Transitional Burials in Late Antique Villas in the North-Western Provinces: Assessing Distributions and Characteristics
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European Journal of Archaeology 24 (1) 2021, 68–88 This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution licence (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. Transitional Burials in Late Antique Villas in the North-Western Provinces: Assessing Distributions and Characteristics JAMES DODD Faculty of Humanities, Free University Amsterdam, The Netherlands The end of the villa landscape in the north-western Roman provinces is characterized by significant transformation. One facet is the use of the villa complex and its surrounding area for funerary purposes. Traditionally, these burials have been divided into large-scale reuse of sites in the Migration period and small-scale transitional burials. The study of the latter has previously often been misguided or neglected. In this article, the author examines these transitional burials, addresses their historical background, and presents a new approach for assessing the scale, temporal distribution, and characteristics of a group of sites with funerary evidence in Belgica, Britannia, and the Germanic provinces. Keywords: Late Antiquity, north-western provinces, burial traditions, villa transformation, rural settlement, Migration period INTRODUCTION burials under investigation here have gener- ally been labelled as ‘transitional’ in that Rural communities in the north-western they are between the superficially ‘neat’ provinces of the Roman Empire experi- rural cemeteries of the Middle Roman enced widespread transformation during period (Ferdière, 1993;Hatton,1999:160– Late Antiquity. This shift is clear in the 180; Kießling, 2008) and the later cemeter- development of new productive practices iesarrangedinrowsofgraves(theso-called and habitational styles in Roman villas Reihengräberzivilisation; Halsall, 1995:9– between the third and fifth centuries AD,a 13). Transitional burials have been consid- topic repeatedly addressed in the literature ered ‘secondary’ in that they use features of the last few decades (e.g. Van Ossel, that were not originally designed for mor- 1992; Chavarría, 2004; Dodd, 2014, 2019). tuary purposes. These burials differ from Despite this, overviews have lacked a data- more ‘formal’ Late Antique cemeteries, driven approach to specific elements of this both urban (e.g. Tongres in Belgium transition, especially in the funerary sphere [Lesenne, 1975:81–86] and Poundbury in and more specifically among the so-called south-west Britain [Farwell & Molleson, ‘transitional burials’ at villa complexes. The 1993]) and rural (e.g. Bradley Hill in Copyright © European Association of Archaeologists 2020 doi:10.1017/eaa.2020.37 Manuscript received 16 October 2019, accepted 12 June 2020, revised 11 May 2020 Downloaded from https://www.cambridge.org/core. IP address: 170.106.40.139, on 27 Sep 2021 at 01:12:16, subject to the Cambridge Core terms of use, available at https://www.cambridge.org/core/terms. https://doi.org/10.1017/eaa.2020.37 Dodd ‒ Transitional Burials in Late Antique Villas 69 Figure 1. A ‘transitional burial’ in a villa context: inhumation in the east building at Ilchester Mead (from Hayward, 1982: fig. 21). By permission of Toucan Press. south-west Britain: Leech, 1981), in that the villa landscape, its archaeology was they are characterized by a haphazard used to highlight the destructive nature of approach to inhumation (Figure 1). Barbarian invasions (Grenier, 1934: 890– 900; Wightman, 1985: 219–22) and to stress the end of the socio-economic EARLY INVESTIGATIONS norms of the Classical world. The wider transformation of villa sites, A long tradition of explanation is attached including transitional burials, was to transitional burials at Roman villas and addressed with a biased language: phrases the wider transformation or abandonment such as ‘type d’ habitat précaire’ (a phrase of such rural establishments. These aspects for poorly constructed occupation; Lewit, were used to support the ‘Gibbonist’ trad- 2005: 254; see also Mattingly, 2007: 534) ition (Lewit, 2001), which painted a were used to describe archaeological fea- picture of a declining empire (for general tures that appeared to reuse or damage approaches, see Rémondon, 1964, 71; earlier ‘Romanized’ elements. In English, Pignoil, 1972; Gorges, 1979:43–45). The the term ‘squatter occupation’ typically narrative of ‘Decline and Fall’ was rooted covers all of these. Squatter occupation in the literary sources, with archaeology was dismissed as an insignificant phase playing a supporting role in painting a before the eventual abandonment of sites, pessimistic account of Late Antiquity. For or simply attributed to the ‘Germanic’ Downloaded from https://www.cambridge.org/core. IP address: 170.106.40.139, on 27 Sep 2021 at 01:12:16, subject to the Cambridge Core terms of use, available at https://www.cambridge.org/core/terms. https://doi.org/10.1017/eaa.2020.37 70 European Journal of Archaeology 24 (1) 2021 reuse of sites. This has