Another indication of the continuing use of public buildings is where burials surrounded the structures or cut into sections of the buildings near other parts that were still standing (Table 8.4). During most of the Roman period, cemeteries were located outside the boundaries of the towns and were integral parts of the Roman urban landscape. The evidence within towns is often taken to indicate the presence of churches with the burials surrounding them (e. g., Bell 2005; with examples from other areas of the Empire including Christie 2006: 252-9 and B. Ward-Perkins 1984 on Italy; Leone 2007 on North Africa). Heard etal. (1990), however, have argued that the focus of burials around a building could be an indication of its continued use, and perhaps of its symbolic importance, even if it did not function as a church. Connected with this, Struck (1997:137) has drawn attention to the fact that burials in prehistory often focused on places that had long histories of meaning.6 The burials associated with public buildings in late Roman contexts, then, should be studied for their potential to reveal aspects of religion, ritual, change, topography, and organisation within towns (cf. Cantino Wataghin 1999; Christie 2006: 258).
Burials surrounding basilican buildings are most often interpreted as Christian. Examples include the Butt Road building in Colchester (N. Crummy et al. 1993: 164-99) and the cemetery at Verulam Hills Field at Verulamium (Niblett 2001: 137), but the nature of the cemeteries and function of the buildings are problematic (see Chapter 6 for further discussion). Six burials with radiocarbon dates of around a. d. 450 have been found on the site of the forum at Exeter (Bidwell 1979: 111-13). It was suggested that the row of four burials here represented some kind of planned cemetery belonging to a church, with further bodies being destroyed and lost at a later date (ibid.), although only further excavation could prove or dispute this. Although the excavated section of the forum-basilica appears to have been demolished in the fourth century, the burials may indicate that some part of this building, or another building nearby, remained standing and provided the focus for the burial activity. In the case of the forum-basilica at Lincoln (M. Jones 1999: 172), the burials found here may give some indication that at least part of the rest of the surrounding buildings remained in use. The Christian interpretation of the use of these buildings surrounded by burials might be problematic, but the burials do indicate some kind of continuing activity at these locations.
In London, burials were found associated with the mansio building in Southwark (Cowan 1992: 56-9). Thirteen burials cut through a robbed area of the building, but it appears that other parts remained standing: there does not seem to be evidence of robbing in the area of Rooms 9-12 of Building 4, and the remains are better preserved (ibid.). The burials appear to be divided into two groups, one aligned north-south with the heads to the north and another aligned east-west with the heads to the west (Cowan 1992: 56-9). Whether this might represent different beliefs, family groups, or even funeral societies (ibid.) is uncertain, but it does suggest that the burials do not simply represent
6 There have been a number of studies on the presence of Iron Age, Roman, and Saxon period burials at prehistoric monument sites in Britain, which, it has been suggested, may indicate continued ritual activity at these sites and also the memoryand commemoration of them (e. g., Dark 1993; H. Williams 1998,2006). Some kind of meaning attached to these places often survived and was recognised. Semple (2004) has considered large early Anglo-Saxon cremation cemeteries in England in terms of'central places' and foci for communal ritual, assemblies, and displays of power. Late Roman burials within towns could also represent foci on particular places being used for meeting and religious purposes.
Decline within the town. The interpretation of this building as a mansio is problematic in itself and the function of the surviving part, perhaps associated with the burials, is also uncertain. If the building had originally been a temple, then the burials may indicate a continuation of religious use or perhaps a change to a Christian function, but if it was a mansio, then the burials may indicate a new function. Although burials can rarely indicate what activity was taking place within buildings, their presence would seem to represent some kind of deliberate focus of attention in these locations. The dating of the burials is also not always straightforward, with some cases, such as on the Exeter forum (Bidwell 1979: iio-ii), possibly dating to the post-Roman period.
There are also a number of cases where burials are associated with amphitheatres, as at Cirencester (Holbrook 1998: 169-71) and Dorchester (Bradley 1975: 61-2). For some parts of the Empire it has been argued that burials were placed within amphitheatres and theatres when the spaces were deserted, because the walls of the structures would have kept the burials isolated from the rest of the town, which was still a socially important consideration (Cantino Wataghin 2003). This might provide an appropriate interpretation where numbers of burials are large, but in Britain there are only small numbers of burials associated with the buildings and these were on the edge or around the outside of the structures. It is possible that they represent the encroachment of suburban cemeteries, or they could relate to the use of the structures. Either way they show that spaces within the buildings could still be put to some kind of use.
