Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-lnqnp Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-18T21:46:19.689Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Rural Life, Roman Ways? Examination of Late Iron Age to Late Romano-British Burial Practice and Mobility at Dog Hole Cave, Cumbria

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 June 2020

Hannah J. O'Regan ,
Keith Bland ,
Jane Evans ,
Matilda Holmes ,
Kirsty McLeod ,
Robert Philpott ,
Ian Smith ,
John Thorp  and
David M. Wilkinson
Hannah J. O'Regan
Affiliation:
Department of Classics and Archaeology, University of [email protected]
Keith Bland
Affiliation:
Edinburgh
Jane Evans
Affiliation:
British Geological [email protected]
Matilda Holmes
Affiliation:
School of Archaeology and Ancient History, University of [email protected]
Kirsty McLeod
Affiliation:
Berwick-upon-Tweed
Robert Philpott
Affiliation:
Department of Archaeology, Classics and Egyptology, University of [email protected]
Ian Smith
Affiliation:
Oxford Archaeology [email protected]
John Thorp
Affiliation:
Lancaster
David M. Wilkinson
Affiliation:
Department of Classics and Archaeology, University of Nottingham, and Life Sciences, University of [email protected]
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

The scarcity of Romano-British human remains from north-west England has hindered understanding of burial practice in this region. Here, we report on the excavation of human and non-human animal remains1 and material culture from Dog Hole Cave, Haverbrack. Foetal and neonatal infants had been interred alongside a horse burial and puppies, lambs, calves and piglets in the very latest Iron Age to early Romano-British period, while the mid- to late Roman period is characterised by burials of older individuals with copper-alloy jewellery and beads. This material culture is more characteristic of urban sites, while isotope analysis indicates that the later individuals were largely from the local area. We discuss these results in terms of burial ritual in Cumbria and rural acculturation. Supplementary material is available online (https://doi.org/10.1017/S0068113X20000136), and contains further information about the site and excavations, small finds, zooarchaeology, human osteology, site taphonomy, the palaeoenvironment, isotope methods and analysis, and finds listed in Benson and Bland 1963.

Keywords

cavehorse burialinfant burialgold-in-glass beadsrural settlement
Type
Articles
Information
Britannia , Volume 51 , November 2020 , pp. 83 - 116
Copyright
Copyright © The Authors and UKRI British Geological Survey, 2020. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of 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.)

Footnotes

1

‘Human and non-human animal remains’ is a deliberate choice of words by the author to reflect that humans are animals.

