Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-dlnhk Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-27T11:42:03.056Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

A Dea Nutrix Figurine from a Romano-British Cemetery at Baldock, Hertfordshire

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 March 2010

Gilbert R. Burleigh ,
Keith J. Fitzpatrick-Matthews  and
Miranda J. Aldhouse-Green
Gilbert R. Burleigh
Affiliation:
10 Cromwell Way, Pirton, Hitchin, Herts. SG5 3RD, [email protected]
Keith J. Fitzpatrick-Matthews
Affiliation:
North Hertfordshire District Council, Museums Resource Centre, Hitchin, [email protected]
Miranda J. Aldhouse-Green
Affiliation:
SCARAB, University of Wales College, Newport, [email protected]
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

An unusually complex fourth-century infant grave excavated in Baldock in 1988 produced a complete Dea Nutrix figurine. Whilst not uncommon as site finds, Deae Nutrices are less frequently encountered as grave gifts in Britain than in Gaul. The reasons for its inclusion as a grave gift are explored, as are wider questions of Romano-British burial practice in the town, the significance of Dea Nutrix as a deity, and the nature of funerary ritual. An assessment is also made of the status of the Roman town.

Keywords

Roman BritainBaldockRoman cemeteriesmother goddessesDea NutrixRoman child burialritual
Type
Articles
Information
Britannia , Volume 37 , November 2006 , pp. 273 - 294
Copyright
Copyright © Gilbert R. Burleigh 2006. Exclusive Licence to Publish: The Society for the Promotion of Roman Studies