led to serious defi- northern Gaul, the development of a ‘spe- cits in our understanding of transform- cific explanation’ was influenced by the ation at villa sites in Late Antiquity and identification of an occupation hiatus in the early medieval period (Storrie, 1908; the late third century AD. Whiting, 1941). Nineteenth-century investigation estab- Nowhere is this more apparent than in lished a phase of abandonment and pre- the reuse of villas for funerary activities. sumed destruction of a vast number of The early investigation of transitional sites in Germania Inferior and Belgica burials was highly fragmented by national- (Grenier, 1934: 890–900), and destruction linguistic boundaries, although the analysis horizons and abandonment phases were of the graves developed within the same linked to the breakdown of Roman broad framework. Specific explanations control during the third-century crisis (De were repeatedly employed to describe and Maeyer, 1937: 290–95). Following the explain away the presence of Late Antique foundation of the German Reichs- burials at villa sites (Figure 2), with Limeskommission and its subsequent exca- implausible narratives deployed in individ- vations along the limes (Roman-Germanic ual cases (Oswald, 1937: 158–60): frontier) between 1894 and 1900, this was explicitly linked to a fall of the limes, ‘How did the skeleton on the wall come which stated that the Romans abandoned there? The adjoining rooms and all the the Rhine in AD 259/260 (see Heeren, levels of this period bore traces of a fierce – fire. It is perhaps permissible to suggest 2016: 185 88). It was assumed that that these people were trying to escape the collapse of the limes allowed subse- from the burning building and that as the quent Barbarian incursions across the man on the wall passed over the threshold Rhine which destroyed or forced the of the door the lintel collapsed on top of abandonment of most of the villas in him, crushing the body into the distorted Germania Secunda and Belgica. Limited condition in which it was found. It is also Late Antique occupation at sites in possible that the other two people met Germania Secunda was explained as their death in a collapse of the outer wall; involving Barbarian groups unable to certainly the skeleton of 2 was covered by comprehend the correct use of Romanized wall stones, and at this point the founda- architectural elements (Joerres, 1886: tion of the wall had subsided sideways in 92–93). Transitional burials were an a northerly direction.’ important part of this interpretation, espe- cially those without defined features. Such The use of ‘specific explanations’ has burials were linked to Germanic raiding resulted in case-by-case study of transi- and it was widely assumed that haphazard tional burials with individuals considered burials in villas were the victims of the as everything from the victims of murder raiders (Schuermans, 1867: 246). (Boon, 1950: 18, 1993:78–80) to looters who improbably crawled into the ruins of a Roman town at Kingscote in western RECENT APPROACHES Britain to expire (Swain, 1976: 21). At Brislington (Bristol), the interpretative From the 1970s onwards, it has become options for three burials in a well is piracy, increasingly rare to evaluate transitional war, or suffocation in the fire which burials in the terms described above. destroyed the site in the second half of the Narratives of ‘squatter’ occupation were re- fourth century (Barker, 1901: 289–90). In examined, and more nuanced narratives of Downloaded from https://www.cambridge.org/core. IP address: 170.106.40.139, on 27 Sep 2021 at 01:12:16, subject to the Cambridge Core terms of use, available at https://www.cambridge.org/core/terms. https://doi.org/10.1017/eaa.2020.37 Dodd ‒ Transitional Burials in Late Antique Villas 71 Figure 2. Example of a ‘specific explanation’ of a Late Antique transitional burial at the Norton Disney villa (from Oswald, 1937: 157, pl. XLIII). By permission of Cambridge University Press and the Society of Antiquaries of London. ‘villa transformation’ were developed simplistic models (e.g. Esmonde-Cleary, (Petts, 1997: 102–03; Christie, 2004:8– 1989; Van Ossel, 1992; Gerrard 2013). 27). These new narratives focused on the Within mortuary archaeology, new evi- economic basis of rural transformation dence has prompted a shift in our percep- (Lewit, 1991; Van Ossel & Ouzoulias, tion of cemeteries in Late Antiquity. 2000) and emphasized the transformative Large Late Antique cemeteries have nature of Late Antiquity society (Petts, undergone further analysis (e.g. in nor- 1997; Lewit, 2003, 2005; Chavarría, 2004, thern Gaul: Brulet, 1990) whilst scholar- 2007). This development went hand-in- ship has begun to focus on the ritual and hand with the changing nature of the aca- meaning of burials (Ripoll & Acre, 2000: demic consensus, which increasingly 88–94; Chavarría, 2018) and move stressed that the rejection of Classical tra- towards a more rigorous analysis of burials ditions cannot be equated with socio-eco- in the Late Roman period (Gerrard, nomic decline without resorting to overly 2015).