Romano-British Period—General characteristics—Modes of Burial—Customs attendant on Burial—Interments by cremation and by inhumation—Barrows—Tombs of Stone—Lead Coffins—Clay and Tile Coffins—Sepulchral Inscriptions, etc.

The grave-mounds and burial-places of the Romano-British period are, naturally, in many districts, far more abundant than those of the preceding period, while, in others again, as in Derbyshire and Cornwall, and some other counties, they are far less common than the Celtic ones. In these counties the Roman was, it would seem, more of a “bird of passage” (as well as, to some extent, a “bird of prey”) than a settler, and the consequence is, that no remains—or next to no remains—of villas or of settlements are found, and that where burial has taken place it has not unusually been in the same mound with those of an earlier period. The Ancient Briton raised the mounds over the remains of his own people; and his Roman subjugator, as occasion required, took possession of them, and therein laid his own dead. Thus the same barrow is sometimes found to contain, besides its primary Celtic interment, and others belonging to the same race, later deposits (nearer to the surface or to the side) of the Romano-British or of the Anglo-Saxon periods.

In other counties, where the Roman population made permanent settlements and built their towns and villas, regular cemeteries were formed for the burial of their dead, and to these mainly are we indebted for a knowledge of their customs and of their arts. The burials were, as in the previous period, both by inhumation and by cremation. The first appears to have been the most ancient practice of the Roman people, and it was not, as is stated, until the time of the dictator Sylla that burning of the dead was practised. From his time downward both of these usages were in vogue, according as the friends of the deceased preferred. So indiscriminately were these usages adopted in England that both are found in the same burial-places, and indeed (as in those of the Celtic period) in close proximity to each other.

The cemeteries attached to Roman towns were outside the walls, and usually by the road leading to the chief town—Londinium. In the country the owner of a villa had his burial-place in his own precincts.33 Almost always, except when the interment was made in an earlier barrow, the dead were laid near to the living. In fact, the Roman seems, even when dead, to have still courted the proximity of the living, for he always by preference sought to establish his last home as near as possible to the most frequented road; and the inscriptions on his roadside tomb often contained appeals to the passers-by—in terms such as SISTE VIATOR (stay, traveller), or, TV QVISQVIS ES QVI TRANSIS (thou, whoever thou art, who passest)—to think on the departed. The epitaph on a Roman named Lollius, published by GrÜter, concludes with the following words, intimating that he was placed by the roadside in order that the passer-by might say, “Farewell, Lollius!”

These examples will explain the position of the cemeteries of Uriconium and other Roman towns in Britain.

Mr. Wright, than whom no one is more able to speak authoritatively on the matter, thus speaks of the burial customs and observances of the Romans in Britain; and as it is necessary, before speaking of the objects found with the sepulchral remains of the people, to give a sketch of the formalities attending their death and burial, his account will add considerable interest to their consideration.

“The last duty to the dying man was to close his eyes, which was usually performed by his children, or by his nearest relatives, who, after he had breathed his last, caused his body first to be washed with warm water, and afterwards to be anointed. Those who performed this last-mentioned office were called pollinctores. The corpse was afterwards dressed, and placed on a litter in the hall, with its feet to the entrance door, where it was to remain seven days. This ceremony was termed collocatio, and the object of it is said to have been to show that the deceased had died a natural death, and that he had not been murdered. In accordance with the popular superstition, a small piece of money was placed in the mouth, which it was supposed would be required to pay the boatman Charon for the passage over the river Styx. In the case of persons of substance, incense was burnt in the hall, which was often decked with branches of cypress, and a keeper was appointed, who did not quit the body until the funeral was completed. The public having been invited by proclamation to attend the funeral, the body was carried out on the seventh day, and borne in procession, attended by the relatives, friends, and whoever chose to attend, accompanied by musicians, and sometimes with dancers, mountebanks, and performers of various descriptions. With rich people, the images of their ancestors were carried in the procession, which always passed through the Forum on its way to the place of burial, and sometimes a friend mounted the rostrum, and pronounced a funeral oration. In earlier times the burial always took place by night, and was attended with persons carrying lamps or torches, but this practice seems to have been afterwards neglected; yet the lamps still continued to be carried in the procession. Women, who were called prÆficÆ, were employed not only to howl their lamentations over the deceased, and chant his praises, like the Irish keeners, but to cry also; and their tears, it appears, were collected into small vessels of glass; and this circumstance is termed, in some of the inscriptions found on the Continent, being ‘buried with tears’—sepultus cum lacrymis; and the tomb is spoken of as being ‘full of tears’—TVMVL . LACRIM . PLEN.

