As part of the Festival of Archaeology the Roman Baths
Collections team were in Sydney Gardens exploring the theme of Roman death and
burial.
Burials are a major source of information that helps us to understand
life in Roman Britain. Burials provide evidence about physique, disease, social
organisations and religious beliefs and rituals.
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| Emily preparing the Death and Burial display at Sydney Gardens |
So how can we tell a burial is Roman?
In Roman Britain you were typically buried in one of two
ways, either cremation or inhumation. A cremation burial is the burial of
cremated remains in an urn or pot and inhumation is the burial of body in a
grave or tomb.
Cremation with grave goods became more widespread following
the Roman invasion in 43 AD, but later gave way to inhumation with fewer grave
goods, possibly as other religions, such as Christianity and Mithraism grew in
popularity.
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| Roman coarseware jar containing cremated remains, on display at the Roman Baths museum |
What is a grave good?
An object buried with the body, mostly of inorganic material such as pottery,
jewellery, weapons and toys. Organic items would have been deposited with the
body, but have since decayed. Grave goods can help us date a burial as well as
provide insight into the life of the individual. Grave goods often reflected
the wealth or status of the individual, or their family.
They were also ritual objects, with pottery at a burial site
often being a sign of ritual feasting. Feasts were held as the deceased was
buried, or sometimes days after. Food was also left as an offering for the
deceased. These practices explain why we find food and beverage vessels at
different levels at a burial site.
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| Selection of grave goods: Clockwise from top left to right; flagon rim, samian sherd, jar base, rim sherd, iron brooch, commemorative bronze coin of Septimus Severus with funerary pyre depicted on the reverse, selection of hobnails |
What would they be buried in?
The first materials to decompose are organic such as wood, food,
and clothing. This leaves us without much knowledge of what clothing a person
was buried in. Items such as pins, brooches and hobnails are the only remaining
clues for a person’s clothing. Pins and brooches were used to hold together a
shroud or toga.
Hobnails are common remaining fragments of a Roman shoe.
This tells us the individual could have been clothed when they were buried or
that the shoes were placed as a symbolic grave good in or outside the coffin.
The nails would have been screwed into the sole of the shoe, similar to a
modern football boot.
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| Female skeleton excavated at Batheaston with hobnails found in situ at the soles of the feet |
What do you think would survive in a burial today that could
tell us about life in 2019?
Imogen Westcott
Placement
