Roman burial customs

Southern France

In the village of Langlade , near Nimes, archaeologists uncovered a 3rd Mill Neolithic/Chalcolithic Age walled settlement, a Gallo-Roman mausoleum and a 4th-6th entury cemetery.

Within the mausoleum (1st or 2nd century AD) was uncovered a stone cist containing well preserved artefacts, typical of rich burials in the Languedoc. Items included a large glass funerary urn - which contained no human remains. It did contain a test-tube like bottle (or unguentarium) probably for oil, a set of five bone dice & several stone & glass counters. The cist also contained food bones (leg of mutton or pork, remains of fish & fowl), a pair of glass flagons, a bronze patera/washing dish, three samll cups, three bowls, three dishes, a ceramic vase and an iron knife. A glass horn shaped rhyton was also found, two lamps (one ceramic and one bronze) and a set of iron strigils. No inscription was found in the mausolem.

By the late 4th century a cemetery was built up around the mausolem's stone base, with graves carefully aligned and spaced. Most were lined and covered with roughly shaped lauzes. Child graves, in particular, used ceramic tiles. The graves were poorly furnished compared with the mausolem. One adult had a dish & a vase & two coins over his eyes; one infant grave held a small jug. Otherwise only hobnails & a simple iron buckle indicated that the corpses were clothed and, in one case, placed in a wooden coffin.

Source

HAYDEN, C.& MILES, D.(2008) Towers and tombs: rescuing Neolithic life and Roman death in Southern France. Current World Archaeology, No.31, Oct/Nov 2008, pp.30-36.