Eboracum lead coffin. Variations on this combination exist. The gypsum casts, when found undisturbed, frequently retain a cast impression of the deceased in a textile shroud – surviving examples of both adults and children show a selection of textiles used to wrap the body before interment, but usually plain woven cloth. The high number of sarcophagi from "Eboracum" has provided a large number of these casts, in some cases with cloth surviving adhered to the gypsum. Two gypsum burials at York have shown evidence for frankincense and another clear markers of Pistacia spp. (mastic) resin used as part of the funerary
Eboracum of the period have been excavated. For the Romans, Eboracum, was the major military base in the north of Britain and, following the 3rd century division of the province of Britannia, the capital of northern Britain, Britannia Inferior. By 237 Eboracum had been made a colonia, the highest legal status a Roman city could attain, one of only four in Britain and the others were founded for retired soldiers. This mark of Imperial favour was probably a recognition of Eboracum as the largest town in the north and the capital of Britannia Inferior. At around the same time Eboracum became