Expanding the Role of Animals in Romano-British Burials

Summary

This is an abstract from the "SAA 2019: General Sessions" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

This work considers the implications of human-animal relationships as they are found in the mortuary record of Verulamium- modern town of St. Albans, England. Once considered to be a major center, the mortuary rites given to its people suggest high variability in the role specific animal species played within the living and death culture of the city. While 480 human individuals were examined, only a small percentage was found to have been afforded the rite of a human-animal co-burial. Of major concern are the treatment of remains, the point at which animals enter into the funerary rituals and the impact this had on the surviving members of the society. Investigations were primarily carried out using zooarchaeological and human osteological techniques, but also refer to literary sources and other data. Analysis is situated in a broader theoretical approach on human-animal relationships adopting a non-anthropocentric view point. It is concluded that within the Romano-British city, there is a mutual participation of certain faunal species (namely cattle, sheep, pig and chickens) in rites that extended beyond the typical agricultural needs. Thus recognizing that different animal individuals within the same species could fulfill roles beyond that of the ultimate purpose of ‘food item’.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 84th Annual Meeting, Albuquerque, NM (2019)

Keywords

Spatial Coverage

Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 25217