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No.54 - January 2003 | Contex HOME

LECTURE REPORT

East London Roman Cemeteries

MARGARET SCHOLEY-HILL

The November COLAS lecture by David Bowsher, Senior Archaeologist with MoLAS, was keenly anticipated because some COLAS members had assisted with the eleven excavations which took place on a Roman cemetery between 1983 and 1990.

All later Roman cemeteries were placed outside the City wall and the existence of Roman burial urns and artefacts on this site to the east of the City limits had been known since 1678 when it was mentioned in Stow’s Survey of London. Archaeological access to the area south of Whitechapel Road became possible in the 1980s when development began. In total, it may cover 16 hectares and extends more than a kilometre beyond the City wall

There are three elements to the cemetery: a road, the burials and a set of ditches enclosing fields or plots of land.

THE ROAD
The road itself dated from when the cemetery was first used about 70AD and is made of compacted sand and gravel. More recently, a similarly dated and aligned section of road has been found within the City wall, north of Shadwell and this is possibly the same road. However, the road associated with the cemetery was laid earlier than the construction of the wall itself and diversions of the road would have been needed during and after the erection of the wall. It appears that the burials were placed within ditches made previously during quarrying for road construction material. The burial ditches and the road are similarly aligned.

THE BURIALS
Six hundred and fifty three inhumations and one hundred and sixty cremations have been excavated with evidence of a further hundred and sixty five disturbed burials, representing activity over five centuries. Inhumations appear to have become more common than cremations after the 2nd century.

Cremations
Residues or pyre rakes from cremations give indications of the rituals involved. Remains of personal objects and wearing apparel, such as needles, combs, and hob-nails, have been found when the material was wet-sieved but no evidence of the pyres. Animal bones and burnt pulses may indicate that feasts took place in association with the burial. There was one sample of a bustum (the pit over which the body was placed before being burnt) but otherwise some of the best remains, token bones, were gathered and placed in containers before burial. Pots were often used for the burial but in more elaborate cases small pots enclosing the bones were placed in urns.

The quality of the pots is variable and sometimes pieces of tiles cover the neck of the vessel with possible access for libations. David suggested that this was a way of maintaining contact with the dead. Some pots predated the burial by several years and were in poor condition leading to a range of theories being put forward. Some grave goods, burnt with the body, indicated a belief in the dead taking food and drink with them on a journey. One of the amphora cremation burials contained a lamp, perhaps to light the way and several coins were found, which may be interpreted as the necessary payment for the ferry across the River Styx to the underworld. Some objects predated the burial by many years, such as copper alloy mirrors that were more than sixty years old. These were obviously significant pieces for the deceased and their families.

Inhumations
Most inhumations were in wooden coffins with the legs and arms in a variety of positions which might reflect the burial apparel, for instance a funereal gown or toga. There was no orientation pattern for the graves; rather it seemed to be just an efficient use of space within the plot with graves either parallel or perpendicular to the road and plot boundaries. Only fourteen bodies were buried prone, one of which had the arms tied and large rocks placed on it. Perhaps this was to prevent the spirit escaping the grave. There were a few double burials and six inhumations had the head displaced, for instance between the feet. These did not appear to be executions for there was no cervical bone damage.

Although most inhumations were in simple wooden coffins, two were in tile cysts like those in other Roman towns and two were lead-lined. In addition, some of the coffins were packed round with rocks which may have indicated the grave boundary to prevent disturbance by subsequent burials.

12% of the inhumations had been packed about with a marine-type chalk, the purpose of which was still being debated.

Some of the stone-lined graves showed remains of associated mausolea and these graves were often in a prominent position near to the road. One reused tablet with an inscription had been found but unfortunately there were no stone coffins, such as in the Spitalfields excavations. However 24% of the burials had one or two objects included with the corpse and these were particularly interesting.

Inclusions
PERSONAL ORNAMENTS The most fantastic piece David showed us was a chip-carved belt buckle placed by the side of a corpse. There were examples of bracelets, necklaces, ear-rings, anklets, rings; some of glass and others of jet including two outstanding jet medusa pendants.

COINS Altogether twenty-one inhumations and eight cremations had coins, six of them being placed in the mouth, most likely as a payment to Charon for the journey to the underworld (see above in cremations).

VESSELS These were mostly ceramic to hold food, drink and other substances but pewter plates and bowls were also found.

ANIMAL OFFERINGS Bones of pigs, chicken and geese appeared to be deliberately placed within the grave, perhaps as sustenance for the journey.

TOILET PIECES AND FIGURINES These included containers for ointments and cosmetics, mirrors, needles and lamps. Interestingly, there was a complete gaming set of twenty-four glass counters and four dice in a wooden box. Pipe clay figures of the goddess Venus were found in one grave, two from the same mould.

FOOTWEAR Only the pattern of hob-nails were found in thirty-six inhumations, some on the feet, but others showing that the boots had been placed separately. The nails were from sandals and shoes as well as army boots.

Statistics
The ratio of male to female burials was 1.7:1, that is, the normal distribution in an urban population and there were few infant burials. It is estimated from a population of 20,000 in the Roman period that between 500,000 and 1,000,000 may have occurred over the five centuries of use.

Finally, we were left with a puzzle. In one burial, the cranium had been removed from the mandible and was replaced by a pot. The cranium had been placed on the pelvis and the burial had been surrounded by chalk. Lastly, boulders covered the burial except for a gap in which a key had been placed. One could appreciate the problems of interpreting these rites. The activity surrounding a burial does not necessarily indicate the social status of the person buried however.

We were pleased to hear that the well-illustrated report of the excavations had now been published by the Museum of London with a grant from English Heritage - MoLAS Monograph 4. This is an appropriate conclusion to mark the termination of this stage of research into these exceptional excavations.

The lecture ended with a lively question-and-answer session, indicating the high level of interest in the lecture.

I am grateful for the help given by David Bowsher in preparation of this lecture report.

[Details of the West Tenter Street excavation are in the LAMAS Transactions Vol 37, 1986.]