Grave-mounds and Their Contents / A Manual of Archæology, as Exemplified in the Burials of the Celtic, the Romano-British, and the Anglo-Saxon Periods

by Llewellynn Frederick William Jewitt

HIC . PROPTER . VIAM . POSITVS
UT . DICANT . PRAETEREVNTES
LOLLI . VALE.

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):—

‘Postquam collapsi cineres, et flamma quievit,
Relliquias vino et bibulam lavere favillam,
Ossaque lecta cado texit Corynæus aëno.’

“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.