References

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Allason-Jones, L. 1989: Ear-Rings in Roman Britain, BAR British Series 201, Oxford10.30861/9780860546054CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Allason-Jones, L. 1996: Roman Jet in the Yorkshire Museum, YorkGoogle Scholar
Allason-Jones, L., and Miket, R. 1984: The Catalogue of Small Finds from South Shields Roman Fort, The Society of Antiquaries of Newcastle upon Tyne Monograph 2, NewcastleGoogle Scholar
Allen, M., Blick, N., Brindle, T., Evans, T., Fulford, M., Holbrook, N., Lodwick, L., Richards, J.D., and Smith, A. 2018: The Rural Settlement of Roman Britain: An Online Resource, Archaeology Data Service, York, https://doi.org/10.5284/1030449 (accessed February 2020)Google Scholar
AlQahtani, S.J., Liversidge, H.M., and Hector, M.P. 2010: ‘Atlas of tooth development and eruption’, American Journal of Physical Anthropology 142, 481–9010.1002/ajpa.21258CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Beech, M. 2006: ‘Animal remains: evidence of animal sacrifice’, in Evans, C. and Hodder, I. (eds), Marshland Communities and Cultural Landscapes from the Bronze Age to the Present Day: The Haddenham Project 2, Cambridge, 369–94Google Scholar
Benson, D., and Bland, K. 1963: ‘The Dog Hole, Haverbrack’, Transactions of the Cumberland and Westmorland Antiquarian and Archaeological Society 63, 61–7Google Scholar
Berg, D. 1990: ‘Mammal bones from well 1’, in Wrathmell, S. and Nicholson, A. (eds), Dalton Parlours: Iron Age Settlement and Roman Villa, Leeds, 245–58Google Scholar
Birley, A. 1979: The People of Roman Britain, LondonGoogle Scholar
Birley, A. 1988: The People of Roman Britain (new edition), LondonGoogle Scholar
Bland, K.P. 1994: ‘Cause of death of the humans recovered from Dog Hole, Haverbrack’, Transactions of the Cumberland and Westmorland Antiquarian and Archaeological Society 94, 285–6Google Scholar
Bond, J.M., and Worley, F.L. 2004: ‘The animal bone’, in Cool, H.E.M. (ed), The Roman Cemetery at Brougham, Cumbria: Excavations 1966–67, Britannia Monograph 21, London, 311–31Google Scholar
Boon, G.C. 1977: ‘Gold-in-glass beads from the ancient world’ Britannia 8, 193–20710.2307/525893CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Branigan, K., and Dearne, M.J. 1992: Romano-British Cavemen: Cave Use in Roman Britain, Oxbow Monograph 19, OxfordGoogle Scholar
Brindle, T. 2016: ‘The North’, in Smith, A., Allen, M., Brindle, T. and Fulford, M. (eds), The Rural Settlement of Roman Britain, Britannia Monograph 29, London, 308–30Google Scholar
Bronk Ramsey, C. 2009/2017: ‘Bayesian analysis of radiocarbon dates’, Radiocarbon 51, 337–6010.1017/S0033822200033865CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Buikstra, J.E., and Ubelaker, D.H. 1994: Standards for Data Collection from Human Skeletal Remains, Arkansas Archeological Survey Research Series 44, FayettevilleGoogle Scholar
Chaplin, R., and Barnetson, L. 1980: ‘The animal bones’, in Stead, I. (ed.), Rudston Roman Villa, Leeds, 149–55Google Scholar
Chenery, C., Eckardt, H., and Müldner, G. 2011: ‘Cosmopolitan Catterick? Isotopic evidence for population mobility on Rome's northern frontier’, Journal of Archaeological Science 38, 1525–3610.1016/j.jas.2011.02.018CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Chenery, C., Evans, J.A., Lamb, A., Müldner, G., and Eckardt, H. 2010: ‘Oxygen and strontium isotope analysis’, in Booth, P., Simmonds, A., Boyle, A., Clough, S., Cool, H.E.M. and Poore, D. (eds), The Late Roman Cemetery at Lankills, Winchester, Oxford Archaeology Monograph 10, Oxford, 421–8Google Scholar
Clarke, G. 1979: The Roman Cemetery at Lankhills, Winchester Studies 3.2, OxfordGoogle Scholar
Cool, H.E.M. 1983: A Study of the Roman Personal Ornaments Made of Metal, Excluding Brooches, from Southern Britain, unpub. PhD thesis, Cardiff UniversityGoogle Scholar
Cool, H.E.M. (ed.) 2004: The Roman Cemetery at Brougham, Cumbria: Excavations 1966–67, Britannia Monograph Series 21, LondonGoogle Scholar
Cool, H.E.M. 2010: ‘Finding the foreigners’, in Eckardt, H. (ed.), Roman Diasporas: Archaeological Approaches to Mobility and Diversity in the Roman Empire, Portsmouth, RIGoogle Scholar
Cross, P. 2011: ‘Horse burial in first millennium AD Britain: issues of interpretation’, European Journal of Archaeology 14, 190–20910.1179/146195711798369409CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Daniels, R., Jelley, D., Marlow, M., and Viner, B. 1987: ‘A Romano-British double burial at Hartlepool, Cleveland’, Durham Archaeological Journal 3, 1–4Google Scholar
