Burial, Society and Context in the Roman World

Professor Martin Millett is Emeritus Laurence Professor of Classical Archaeology at the Faculty of Classics of the University of Cambridge and a Fellow of Fitzwilliam College, Cambridge.

• Preface (M.Millet) viiAbstracts, Zusammenfassungen, Resumes ixList of Contributors xxiiiTHE RECONSTRUCTION OF MORTUARY RITUALS1. Burial, society and context in the provincial Roman worls (J.Pearce) p.1Introduction p.132. Ritual, sequence, and structure in Late Iron Age mortuary practices in north-west Europe (A.p. Fitxpatrick) p.153. Reconstructing funerary rituals: the evidence of ustrina and related archaeological structures (M.Polfer) p.304. Phoenix rising: aspects of cremation in Roman Britain (J. McKinley) p.385. Functional and conceptual archaeobotanical data from Roman cremations (A. Kreuz) p.456. Pottery assemblages in Gallo-Roman cemteries (M. Tuffreau-Libre) p.52BURIAL AND SOCIAL STATUSIntroduction p.617.Mors immatura in he Roman world - a mirror of society and tradition (S. Martin-Kilcher) p.638. Portrait figures on sephulchral altars of Roman liberti: evidence of Romanization or assimilation of attributes characterizing higher social strata? (D. Dexheimer) p.789. High status burials in roman Britain (1st-3rd centuries AD) - potential of interpretation (M. Struck) p. 8510. Funerary rites in Verulamium during the early Roman period (R. Niblett) p.9711. Biology and burial practices from the end of the first century AD to the beginning of the fifth century AD: the rurla necropolis of Chantambre (essonne, France) (P. Murail and L. Girard) p.10512. A Roman cemetery in the eastern Civitas Treverorum. Preliminary report on the excavations in Wadern-Oberlosten in Northwest Saarland (Germany) (A. Abegg-Wigg) p.11213.An elite funerary enclosure in the centre of the villa of Biberist-Spitalhof (Switzerland) - a case study (C. Schucany) p.118THE DEAD IN THE LANDSCAPEIntroduction p.12514. Putting the dead in their place: burial location in Roman Britain (S. Esmonde Cleary) p.12715. Continuity of prehistoric burial sites in the Roman landscape of Sandy Flanders (F. Vermeulen and J. Bourgeois) p. 14316. The living and the dead: approches to landscape around Lyons (L. Tranoy) p.16217. Burial in Asia Minor during the Imperial period, with particular reference to Cilicia and Cappadocia (M. Spanu) p.169BURIAL AND ETHNICITYIntroduction p.17918. Early Roman graves in Southern Bavaria: a review (P. Fasold) p. 18119. Early Roman graves in Cologne (M. Riedel) p. 19220. Connection between funerary rites and ethnic groups in the cemeteries of north-eastern Pannonia (J. Topal) p.19721. Romanization and ethnic elements in burial practice in the southern part of Pannonia Inferior and Moesia Superior) A. Jovanovic) p.204SOCIETY, RELIGION AND BURIAL IN LATE ROMAN BRITAIN AND ITALYIntroduction p.21522. Putting Late Roman burial practice (from Britain) in context (L. Quensel-von-Kalben)23. Gender imbalances in Romano-British cemetery populations: a re-evaluation of the evidence (C. Davison) p.23124. Glass vessels as grave goods and grave ornaments in the catacombs of Rome (P. De Santis) p.23825. Clothing in burial practice in Italy in the early Christian period (R. Martorelli) p. 24426. Amulet and grave in Late Antiquity: some examples from Roman cemeteries (D. Nuzzo) p.24927. Funerary equipment from the circiforme basilica by the Via Ardeatina, Rome (P. del Moro) p.25628. Intra-mural burials at Rome between the 5th and 7th centuries AD (R, Meneghini and R. Santangeli Valenzani) p. 263Afterword (R.Reece) p.270

Taken as a whole, this volume highlights how mortuary archaeology can inform and stimulate current debates on Roman society and the empire-wide process of Romanization. It illustrates the richness and diversity of current studies in Roman mortuary archaeology, while the individual case studies demonstrate that cemetery sites are important nodes of practice and thought in the Roman world.' -- Mortality 7 Mortality 7 As one of the editors of the collection stresses, Roman modes of burial have had relatively scant attention, unless linked to particular historical issues, such as the spread of Christianity. The theoretical possibilities of the so-called archaeology of death have been tried frequently enough upon Greek and Etruscan material: but Rome is no less rich in data. There are several studies included here of mortuary practices in Rome and Italy in later antiquity, but principal consideration is given to the north-west provinces. How funerary rituals can be reconstructed; what burials tell us about social status; how landscapes of commemoration were shaped, and to what extent localized traditions might be Romanized - these are the subdivisions of a volume which ... carries all the signs of current archaeological investigation. Beyond the black-dotted plans and diagrams, what emerges is not so much a prospect of redefining the generalities of some supposedly Roman way of death, but rather the impertinence of such a category. Thanks to the microscopic techniques of examining carbonised plant remains (archaeobotany) and bodily traces (palaeopathology), every excavated grave is redeemed by its own story. To paraphrase Rupert Brooke - we shall not hear their trentals, nor eat their arval bread. But to ponder the number of newly-born infants buried in jars at a Gallo-Roman cemetery in the forest of Fontainebleau, and the assortment of grave goods left with the adults there - old shoes, coarse potshards, handfuls of nails - is insight hinged with the pathos of human fellowship.' -- Greece and Rome Greece and Rome fascinating and informative' -- American Journal Of Archaeology American Journal Of Archaeology