Death and burial in the roman world
I don't wish this to be a gloomy topic. So I'm keeping the whole thing skewed towards what the rituals around death convey to us about how Romans lived. If you want a full nuts n bolts run-down of which mourner wailed which dirge there's a brilliant Wikipedia article here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roman_funerals_and_burial
Whole life stories can be read or inferred from Roman tombstones. Try Regina ('Queenie'), found when the Swan Hunter shipyards were blasted through the remains of the Roman town at South Shields. She's in full fig as a wealthy Roman 'matrona', complete with a jewellery box and the wool she's been diligently spinning. Her inscription says:
D(IS) M(ANIBVS) REGINA LIBERTA ET CONIVGE to the gods of the shades Regina freedwoman and wife
BARATES PALMYRENVS NATIONE of Barates the Palmyrene she was of the people
CATVALLAVNA AN(NORVM) XXX of the Catuvellauni she lived 30 years
(Palmyrene script) RGYN’ BT HRY ‘T’ HBL Regina the freedwoman of barates alas
(Thanks to Newcastle University for these)
So here's the story: the Catuvellauni were the british tribe around St Alban's. Somehow she was a slave, then was acquired in the Newcastle area by Barates from Palmyra in Syria (bet he found it very chilly round the Tyne). He both gave her her freedom and married her, and judging from the heartfelt wail he added in his native language, must have loved her.
D(IS) M(ANIBVS) REGINA LIBERTA ET CONIVGE to the gods of the shades Regina freedwoman and wife
BARATES PALMYRENVS NATIONE of Barates the Palmyrene she was of the people
CATVALLAVNA AN(NORVM) XXX of the Catuvellauni she lived 30 years
(Palmyrene script) RGYN’ BT HRY ‘T’ HBL Regina the freedwoman of barates alas
(Thanks to Newcastle University for these)
So here's the story: the Catuvellauni were the british tribe around St Alban's. Somehow she was a slave, then was acquired in the Newcastle area by Barates from Palmyra in Syria (bet he found it very chilly round the Tyne). He both gave her her freedom and married her, and judging from the heartfelt wail he added in his native language, must have loved her.
Like all Roman inscriptions tombstones are in text-speak abbreviations to fit more in. HCF = the heir had this made. DM = dis manibus (to the God the Manes). The Manes ruled the Shades, or underworld. The Latin take on the afterlife was gloomy with a distinct belief in and fear of ghosts. We don't know quite how the beliefs of their many diverse subjects differed, but in a desire to show their Roman-ness, people like Barates adopted the Latin language and and the Latins' fashions to publicly complete the necessary respectable rituals that would show the standing of the living, and placate the shades of the dead.
Inhumation, cremation, mummification
In the earlier years of the Roman Empire the prevailing fashion was for cremation, and that later on this changed to a trend towards inhumation ie burial of the entire body.
In keeping with the belief in the underworld of the Shades, cremation urns were butied underground, or in a minority of cases placed in underground or semi-underground structures such as the catacombs in Rome.
All kinds of containers were used to hold the gathered-up creamted remains, from expensive specially-made urns (see right) comlete with in-built funnel in the lid, so libations could be aoffered conveniently, to household pots. Wooden chests may also have been used but only hinges and fittings survive.
In keeping with the belief in the underworld of the Shades, cremation urns were butied underground, or in a minority of cases placed in underground or semi-underground structures such as the catacombs in Rome.
All kinds of containers were used to hold the gathered-up creamted remains, from expensive specially-made urns (see right) comlete with in-built funnel in the lid, so libations could be aoffered conveniently, to household pots. Wooden chests may also have been used but only hinges and fittings survive.
In the past excavation used to focus on collecting up the vessels and human remains, but now archaeologists seek to understand whole sites. Lankshill near Winchester has been throuroughly excavated since the 1960s, and in 2000 - 2005 Oxford Archaeology uncovered a further 300-odd people's remains from this already sizeable late Roman cemetery. Excitingly the recent work suggested that wooden grave markers may have been in use, and that many of the people excvated were born in mainland Europe and even north Africa.
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Lastly, the Romans also had a go at mummification, or at least embalming. There are tentative historical references to people at past times finding stone sarcophagi whose occupant was, for want of a better description, preserved in aspic - or at least so slothered in air-excluding unguent that decay had been greatly slowed down. The most recent of these is known as 'the Child of Grottarossa' and it's remarkably hard to find a decent online link to help you. (Stop press: found a link, but it's in Italian....) So to summarise: ealry 1960's suburb of Rome, car park construction destroyed an elaborately-carved stone sarcophagus (oh, this happens in Italy so very often....). Contractors alarmed to find instead of a skeleton within, the well-hydrated corpse of a child wrapped in resin-impreganted linen. She's on display now in the Palazzo Massimo alle Terme museum, but time and primitive preservation techniques have not been kind to the little girl. Read more in this book extract.
The Yorkshire Museum has on display this hair (and scalp) which comes from the sarcophagus of a Roman woman and child, whose bodies had been thoroughly coated in powdered gypsum. This process had the effect of halting decay long enough for the gypsum to form a plaster-like shell, giving an eery but fascinating cast of the deceased which the Museum seems not to want you to see online, as I can't locate an image to show you.
But as an aside, read this article about the work of the excellent Joann Fletcher, who is making sensible links between Roman attempts at mummification and the later Roman popularity of 'eastern' cults.
But as an aside, read this article about the work of the excellent Joann Fletcher, who is making sensible links between Roman attempts at mummification and the later Roman popularity of 'eastern' cults.