Hostname: page-component-8448b6f56d-qsmjn Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-25T05:36:31.380Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Gloucester: The Wotton Cemetery Excavations, 2002

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  13 August 2014

P. Ellis  and
R. King
P. Ellis
Affiliation:
Bathpeter@chiltonbath.co.uk
R. King
Affiliation:
Foundations Archaeology, Swindonr.king@foundations.co.uk
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

The report summarises results from an excavation site within the Wotton cemetery on the outskirts of Gloucester. A total of 20 cremations and 54 inhumations were excavated and are the subject of a detailed human bone report. The earliest cremation urns were of pre-Flavian date and could be paralleled by pots from the Kingsholm fortress. Cremation rite continued into the early second century, but was then replaced by inhumation burials. These dated from the later first/early second century till the fourth century. Part of a ditched enclosure, perhaps with an earlier precursor, was laid out in the second century and survived, respected by burials, into the later Roman period. The layout of this part of the Wotton cemetery is not in the orderly rows expected for urban burial in the province and this circumstance is compared both with other urban cemeteries and with practices known on rural sites. Analysis of the human bone suggested working people were buried in this part of the cemetery. At least one of the burials seems likely to have been a soldier and another may have been a person of importance very late in the life of the town.

Keywords

Gloucestercemeteryinhumationcremationgrave goodsosteological analysis
Type
Articles
Information
Britannia , Volume 45 , November 2014 , pp. 53 - 120
Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s) 2014. Published by The Society for the Promotion of Roman Studies 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Footnotes

With contributions by K. BRAYNE, S. CLOUGH, H. COOL, J. MANT, J. TIMBY and N. WELLS

