Roman burials in Britain

[Brian G Turner]

I was reading about a specific excavation near Hadrain's Wall which brought up a lot of interesting points about the Roman burials uncovered:
http://www.archaeologyuk.org/ba/ba80/feat3.shtml

The dead would seem to have gone to their pyres dressed rather than in shrouds. Women and children regularly wore glass bead necklaces, with some women having gold earrings. Brooches were relatively rare, but there were hints at a gender division with crossbow forms accompanying males and others with females. Adults had hobnailed shoes, but hobnails were not found with children so they were bare-foot or wore un-nailed shoes.

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In comparison to the pyres of adults, those of children and young people appear curiously bare. This may be a function of when the excavations took place, before environmental sampling developed. The pyres of the young may have been covered with flowers, fruits and other food items, but such remains would not have been retrieved. The special way of treating the young can be seen more clearly when the grave goods placed in the formal burials are studied. In the earliest phase, for example, colour-coated beakers are seen as uniquely appropriate for young people, both as urns and accessory vessels; and at all times small Samian cups were only ever found with children younger than eight.

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Specific types of vessels were also thought appropriate for different adults. Only adult men, and possibly only those of high status, were ever accompanied by glass drinking cups. Though shallow Samian dishes accompanied people of all ages, deep Samian bowls were only found with adults.

I find this especially interesting, not least because by the Mediaeval period, clothes were often considered too valuable to destroy in a burial. It's almost as if the Roman lived in a "throwaway society" like ourselves, though most likely religious beliefs had an important influence - not least that Roman might expect to find themselves in an afterlife similar to the life they had left, while Christians were going where worldly possessions would no longer be required.

However, the really big discovery at this site only gets mentioned at the end of the piece:

Two adult women were burnt with both horses and military equipment on their pyres. Though numerii are generally referred to as irregular units, they are not normally thought of as having women amongst their ranks. However, the unit came from the area where the ancient Greeks placed the origin of the female warriors called Amazons. Could numerii be even more irregular than anyone has ever dreamed?

The women appear to be with a unit originating from Eastern Europe, around the Danube, with the intriguing suggestion that mixed gender fighting units from there were the norm.