de la Bedoyere, G. 2002: Gods with Thunderbolts: Religion in Roman Britain, StroudGoogle Scholar
Dearne, M.J., and Lord, T.C. 1998: The Romano-British Archaeology of Victoria Cave, Settle, BAR British Series 273, OxfordGoogle Scholar
Dincauze, D.F. 2000: Environmental Archaeology: Principles and Practice, Cambridge10.1017/CBO9780511607837CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dobney, K.M., Jaques, S.D., and Irving, B.G. 1996: Of Butchers and Breeds: Report on the Vertebrate Remains from Various Sites in the City of Lincoln, Lincoln Archaeological Studies 5, LincolnGoogle Scholar
Downey, R., King, A., and Soffe, G. 1980: ‘The Hayling Island temple and religious connections across the Channel’, in Rodwell, W. (ed), Temples, Churches and Religion: Recent Research in Roman Britain, BAR British Series 77, Oxford, 289–304Google Scholar
Eckardt, H. 2006: ‘The character, chronology, and use of the late Roman pits: the Silchester finds assemblage’, in Fulford, M., Clarke, A., Eckardt, H. (eds), Life and Labour in Late Roman Silchester: Excavations in Insula IX since 1997, Britannia Monograph 22, London, 221–45Google Scholar
Eckardt, H. 2014: Objects and Identities: Roman Britain and the North-Western Provinces, Oxford10.1093/acprof:osobl/9780199693986.001.0001CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Eckardt, H., Chenery, C., Booth, P., Evans, J.A., Lamb, A., and Müldner, G. 2009: ‘Oxygen and strontium isotope evidence for mobility in Roman Winchester’, Journal of Archaeological Science 36, 2816–2510.1016/j.jas.2009.09.010CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Eckardt, H., Müldner, G., and Lewis, M. 2014: ‘People on the move in Roman Britain’, World Archaeology 46, 534–5010.1080/00438243.2014.931821CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Eckardt, H., Müldner, G., and Speed, G. 2015: ‘The late Roman field army in northern Britain? Mobility, material culture and multi-isotope analysis at Scorton (N Yorks.)’, Britannia 46, 191–22310.1017/S0068113X1500015XCrossRefGoogle Scholar
Esmonde Cleary, S. 2009: ‘Roman Britain, civil and rural society’, in Hunter, J. and Ralston, I. (eds), The Archaeology of Britain, London, 198–218Google Scholar
Evans, J.A., Mee, K., Chenery, C.A., Cartwright, C.E., Lee, K.A., and Marchant, A.P. 2018: User Guide for the Biosphere Domains GB (Version 1) Dataset and Web Portal, British Geological Survey Open Report OR/18/005, Nottingham, https://www.bgs.ac.uk/products/geochemistry/BiosphereIsotopeDomainsGB.html (accessed April 2020)Google Scholar
Ferris, I. 2018: Cave Canem: Animals in Roman Society, StroudGoogle Scholar
Fitzpatrick, A.P. 2004: ‘The tombstones and inscribed stones’, in Cool, H.E.M. (ed.), The Roman Cemetery at Brougham, Cumbria: Excavations 1966–67, Britannia Monograph Series 21, London, 405–35Google Scholar
Fulford, M. 2001: ‘Links with the past: pervasive “ritual” behaviour in Roman Britain’, Britannia 32, 199–21810.2307/526956CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Grant, A. 1989: ‘Animals and ritual in early Britain: the visible and the invisible’, in Méniel, P. (ed.), L'animal dans les pratiques religieuses: les manifestations matérielles, Anthropozoologica Special Issue 3, 79–86Google Scholar
Grant, A. 1991: ‘The animal husbandry’, in Cunliffe, B. and Poole, C. (eds), Danebury: An Iron Age Hillfort in Hampshire 5. The Excavations 1979–1988: The Finds, London, 447–87Google Scholar
Grimm, J., Worley, F., and Hamilton-Dyer, S. 2011: ‘The Saxon animal bone from Northfleet and Springhead’, in Barnett, C., Grimm, J., McKinley, J. and Stevens, C. (eds), Settling the Ebbsfleet Valley: CTRL Excavations at Springhead and Northfleet, Kent: The Late Iron Age, Roman, Saxon, and Medieval Landscape, Wessex Archaeology 3, Oxford, 51–60Google Scholar
Guido, M. 1978: The Glass Beads of the Prehistoric and Roman Period in Britain and Ireland, Reports of the Research Committee of the Society of Antiquaries of London 35, LondonGoogle Scholar
Guido, M. 1979: ‘Beads and necklaces’, in Clarke, G., The Roman Cemetery at Lankhills, Winchester Studies 3.2, Oxford, 292–300Google Scholar
Henig, M. 2003: Religion in Roman Britain, London10.4324/9780203221419CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hodgkinson, D., Huckerby, E., Middleton, D., and Wells, C.E. (eds) 2000: The Lowland Wetlands of Cumbria, North West Wetlands Survey 6, LancasterGoogle Scholar