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Applebaum, E.S. 1932: ‘Excavations at Baldock in 1932’, Trans. St Albans Archit. and Arch. Soc. (1932), 244–58Google Scholar
Barber, B., and Bowsher, D. 2000: The Eastern Cemetery of Roman London: Excavations 1983–1990, MoLAS Monograph 4, LondonGoogle Scholar
Black, E.W. 1986: ‘Romano-British burial customs and religious beliefs in south-east England’, Arch. Journ. 143, 201–39Google Scholar
Blanchet, A. 1891: ‘Étude sur les fgurines en terre-cuite de la Gaule romaine’, Mémoires de la Société Nationale des Antiquaires de France 6th ser. 1Google Scholar
Blanchet, A. 1901: ‘Étude sur les fgurines en terre-cuite de la Gaule romaine: supplément’, Mémoires de la Société Nationale des Antiquaires de France 6th ser. 10Google Scholar
Bryant, S., and Burleigh, G. 1995: ‘Later prehistoric dykes of the eastern Chilterns’, in Holgate, R. (ed.), Chiltern Archaeology: Recent Work. A Handbook for the Next Decade, Dunstable, 92–5Google Scholar
Bryant, S., and Niblett, R. 1997: ‘The late Iron Age in Hertfordshire and the north Chilterns’, in Gwilt, A. and Haselgrove, C. (eds), Reconstructing Iron Age Societies: New Approaches to the British Iron Age, Oxbow Monograph 71, Oxford, 270–81Google Scholar
Burleigh, G.R. 1980: ‘Excavations in Baldock, 1978’, Hertfordshire's Past 9, 35–7Google Scholar
Burleigh, G.R. 1982: ‘Excavations at Baldock, 1980–81’, Hertfordshire's Past 12, 3–18Google Scholar
Burleigh, G.R. 1993: ‘Some aspects of burial types in the cemeteries of the Romano-British settlement at Baldock, Hertfordshire, England’, in Struck, M. (ed.), Römerzeitliche Gräber als Quellen zu Religion, Bevölkerungsstruktur und Sozialgeschichte: Internationale Fachkonferenz vom 18.–20. Februar 1991 im Institut für Vor- und Frühgeschichte der Johannes Gutenberg-Universität Mainz, Mainz, 41–9Google Scholar
Burleigh, G.R. 1995a: ‘A late Iron Age oppidum at Baldock, Hertfordshire’, in Holgate, R. (ed.), Chiltern Archaeology: Recent Work. A Handbook for the Next Decade, Dunstable, 103–12Google Scholar
Burleigh, G.R. 1995b: ‘The plan of Romano-British Baldock, Hertfordshire’, in Brown, A.E. (ed.), Romans Small Towns in Eastern England and Beyond, Oxbow Monograph 52, Oxford, 177–82Google Scholar
Burleigh, G.R. 2005: ‘Fieldwork at the “Near Baldock” hoard site, Hertfordshire’, CBA Mid Anglia Newsletter (Spring 2005), 6–10Google Scholar
Burnham, B.C. 1995: ‘Small towns: the British perspective’, in Brown, A.E. (ed.), Roman Small Towns in Eastern England and Beyond, Oxbow Monograph 52, Oxford, 7–17Google Scholar
Clarke, G. 1979: Pre-Roman and Roman Winchester, Part II: the Roman Cemetery at Lankhills, Winchester Studies 3, OxfordGoogle Scholar
Collingwood, R.G., and Wright, R.P. 1965: The Roman Inscriptions of Britain, Volume I: Inscriptions on Stone, OxfordGoogle Scholar
Davies, D.J. 2002: Death, Ritual and Belief: the Rhetoric of Funerary Rites (2nd edn), LondonGoogle Scholar
Vesly, de 1909: Les ‘fana’ ou petits temples gallo-romaines de la région Normande, RouenGoogle Scholar
Dudley, D. 1967: ‘Excavations on Nor'nour in the Isles of Scilly, 1962–66’, Arch. Journ. 124, 1–64Google Scholar
Dungworth, D. 1998: ‘Mystifying Roman nails: clavus annalis, defxiones and minkisi’, in Forcey, C., Hawthorne, J. and Witcher, R. (eds), TRAC 97: Proceedings of the Seventh Annual Theoretical Roman Archaeology Conference, Nottingham 1997, Oxford, 148–59Google Scholar
Green, M.J. 1976: A Corpus of Religious Material from the Civilian Areas of Roman Britain, BAR Brit. Ser. 24, OxfordGoogle Scholar
Green, M.J. 1986: The Gods of the Celts, StroudGoogle Scholar
Green, M.J. 1989: Symbol and Image in Celtic Religious Art, LondonGoogle Scholar
Green, M.J. 1993: ‘The pipeclay fgurines’, in Taylor, A., ‘A Roman lead coffn with pipeclay fgurines from Arrington, Cambridgeshire’, Britannia 24, 194–201Google Scholar
Jackson, R. 2004a: ‘The “Near Baldock” hoard’, Treasure Annual Report 2002, 38–43Google Scholar
Jackson, R. 2004b: ‘The “Near Baldock” hoard’, Instrumentum 20, 10–11Google Scholar
Jackson, R., and Burleigh, G. 2005: ‘From Senua to Senuna’, British Museum Magazine 52, 32–5Google Scholar
Jenkins, F. 1957: ‘The cult of the “Dea Nutrix” in Kent’, Arch. Cant. 71, 38–47Google Scholar
Jenkins, F. 1978: ‘Some interesting types of clay statuettes of the Roman period found in London’, in Bird, J., Chapman, H. and Clark, J. (eds), Collectanea Londiniensia: Studies in London Archaeology and History Presented to Ralph Merrifeld, London, 149–62Google Scholar
Matthews, K.J. Fitzpatrick (ed.) forthcoming: Excavations at Baldock 1978–1994: Fieldwork by Gil Burleigh, East Anglian Archaeology MonographGoogle Scholar
Meyer, L. 1992: Black Africa: Masks, Sculpture, Jewelry, ParisGoogle Scholar
Niblett, R. 1995: Roman Hertfordshire, WimborneGoogle Scholar
Niblett, R. 1999: The Excavation of a Ceremonial Site at Folly Lane, Verulamium, Britannia Monograph 14, LondonGoogle Scholar
Potter, T.W., and Trow, S.D. 1988: ‘Puckeridge-Braughing, Hertfordshire: the Ermine Street excavations 1971–72’, Herts. Arch. 10Google Scholar
Rook, A.G. 1968: ‘The Romano-British cemetery at Welwyn; obit 1967’, Herts. Past & Present 8, 32–7Google Scholar
Rook, A.G. 1973: ‘Excavations at The Grange Romano-British cemetery, Welwyn, 1967’, Herts. Arch. 3, 1–30Google Scholar
Rouvier-Jeanlin, M. 1972: Les fgurines gallo-romaines en terre cuite au Musée des Antiquités Nationales, Supplément à Gallia 24, ParisGoogle Scholar
Stead, I.M. 1975: ‘Baldock’, in Rodwell, W. and Rowley, T. (eds), Small Towns of Roman Britain: Papers Presented to a Conference, Oxford 1975, BAR Brit. Ser. 15, Oxford, 125–9Google Scholar
Stead, I.M., and Rigby, V. 1986: Baldock: the Excavation of a Roman and Pre-Roman Settlement, Britannia Monograph 7, LondonGoogle Scholar
Taylor, A. 1993: ‘A Roman lead coffn with pipeclay fgurines from Arrington, Cambridgeshire’, Britannia 24, 191–225CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Westell, W.P. 1931: ‘A Romano-British cemetery at Baldock, Herts.’, Arch. Journ. 88, 247–301Google Scholar
Williams, H. 2003: ‘Introduction: the archaeology of death, memory and material culture’, in Williams, H. (ed.), Archaeologies of Remembrance: Death and Memory in Past Societies, New York, 1–24Google Scholar
Williams, H. 2004: ‘Ephemeral monuments and social memory in early Roman Britain’, in Croxford, B., Eckardt, H., Meade, J. and Weekes, J. (eds), TRAC 2003: Proceedings of the Thirteenth Annual Theoretical Roman Archaeology Conference, which took place at the University of Leicester, 3–6 April 2003, Oxford, 51–61Google Scholar