“The next ceremony was that of burning the body. In the earlier ages of their history the Romans are said to have buried the bodies of their dead entire, without burning; and there seems to be no doubt that, at all events, the two practices, burning the body and cremation, existed at the same time; but the latter appears to have become gradually more fashionable, until few but paupers were buried otherwise. In the age of the Antonines the practice of cremation was finally abolished in Italy; but the imperial ordinances appear to have had but little effect in the distant provinces, where the two manners of burial continued to exist simultaneously. Both are accordingly found in the Roman cemeteries in Britain, in interments which were undoubtedly not those of Christians. Perhaps the practices varied in different parts of the island, according to the usages of the country from which the colonists derived their origin. It is a circumstance worthy of remark that, as far as discoveries yet go, no trace has been met with of burials in the Roman cemeteries of Uriconium, otherwise than by burning the dead.

“The funeral pile, pyra, was built of the most inflammable woods, to which pitch was added, and other things, which often rendered this part of the ceremony very expensive. An inscription, preserved by GrÜter, speaks of some persons whose property was only sufficient to pay for the funeral pile and the pitch to burn their bodies—nec ex eorum bonis plus inventum est quam quod sufficeret ad emendam pyram et picem quibus corpora cremarentur. It had been ordered by a law of the Twelve Tables, that the funeral pile must be formed of timber which was rough and untouched by the axe, but this rule was perhaps not very closely adhered to in later times. When the body was laid on the pile, the latter was sprinkled with wine and other liquors, and incense and various unguents and odoriferous spices were thrown upon it. It was now, according to some accounts, that the naulum, or the coin for the payment of the passage over the Styx, was placed in the mouth of the corpse, and at the same time the eyes were opened. Fire was applied to the pile by the nearest relatives of the deceased, who, in doing this, turned their faces from it while it was burning; the relatives and friends often threw into the fire various objects, such as personal ornaments, and even favourite animals and birds. When the whole was reduced to ashes, these were sprinkled with wine (and sometimes with milk), accompanied with an invitation to the manes, or spirit of the deceased. The reader will call to mind the lines of Virgil (Æn. vi. 226):—

“The next proceeding, indeed, was to collect what remained of the bones from the ashes, which was the duty of the mother of the deceased, or, if the parents were not living, of the children, and was followed by a new offering of tears. Some of the old writers speak of the difficulty of separating the remains of the burnt bones from the wood ashes, and we accordingly find them usually mixed together. When collected, the bones were deposited in an urn, which was made of various materials. The urn in Virgil was made of brass, or perhaps bronze. Instances are mentioned of silver, and even gold, being used for this purpose, as well as of marble; and those found in Britain are often of glass, but the more common material was earthenware. One of the performers in the ceremony, whose duty this was, then purified the attendants by sprinkling them thrice with water, with an olive branch (if that could be obtained), and the prÆficÆ pronounced the word Ilicet (said to be a contraction of Ire licet, ‘you may go’). Those who had attended the funeral, thrice addressed the word Vale (farewell) to the manes of the dead, and departed. A sumptuous supper was usually given after the funeral to the relatives and friends.

“In the case of people of better rank, the body was burnt on the ground which had been purchased for the sepulchre, but for the poorer people there was a public burning-place, which was called the ustrina, where the process was probably much less expensive, and whence the urn, with the remains (relliquiÆ) of the deceased, was carried to be interred. The tombs of rich families were often large and even splendid edifices, with rooms inside, in the walls of which were small recesses, where the urns were placed. None of the buildings remain in any Roman cemetery in our island, but we can hardly doubt that such tombs did exist in the cemetery of Uriconium, and that they were scattered along the side of the Watling Street. At one place at Uriconium the foundations of a small building were met with, which appeared to have consisted of an oblong square, with a rectangular recess behind, but the western portion of it has been destroyed by the process of draining. When opened, ashes and fragments of an urn were found in the enclosed space, so that it is not improbable that this may have been a tomb with a room. An inscribed stone, which was found not far from this spot, bears evidence, in the appearance of its reverse side and in its form, of having been fixed against a wall, probably over a door.” The urn was perhaps here interred beneath the floor of the room. In many cases the dead body was certainly burnt on the spot where it was to be buried. A square pit had been dug, on the floor of which the funeral pile had been laid. The fire had then been lit in the pit or grave, and the body consumed in its own grave. Remains of the timber of the funeral pile still remained in a pit of this kind at Uriconium, as it had sunk on the floor, the ends of which were unconsumed, and the earth underneath quite red from burning.

In most of the other interments in the cemetery of Uriconium, a small hole or pit appears to have been sunk in the ground, and the urn, which had no doubt been brought from the ustrina, was placed in it and covered up. These interments were not far distant from each other, and appear to have been placed in rows, nearly parallel to the road. Perhaps the ground may have been bought for this purpose in common, by associations of the townsmen, such as trade corporations, or it may have been set aside for burial purposes by the municipal authorities, and sold in small portions to individuals, as the practice now exists in modern cemeteries. The average depth at which the urns have been found is somewhat less than four feet, so that, allowing two feet for the accumulation of soil, the Romans seem to have dug pits about two feet deep for their reception.

