The provenance of skeletal remains in Pompeii

Today, I started listening to Mary Beard's "Fires of Vesuvius: Pompeii Lost and Found" and Professor Beard brought up something I had not considered when thinking about the skeletal remains found in cubiculum (c) of the House of the Prince of Naples. Professor Beard pointed out that the discovery of skeletal remains was highly sought after by early royal visitors to the excavations in Pompeii.  I had thought about the motivation of excavators and the listed "finds" at the site but had not considered planted skeletal remains as well.

So, the "victim" found in the house could have been a looter as posited by Professor Strocka, a deceased patient as I have theorized based on the finds of surgical instruments and equipment found in the room and elsewhere in the townhouse, an owner or member of his household who returned to salvage property at the site, or merely planted remains by late 19th century excavators wanting to provide this particular thrill to the visiting Prince and Princess of Naples.

I remember reading Professor Penelope Allison's book about finds of skeletal remains in a group of 30 atrium houses including the House of the Prince of Naples and she wonders about the reason why holes in the surrounding walls are often present in rooms containing skeletons.  She says there might be the possibility that trapped victims might have made the holes. But, it looks to me like there is also the possibility the skeletal remains were deposited there on purpose to heighten the morbid imagination of royal visitors!

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Isotope Analysis and the Case of the Headless Romans

Today, in my Forensic Archaeology and Anthropology class, we studied the use of isotope analysis as a method to identify geographic origins and dietary patterns in archaeologically recovered human remains. I read, with particular interest, the isotope analysis report of the "Headless Romans" found in the cemetery just outside of York. I assumed before reading the report that the exclusively male burials with almost 50% decapitated individuals and many remains displaying antemortem trauma, would have been consistent with a military group burial. This was considered plausible by researchers. But, the burials were not separated by time period and they were found to be not due to a single incident, so no conclusions about a particular engagement or period of unrest could really be drawn from the group of remains as a whole. I actually expected the study's outliers to be non-Briton individuals and this was confirmed. These individuals would have probably been officers, usually from Roman aristocratic families, that were fulfilling the military service required by the Cursus Honorum. But I was a bit disappointed that more understanding could not be shed on the high percentage of decapitations. Researchers pointed out that if the decapitations were a result of improper actions, they should have constituted less than 10% of the group, not almost 50%. Early conclusions pointed to a “mass execution” of members of the Imperial Court in the turbulent aftermath of Septimius Severus’ death in 211 CE (as explored in the video below). But that would not account for the wide spread of time between deaths. It is my understanding that the taking of heads as battle trophies was a Celtic tradition. So, the group burials, (some grave pits contained up to four bodies each) may have been the aftermath of a punitive operation against local war bands where heads that had been taken were repatriated then buried with their respective torsos. But that would have also probably required most of the individuals to have been interred during roughly the same period. Instead, the 80 bodies represented burials across two to three centuries. Another theory proposed they were gladiator burials based on possible similarities in trauma patterns with known gladiators and especially the toothmarks of a large carnivore, possibly a bear, lion or tiger, found on one of the skeletons. But, researchers pointed out that there appears to be no evidence that decapitations were part of the ritual used for dispatching defeated gladiators. More studies of the remains are ongoing so maybe there will be better clarification later.

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Human skeleton unearthed in newly discovered Gloucestershire Roman villa

Remains of a bath complex at Lullingstone Villa.
Photo by Mary Harrsch

I noticed this news release today so I'm assuming this dig is centered on a newly discovered villa not the well known Chedworth site near Cheltenham.

A 2,000-year-old human skeleton has been discovered alongside Iron Age artefacts near Tewkesbury.  The experts do not know yet whether the skeleton is of a male or female but believe it is at least 2,000 years old.

Stuart Foreman of Oxford Archaeology said thousands of pieces of masonry, nails, tiles, pottery and clothing would be unearthed by the time the project is complete.

He said: "Fragments of stone peg-tiles from the roof and sections of painted wall plaster indicate a building of high quality and status. The footings survive to a height of nearly 1m cut into the hillside." - Sify News

 Actually, a number of villas have been discovered in Gloucestershire over the years.  I found this extensive list published by George Witts in an Archaeological Handbook in 1883.  Unfortunately I have not yet visited any of these sites but I have toured Lullingstone Villa, Veralamium and Fishbourne Roman Palace.  The remains of the bath complex at Lullingstone is probably quite similar to the remains of baths found in several of the Gloucestershire villas.

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