A “GROUNDBREAKING” exhibition at Colchester Castle has been celebrated with a national award.

Museum bosses at the castle say they are “thrilled” after scooping the Engagement and Collaboration Award at the Society for Museum Archaeology Awards for its Decoding the Roman Dead exhibition.

The stunning display showcases the research Colchester Museums conducted with archaeologists and specialists from the University of Reading to decode the hidden stories of Colchester’s earliest inhabitants.

From lifelong injuries, their final illnesses and even where they came from, the exhibition explains more about the lives of the people of Roman Colchester than ever before.

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It features more than 200 objects associated with the burial of Colchester’s Roman dead, including more than 40 loans from the Colchester Archaeological Trust – some of which have never been publicly displayed before.

Professor Hella Eckardt, head of the Department of Archaeology at the University of Reading, said: “It has been a pleasure to work with Colchester Museums on their amazing collection.”