Coins were, as has just been stated, buried with the dead, in conformity with a superstitious belief that they would expedite the passage of the soul across the lake in Hades. The magic power of money in all connections with human life originated this custom. In all worldly matters money then was, as it unfortunately now still is, the main, if not the only, sure passport to place and honour; and thus it was believed that the soul of the man who had not received the usual rites of burial, and in whose mouth no fee for the ferryman of the Stygian lake had been placed,34 would wander hopelessly on its banks, while decent interment and a small brass coin would obviate any disagreeable inquiries that Charon might else be inclined to make as to the merits or claims of the applicant. Thus in the cinerary urns of the period of which I am speaking coins are very commonly found, and also in interments by inhumation a small coin has, in more than one instance in Derbyshire, been found with the skull, in such a manner as to leave no doubt of its having been placed in the mouth of the deceased. In some instances a considerable number of coins have been found deposited together, or scattered about, in a barrow, along with human remains. In Haddon Field a large number of coins, principally consisting of third brass of Constantine, Constans, Constantius II., Valentinian, Valens, and Gratian, were found, along with bones and fragments of pottery, traces of decayed wood, and a portion of a glass vessel. At Minning-Low, the fine chambered tumulus described on p. 54, ante, where several interments of the Romano-British period have undoubtedly been made in the earlier Celtic mound, many Roman coins, along with portions of sepulchral urns, etc., have from time to time been found. These are principally of Claudius Gothicus, Constantine the Great, Constantine Junior, Valentinian, and Constantius. In a barrow near Parwich, upwards of eighty coins of the later emperors were found. At most places, in fact, where Roman interments have taken place, coins have been found, and these range from an early to a late period in Roman history.

When interment was by inhumation, in many instances the body was simply laid in the earth without any further covering than the usual dress. In other instances there are abundant appearances of the body having been enclosed in a wooden coffin or chest. In others, again, the body had been enclosed in a stone sarcophagus or chest, which was occasionally elaborately carved. Sometimes, again, coffins of lead were used. Mounds or barrows over sepulchral chambers and other modes of interment were frequently raised, to which I shall have to draw further attention. Examples of the first and most simple of these modes of burial have been discovered in different parts of the country, those at Bartlow Hills and at Little Chester being, perhaps, among the most notable. At the latter place a skeleton of a man found some years ago lay full length on its back, the arms straight down by the sides. Iron rivets, which were found much corroded, lay near various parts of the body, and a thin stratum of ferruginous matter encased the skeleton at a little distance from the body and limbs. From these circumstances it is to be inferred that the deceased was interred in his armour. Other interments by inhumation have been recently discovered in the same neighbourhood, but without, in some instances, the ferruginous appearances. The remains of horses were found along with them. Interments by inhumation have also been found at Brough and at other stations in the same county, and, as later deposits, in Celtic barrows. Those where the bones have been found in situ appear, like the one I have spoken of at Little Chester, at Bartlow, and at other places, to have been laid at full length on the back, the arms straight down by the sides. They appear in most instances to have been simply laid in a very shallow grave, but little below the surface of the already formed mound, and to have been then covered to no great thickness with earth. Those found at Bartlow lay parallel to, but a short distance apart from, each other, their heads to the west and feet to the east. They were laid flat on their backs, their limbs straight out, their arms by their sides, and hands on the thighs. Some coins of Constantine and Tetricus, and other little matters, were found with them.35 Traces of wooden chests or coffins were discernible around these skeletons, and this feature is not uncommon in burials of this description.

When the body was placed in a stone chest or sarcophagus, it was in full dress, on its back, on the bottom of the chest, and any relics which were intended to be buried with it were laid about. The chest, as is evident from the examples found at York, was then partly filled with liquid lime, the face alone not being covered with the corroding liquid. When now found, a perfect impression of the figure is preserved in the bed of lime in which it was encased, and in some instances even the colour and texture of the dress is plainly distinguishable.36 Frequently the stone chest contained a leaden coffin, in which the body was placed. A remarkably fine sculptured chest found in London,37 and others found at York,38 will be sufficient references to these interesting sarcophagi, which are occasionally inscribed.

A tomb of a different description, which will be seen to partake largely of the construction of the stone cist of the earlier period, is here engraved (fig. 206). It is formed of ten rough slabs of gritstone, two on each side, one at each end, and four others laid as covering on the top. On removing the covering stones, a regularly shaped mass of lime presented itself, which had derived its form from a wooden coffin that had so nearly perished as to leave only small fragments behind. The wood was evidently cedar. On turning over this mass of lime an impression of the body of a man, which had been enveloped in, or covered with, a coarse linen cloth, fragments of which still remained, was distinctly seen. In another instance the impression of the body of a woman who had been clothed in rich purple, with a small child laid upon her lap, was distinctly visible in the lime.

Fig. 206.