References

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Allason-Jones, L. 1985: ‘Bell-shaped studs?’, in Bishop, M.C. (ed.), The Production and Distribution of Roman Military Equipment: Proceedings of the Second Roman Military Equipment Research Seminar, BAR International Series 275, Oxford, 95–108 Google Scholar
Barber, B., and Bowsher, D. 2000: The Eastern Cemetery of Roman London: Excavations 1983–1990, MoLAS Monograph 4, London Google Scholar
Bass, W.M. 1987: Human Osteology: A Laboratory and Field Manual, Archaeological Society, Columbia, Missouri Google Scholar
Booth, P., Simmonds, A., Boyle, A., Clough, S., Cool, H.E.M., and Poore, D. 2010: The Late Roman Cemetery at Lankhills, Winchester. Excavations 2000–2005, Oxford Archaeology Monograph 10, Oxford Google Scholar
Brothwell, D. 1981: Digging up Bones, London Google Scholar
Brown, P. 1981: The Cult of the Saints. Its Rise and Function in Latin Christianity, London Google Scholar
Chamberlain, A. 2000: Calculation of the Minimum Number of Individuals (MNI) – Methodology, unpub. MSc thesis, University of SheffieldGoogle Scholar
Chenery, C., Müldner, G., Evans, J., Eckardt, H., and Lewis, M. 2010: ‘Strontium and stable isotope evidence for diet and mobility in Roman Gloucester, UK’, Journal of Archaeological Science 37, 150–63CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Clarke, G. 1979: The Roman Cemetery at Lankhills, Winchester Studies 3, Pre-Roman and Roman Winchester Part 2, Oxford Google Scholar
Clarke, S. 1996: ‘Acculturation and continuity: re-assessing the significance of Romanization in the hinterlands of Gloucester and Cirencester’, in Webster, J. and Cooper, N. (eds), Roman Imperialism: Post-Colonial Perspectives, Leicester Archaeology Monograph 3, Leicester, 71–4Google Scholar
Clough, S. 2003: Report on 56 Skeletons, Disarticulated Remains and 18 Cremations from London Road, Gloucester, Rudyard Consultancy Report for Foundations ArchaeologyGoogle Scholar
Cool, H.E.M. 1983: A Study of the Roman Personal Ornaments Made of Metal, Excluding Brooches, from Southern Britain, unpub. PhD thesis, University of Wales, CardiffGoogle Scholar
Cool, H.E.M. 1998: ‘Early occupation at St Mary's Abbey, York: the evidence of the glass’, in Bird, J. (ed.), Form and Fabric; Studies in Rome's Material Past in Honour of B.R. Hartley, Oxbow Monograph 80, Oxford, 301–5Google Scholar
Cool, H.E.M. 2004: The Roman Cemetery at Brougham, Cumbria: Excavations 1966–67, Britannia Monograph 21, London Google Scholar
Cool, H.E.M. 2007: ‘The glass vessels,’ in Crummy, P., Benfield, S., Crummy, N., Rigby, V. and Shimmin, D., Stanway: An Élite Burial Site at Camulodunum, Britannia Monograph 24, London, 340–6Google Scholar
Cool, H.E.M. 2008: ‘The small finds’, in Simmonds et al. 2008, 104–15Google Scholar
Cool, H.E.M. 2010: ‘Finding the foreigners’, in Eckardt, H. (ed.), Roman Diasporas: Archaeological Approaches to Mobility and Diversity in the Roman Empire, Journal of Roman Archaeology Supplementary Series 78, Portsmouth, Rhode Island, 27–44 Google Scholar
Cool, H.E.M., and Baxter, M.J. 1996: ‘An approach to quantifying vessel glass’, Annales du 13e Congrès de l'Association Internationale pour l'Histoire du Verre, Amsterdam, 93–101 Google Scholar
Crummy, N. 1983: The Roman Small Finds from Excavations in Colchester 1971–9, Colchester Archaeological Report 2, Colchester Google Scholar
Esmonde Cleary, A.S. 2000: ‘Putting the dead in their place: burial location in Roman Britain’, in Pearce et al. 2000, 127–42Google Scholar
Farwell, D.E., and Molleson, T.I. 1993: Excavations at Poundbury 1966–80, Vol 2: The Cemeteries, Dorchester Google Scholar
Findlay, D.C., Colborne, G.J.W., Cope, D.W., Harrod, T.R., Hogan, D.V., and Staines, S.J. 1984: Soils and their Use in South-West England, Bulletin of the Soil Survey of Great Britain 14, Harpenden Google Scholar
Foundations Archaeology 2003: 124–30 London Road, Gloucester: Archaeological Excavation Report and Post-excavation Assessment, Foundations Archaeology ReportGoogle Scholar
