leicester Western Road cemetery

AbOve The plan shows Roman Leicester and its known cemeteries, including the Western Road site, which lies on the Fosse Way. The site is shown (leFt) in more detail.

proposed ‘outcast’ status – were it not for the fact that among the main body of the burials we had a number of other prone internments. Six of these contained grave goods that pointed to a rather more respectful treatment of the burial, while in one case two prone burials were ‘paired’, suggesting that they had been deliberately laid to rest together in the same manner.

Even more distinctive was an older adult, who had been decapitated and buried with their head placed beneath their knees. Beheaded burials have been ascribed motives as diverse as murder, criminal execution, and superstition or religious belief. In our case, however, a more violent interpretation seems to be the most plausible, as the individual shows multiple injuries that were inflicted with a bladed instrument to the head (particularly the face and jaw, resulting in broken teeth), neck, and upper left arm. Those to the neck had been delivered from the front and both sides, eventually achieving full decapitation. Whatever its motivation, the person’s treatment had been brutal.

There were also more benign insights to be uncovered from the burials. The presence of iron nails in the base of some graves suggests that nearly half the people whose remains we uncovered had been interred in wooden coffins – though it is possible that caskets fixed together using less durable means, such as wooden pegs (as have been found elsewhere in Leicester), may have occupied some

In the past, prone burials have been interpreted as a sign of disrespect or punishment for the deceased (CA 244), or as a means of preventing the dead from returning to haunt the living – but there may be alternative ritual explanations, or even something as mundane as a shrouded body being accidentally buried face down, whether due to haste or lack of care. At Western Road, six of the prone burials lay on the fringe of the cemetery, which might lend credence to their

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current archaeology | www.archaeology.co.uk remains of a roman soldier One of the more distinctive citizens of Roman Leicester we encountered during the Western Road excavation was a man wearing an elaborate decorated belt-set that suggests he may have been a soldier or civil servant in the late 4th century or early 5th century AD (see CA 318).

Although the leather belt that these pieces adorned has long since rotted away, the components themselves – a buckle, a belt plate, and a strap end – are stunningly well preserved. In particular, the survival of the delicate, thin-sheet bronze belt plate is remarkable: it is cast in so-called ‘chip-carved’ style, is decorated with interlocking spirals, and would have been fixed to a wide leather belt or girdle using rivets. A thinner securing strap would have run from this, through the buckle – which is decorated with dolphin heads – and ended in the strap end, on which a pair of crouching dogs can be seen.

October 2016 |