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+--- Thread: Romano-British decapitation (/showthread.php?tid=1998)
Romano-British decapitation - Mark - 13th September 2005
I am a student at Bournemouth university currently working on my dissertation for my MSc in osteoarchaeology. The topic I am looking at is Romano-British decapitation. I was wondering if anyone knows of any sites with this type of burial that have been excavated post 1991 (with the exception of Kempston and Dunstable). I need more examples of this burial type to add to my statistical analysis of head position. If you are aware of any sites which may help I would appreciate it if you could give me some details (i.e. the site name and which unit excavated it).
Thankyou for any help you can provide.
Romano-British decapitation - idontdodinos - 13th September 2005
Hi Mark,
York Archaeological Trust have had a site recently with quite a few Roman decap burials. This is in York, was excavated this year and is part of a larger Roman burial ground. Your best bet is to contact someone at the Trust directly as the site has been published in a magazine article. Hope this helps!
Dinos
Romano-British decapitation - troll - 13th September 2005
Greetings Mark and Hi Dinos. The decaps you refer to in York are currently undergoing analysis and as such, are not yet published. You are therefore unlikely to gain the data your looking for just yet. Decaps do come up now and again in ppg driven work-I remember one that came up when I worked for Network/Transco on a pipeline job a few years ago-twas Oxfordshire somewhere...gizza few days and I`ll hunt details for you. In the meantime-please pass my best wishes on to Dr Lynda O`Connell if she`s still there!
Not sure about the Romano-British frames of reference you`ve set yourself-decapitation tended to be a rite for Roman citizens...another issue you may want to consider is that crania have a nasty habit of moving about post-deposition and as such it may be tenuous to draw inferences from the positions they`re found in under the trowel. If it would help, I know a couple of osteos who are pretty knowledgable on the subject...e-mail me off BAJR and I may (cost you cream eggs) put you together wiv one.....
Romano-British decapitation - sniper - 14th September 2005
just to confirm what Troll has said, the York decaps are still in the analysis phase. Client confidentiality and the like probably mean that the data won't be available for a while yet, but it depends on your deadline. It is worth contacting the Trust, but I can't guarantee anything. I'd also be careful on what exactly it is you are trying to infer from position of skulls. Inferring anything from it does kind of presume that it meant anything in the first place. Let's just say that calling it part of a extraordinary burial practice, or even the dreaded R word, may be barking up the wrong tree!
++ i spend my days rummaging around in dead people ++