than 'we often saw him floating around the place') and was included on the 'Ghost Walks' which every city seems to have now, but which started in York.
A few years ago, after I'd left the city for pastures new, the ghost was reported 'missing'! There had been no reports of any activity from it at all. (Not that the pub suffered as it has another, rather more vicious ghost to keep the tourists happy).

Then a few weeks later the landlord got a phonecall from a rather worried American who had stayed there just before the ghost went missing, wanting to know if they'd noticed anything missing. Apparently, the ghost was now living with her in the US!

Most people are happy to buy a postcard or a plaster cast of the Minster, but this woman got a souvenir with a difference.

BBC NEWS | England | North Yorkshire | Mummified body found during dig: "Archaeologists working in York have discovered an ancient coffin containing a preserved body.
Workers made the find during development work and discovered the body had been mummified using a rare technique.
The body, possibly dating from Roman times, has been well so well preserved historians are hoping the facial features can still be seen.
The coffin is being taken to the York Museum Trust for examination on Tuesday

A spokesman explained the discovery of the mummification technique, known as the gypsum technique, is the first to be found during a modern dig.
'If we are very lucky the face may not have been covered so it is possible the actual features of the individual may have been preserved.
'It may be possible to actually look into the face of one of our ancestors,' he said.
The coffin will be taken to a storage site and later rehoused at the Yorkshire Museum."