Fullbrook-Leggatt, L.E.W.O. 1933: ‘Glevum’, Transactions of the Bristol and Gloucestershire Archaeological Society 55, 55–104 Google Scholar
Gloucester Archaeology 1993: Archaeological Evaluation of Former Severn-Trent Depot, London Road, Gloucester, unpub. report, Gloucester City CouncilGoogle Scholar
Gowland, R. 2001: ‘Playing dead: implications of mortuary evidence for the social construction of childhood in Roman Britain’, in Davies, G., Gardner, A. and Lockyear, K. (eds), TRAC 2000. Proceedings of the Tenth Annual Theoretical Roman Archaeology Conference London 2000, Oxford, 152–68Google Scholar
Harden, D.B. 1947: ‘The glass’, in C.F.C. Hawkes and M.R. Hull, Camulodunum: First Report on the Excavations at Colchester 1930–1939, Oxford, 287–307 Google Scholar
Harris, E.C. 2002: Project Design: Excavations, London Road, Gloucester for Bryant Homes, unpub. reportGoogle Scholar
Heighway, C. 1980: ‘Roman cemeteries in Gloucester district’, Transactions of the Bristol and Gloucestershire Archaeological Society 98, 57–72 Google Scholar
Heighway, C. 1983: The East and North Gates of Gloucester, Bristol Google Scholar
Hurst, H.R. 1985: Kingsholm, Gloucester Archaeological Report 1, CambridgeGoogle Scholar
Hurst, H. 2005: ‘Roman Cirencester and Gloucester compared’, Oxford Journal of Archaeology 24.3, 293–305 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ireland, C. 1983: ‘The Roman pottery’, in Heighway 1983, 96–124CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Larsen, C.S. 1997: Bioarchaeology. Interpreting Behaviour from the Human Skeleton, Cambridge CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Levitan, B. 1985: ‘The animal bones’, in Saville, A., ‘Salvage recording of Romano-British, Saxon, medieval and post-medieval remains at North Street, Winchcombe, Gloucestershire’, Transactions of the Bristol and Gloucestershire Archaeological Society 103, 101–40Google Scholar
Lovejoy, C.O. 1985: ‘Dental wear in the Libben population: its functional pattern and role in the determination of adult skeletal age at death’, American Journal of Physical Anthropology 68, 47–56 CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Lovell, N.C. 1994: ‘Trauma analysis in palaeopathology’, Year Book of Physical Anthropology 40, 139–70Google Scholar
LRBC: Carson, R.A.G., Hill, P.V. and Kent, J.P.C., Late Roman Bronze Coinage AD 324–498 (1978)Google Scholar
Mackreth, D. 1998: ‘Copper-alloy brooches (Site 1, Site 2 and field-walking)’, in Timby 1998, 113–49Google Scholar
Maltby, M. 1983: ‘Animal bone’, in Heighway 1983, 228–45Google Scholar
Maltby, M. 1998: ‘The animal bone from Roman “small towns” in the Cotswolds’, in Timby 1998, 412–27Google Scholar
Maltby, M. n.d.: Assessment of Animal Bones from Cleeve Hill, Bishop's Cleeve, unpub. report for Foundations ArchaeologyGoogle Scholar
Manning, W.H. 1985a: ‘The iron objects’, in Pitts, L.F. and St Joseph, J.K., Inchtuthil the Roman Legionary Fortress Excavations 1952–65, Britannia Monograph 6, London, 289–99Google Scholar
Manning, W.H. 1985b: Catalogue of the Romano-British Iron Tools, Fittings and Weapons in the British Museum, London Google Scholar
Manning, W.H., Price, J., and Webster, J. 1995: Report on the Excavations at Usk 1965–1976. The Roman Small Finds, Cardiff Google Scholar
Mays, S. 1998: The Archaeology of Human Bones, London Google Scholar
McKinley, J.I. 2000: ‘Human bone and funerary deposits’, in Walker, K.E. and Farwell, D.F., Twyford Down, Hampshire. Archaeological Investigations on the M3 Motorway from Bar End to Compton, 1990–93, Hampshire Field Club Monograph 9, Winchester, 85–119 Google Scholar
McWhirr, A., Viner, L., and Wells, C. 1982: Romano-British Cemeteries at Cirencester, Cirencester Excavations 2, Cirencester Google Scholar