In some early cases, burials associated with public buildings were interpreted in terms of the results of barbarian attacks. An example is the skeleton of a man found within the cold bath of the mansio at Silchester in 1833 (Anon 1833). Little can now be said about this find because 'the extraction was wholly impracticable, and but few bones were preserved’ (Anon 1833), but a burial associated with nearby domestic occupation might seem more likely than the individual being a victim of violence.93 Another case comprises the twelve burials discovered within the hypocaust system surrounding the frigidarium of the baths at Wroxeter (Wright 1872: 68). Reanalysis, however, suggests that these burials were probably deliberately placed here because it would have been easier to break through the raised floor of the heated rooms of the building than to dig a grave (White and Barker 1998:125). White and Barker argued that the frigidarium was being used as a church at this time but there is no definite evidence of this (ibid.; also see Section 5.3.3 in Chapter 5). Wacher (1995: 412-14) highlights the textual evidence of major epidemics, including the bubonic plague, between the third and sixth centuries in the Empire that are likely to have had an impact on Britain. This may account for some cemeteries and individual bodies such as found at the Wroxeter bathhouse, but there is no positive evidence to support this.
Burials have also been explained in terms of declining standards within towns. For example, at Wroxeter, a single skeleton of a male was found on the site of the baths-basilica cutting through the rubble platform of Building 11 of the 'great rebuilding’ phase of the site. The skeleton was orientated north-south (Barker et al. 1997: 138-68,176) and has been radiocarbon dated to cal. a. d. 600-790, providing a terminus ante quem of a. d. 790. The burial was taken as indicating the final decay of the town (ibid.: 167-8) but, instead, it might indicate that some kind of activity was still taking place in the surrounding area; certainly the burial would indicate the presence of people. The Stour Street burials in Canterbury consisted of the skeletons of an adult male and female, two children, and a dog within a pit or grave at the edge of the central temple precinct of the town (Bennett 1981). Previously considered post-Roman in date, a study of the beads within the grave now suggests that the burials were very late Roman (P. Bennett personal communication). Rather than indicating declining standards, the location of this unusual burial within the temple precinct may mean the continuation of pagan religious activity and not abandonment of the site - although it should be noted that human burials are rare on Iron Age and Roman temple sites in Britain.
No interpretation of the burials associated with the public buildings is certain and there are likely to have been a number of motives involved, but the focus of the burials on these buildings might be an indication of their importance as places of congregation, ritual, and ceremony (cf. Semple 2004). Those burying the dead were perhaps drawing on the history, memories, and stories associated with the sites, or the towns on a wider scale, which in some cases could even have been from the late pre-Roman Iron Age. More work, perhaps only through further excavation, is needed to identify the types of activities taking place within buildings on which the burials focused.
What seems clear, however, is that there was considerable and varied activity taking place within the buildings and across the towns in the late Roman period and that this often occurred beyond the date at which structural decay set in. Timber structures represent the continued use or development of the buildings; often they will have changed or renewed the way in which space, and movement within the individual building, was organised. The timber structures within the Silchester basilica and the Wroxeter baths-basilica, for instance, divided up the building space in a new way. The constructions within the portico at Canterbury changed the thoroughfare to one with two rows of timber stalls and a space in between only 1 m wide for walking (K. Blockley et al. 1995: 199-201). These data can be combined with the structural evidence discussed earlier in Chapter 8 that shows that the public buildings themselves were still being altered and renewed at the same time as the construction of the timber structures. Experiences moved away from the classical norm, but this was not decline. Urban life continued, adapting to new circumstances and opportunities.
Chapter 1 discussed the problems relating to the loss of evidence of late timber structures within towns (cf. Niblett et al. 2006: 101-3). There is, however, evidence of housing and other structures around and near public buildings, such as at Canterbury (K. Blockley et al. 1995), Cirencester (McWhirr 1986), Silchester (Fulford et al. 2006), and Winchester (Biddle and Kjplbye-Biddle 2007), indicating that a substantial population still focused on the town centres. Iron-working has been located within a property in the Silchester insula IX excavations dating to the fourth century (Fulford et al. 2006), although only 16.43 kg of slag was found at this metalworking site compared with the 90.5 kg from the basilica, indicating smaller scale activities here and emphasising the larger concentration within the basilica. In Lincoln, iron slag was identified within a late Roman townhouse at Hungate in the lower town (M. Jones 2002: 140; 2003: 92, 134). Small-scale industrial activity may have been fairly common within townhouses and workshops in the late Roman period, as it also was in earlier periods (Fulford et al. 2006: 268; McWhirr 1986). Evidence from such locations does not, however, detract from the importance of such activity within public buildings, which until the late Roman period appear to have been kept largely clear of these processes. This remains a striking and significant aspect of the late Roman townscape. As discussed, the products of the metalworking remain largely unknown but it seems likely that there were utilitarian objects for the town inhabitants, including components for building construction and repair, linking in to the timber building evidence across the towns. Structural parts were also recycled, providing a sense of change and renewal. Town spaces were evolving and being adapted to the needs and desires of the continuing population.
World History
