Contextual Archaeology of Burial Practice: Case studies from Roman Britain

Description

This study explores the insights into provincial Roman societies that can be gained from the archaeological evidence for burial practice, focused on Britain, drawing on wider work in the archaeology of death. It evaluates the distribution of burial evidence and the factors that condition it, including, it is argued, archaeologically invisible burial continuing from the Iron Age. It reviews the archaeological evidence for cremation rituals and explores how social status was expressed through burial, primarily in case studies from south-east England. Funerary ritual was a dynamic arena for asserting social status throughout the Roman period, taking forms that can be read as both 'traditional' and 'Roman'. The setting of burial is assessed to establish spatial relationships between living and dead in town and country and the distribution of funerary display across the landscape. Front Cover Title Page Copyright Table of Contents List of Figures Acknowledgements Preface CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION CHAPTER 2: DIGGING DEATH: THE DISTRIBUTION OF BURIAL EVIDENCE FROM ROMAN BRITAIN CHAPTER 3: THE EVIDENCE FOR ROMAN BURIAL RITUALS, WITH SPECIAL REFERENCE TO CREMATION CHAPTER 4: BURIAL TRADITIONS AND URBAN SOCIETY IN ST ALBANS (VERULAMIUM) AND NEIGHBOURING MINOR CENTRES CHAPTER 5: BURIAL TRADITIONS AND URBAN SOCIETY IN WINCHESTER (VENTA BELGARUM) CHAPTER 6: DEATH IN THE COUNTRY CHAPTER 7: THE GEOGRAPHY OF FUNERARY DISPLAY CHAPTER 8: THE FORM OF BURIAL DISPLAY: A WIDER CONTEXT CHAPTER 9: CONCLUSION CONCORDANCE APPENDICES BIBLIOGRAPHY