Meindl, R.S., and Lovejoy, C.O. 1985: ‘Ectocranial suture closure: a revised method for the determination of skeletal age at death based on the lateral-anterior sutures’, American Journal of Physical Anthropology 68, 57–66 CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Mould, Q. 2004: ‘Iron nails’, in Cool 2004, 271–2Google Scholar
Niblett, R. 2000: ‘Funerary rites in Verulamium during the early Roman period’, in Pearce et al. 2000, 97–104Google Scholar
Oldenstein, J. 1977: ‘Zur Ausrstung römischer Auxiliareinheiten. Studien zu Beschlägen und Zierat an der Ausrüstung der römischen Auxiliareinheiten des obergermanisch-raetischen Limesgebietes aus dem zweiten und dritten Jahrhundert n. Chr.’, Bericht der Römisch-Germanischen Kommission 57, 49–366 Google Scholar
Ortner, D.J., and Putschar, W.G.J. 1981: Identification of Palaeopathological Conditions in Human Skeletal Remains, Washington DC Google Scholar
Peacock, D.P.S., and Williams, D.F. 1986: Amphorae and the Roman Economy, London Google Scholar
Pearce, J. 1999: ‘The dispersed dead: preliminary observations on burial and settlement space in rural Britain’, in Baker, P., Forcey, C., Jundi, S. and Witcher, R. (eds), TRAC 98, Proceedings of the Eighth Annual Theoretical Archaeology Conference Leicester 1998, Oxford, 151–62Google Scholar
Pearce, J. 2008: ‘Burial evidence from Roman Britain: the un-numbered dead’, Collection de l'Ecole Française de Rome 407, 29–42 Google Scholar
Pearce, J., Millett, M., and Struck, M. (eds) 2000: Burial, Society and Context in the Roman World, Oxford Google Scholar
Philpott, R. 1991: Burial Practices in Roman Britain, BAR British Series 219, Oxford Google Scholar
Price, J., and Cool, H.E.M. 1985: ‘Glass (including glass from 72 Dean's Way)’, in Hurst 1985, 41–54Google Scholar
Price, J., and Cottam, S. 1998: Romano-British Glass Vessels: A Handbook, CBA Practical Handbook in Archaeology 14, YorkGoogle Scholar
Rawes, B. (ed.) 1991: ‘Archaeological review 1990’, Transactions of the Bristol and Gloucestershire Archaeological Society 109, 223–38Google Scholar
RIC: Mattingly, H., Sydenham, E.A. et al. , The Roman Imperial Coinage (1923– )Google Scholar
Roberts, C., and Cox, M. 2004: ‘The human population: health and disease’, in Todd, M. (ed.), A Companion to Roman Britain, Oxford, 242–72CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Roberts, C., and Manchester, K. 1995: The Archaeology of Disease, Stroud Google Scholar
Rogers, J., and Waldron, T. 1995: A Field Guide to Joint Disease in Archaeology, Chichester Google Scholar
Simmonds, A., Márquez-Grant, N., and Loe, L. 2008: Life and Death in a Roman City: Excavation of a Roman Cemetery with a Mass Grave at 120–122, London Road, Gloucester, Oxford Archaeology Monograph 6, Oxford Google Scholar
Stead, I.M., and Rigby, V. 1989: Verulamium, The King Harry Lane Site, English Heritage Archaeological Report 12, London Google Scholar
Swift, E. 2000: Regionality in Dress Accessories in the Late Roman West, Mongraphies Instrumentum 11, Montagnac Google Scholar
Taylor, A. 2003: ‘Burial with the Romans’, British Archaeology 69, 14–19 Google Scholar
Timby, J.R. 1986: ‘The Roman pottery’, in Hurst, H.R., Gloucester: The Roman and Later Defences, Gloucester Archaeological Report 2, Gloucester, 54–72 Google Scholar
Timby, J.R. 1991: ‘The Berkeley Street kiln, Gloucester’, Journal of Roman Pottery Studies 4, 19–31 Google Scholar
Timby, J.R. 1998: Excavations at Kingscote and Wycomb, Gloucestershire, Cirencester Google Scholar
Timby, J.R. 2008: ‘The pottery’, in Simmonds et al. 2008, 99–103Google Scholar
Trotter, M., and Gleser, G.C. 1952: ‘Estimation of stature from long bones of American whites and negroes’, American Journal of Physical Anthropology 10, 463–514 CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Wacher, J. 1995: The Towns of Roman Britain (2nd edn), London Google Scholar
Webster, J. 1992: ‘The objects of bronze’, in Evans, D.R. and Metcalf, V.M., Roman Gates Caerleon, Oxbow Monograph 15, Oxford, 103–61Google Scholar
Wells, C. 1982: ‘The human burials’, in McWhirr et al. 1982, 135–202Google Scholar