Holmes, M. 2015: Hollywell Farm, Cuddington (HFC13/221): The Animal Bone, unpub. report, Thames Valley Archaeology Services Report, ReadingGoogle Scholar
Howard-Davis, C. 1996: ‘The bead necklace’, in Lambert, J., Transect through Time: The Archaeological Landscape of the Shell North Western Ethylene Pipeline, Lancaster, 115Google Scholar
Iles, P., and Shotter, D.C.A. 2009: Lancaster's Roman Cemeteries, LancasterGoogle Scholar
Jackson, J.W. 1913: ‘Report on the exploration at a cave at Haverbrack, Westmorland’, Transactions of the Cumberland and Westmorland Antiquarian and Archaeological Society 13, 55–8Google Scholar
Jaques, D. 2015: ‘The animal bones’, in Halkon, P., Millett, M. and Woodhouse, H. (eds), Hayton, East Yorkshire: Archaeological Studies of the Iron Age and Roman Landscapes 2, Yorkshire Archaeological Report 7, Leeds, 412–49Google Scholar
Jones, G.D.B., and Shotter, D.C.A. 1988: Roman Lancaster: Rescue Archaeology in an Historic City 1970–75, Brigantia Monograph 1, ManchesterGoogle Scholar
Josefson, E., and Olofsson, J. 2006: ‘To reconstruct a sacrificial site: aspects of the Iron Age sacrificial site at Eketorp fort, Sweden’, Experimental Archaeology 2006.3, 72–7Google Scholar
King, A. 1974: ‘A review of archaeological work in the caves of north-west England’, in Waltham, A.C. (ed.), Limestones and Caves of North-West England, Newton Abbot, 182–200Google Scholar
King, A. 2005: ‘Animal remains from temples in Roman Britain’, Britannia 36, 329–6910.3815/000000005784016964CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Langston, J., and Gowland, B. 2015: ‘The human skeletal material’, in Halkon, P., Millett, M. and Woodhouse, H. (eds), Hayton, East Yorkshire: Archaeological Studies of the Iron Age and Roman Landscapes 2, Yorkshire Archaeological Report 7, Leeds, 380–411Google Scholar
Leach, S., Lewis, M., Chenery, C., Müldner, G., and Eckardt, H. 2009: ‘Migration and diversity in Roman Britain: a multidisciplinary approach to the identification of immigrants in Roman York, England’, American Journal of Physical Anthropology 140, 546–6110.1002/ajpa.21104CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Legge, A.J., and Dorrington, E.J. 1985: ‘The animal bones’, in France, N.E. and Gobel, B.M. (eds), The Romano-British Temple at Harlow, Essex, Gloucester, 122–33Google Scholar
Levitan, B. 1993: ‘Vertebrate remains’, in Woodward, A.D. and Leach, P.J. (eds), The Uley Shrines, London, 257–345Google Scholar
Lord, T., and Howard, J. 2013: ‘Cave archaeology’ in Waltham, A. and Lowe, D. (eds), Caves and Karst of the Yorkshire Dales, Buxton, 239–51Google Scholar
Lord, T.C., O'Connor, T.P., Siebradt, D.C., and Jacobi, R.M. 2007: ‘People and large carnivores as biostratinomic agents in Lateglacial cave assemblages’, Journal of Quaternary Science 22, 681–9410.1002/jqs.1101CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Macdonald, J.L. 1979: ‘Religion’, in Clarke, G., The Roman Cemetery at Lankhills, Winchester Studies 3.2, Oxford, 404–33Google Scholar
Mainland, I.L. 2006: ‘The mammal and bird bone’, in Millett, M. (ed.), Shiptonthorpe, East Yorkshire: Archaeological Studies of a Romano-British Roadside Settlement, Yorkshire Archaeological Report 5, Leeds, 258–79Google Scholar
Maltby, J.M. 1994: ‘The animal bones from a Romano-British well at Oakridge II, Basingstoke’, Proceedings of the Hampshire Field Club and Archaeological Society 49, 47–77Google Scholar
Matthews, C.L., Jones, E.V., and Horne, B. 1981: ‘Appendix: a Roman cess-pit with skeletons’, Bedfordshire Archaeological Journal 15, 63–73Google Scholar
Mattingly, D. 2006: An Imperial Possession: Britain in the Roman Empire, LondonGoogle Scholar
Millett, M., and Woodhouse, H. 2015: ‘Archaeological studies of the Hayton data’, in Halkon, P., Millett, M. and Woodhouse, H. (eds), Hayton, East Yorkshire: Archaeological Studies of the Iron Age and Roman Landscapes 2, Yorkshire Archaeological Report 7, Leeds, 498–542Google Scholar
Moore-Colyer, R. 1993: ‘On the ritual burial of horses in Britain’, Folk Life 32, 58–6510.1179/flk.1993.32.1.58CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Müldner, G., Chenery, C., and Eckardt, H. 2011: ‘The “headless Romans”: multi-isotope investigations of an unusual burial ground in Roman Britain’, Journal of Archaeological Science 38, 280–9010.1016/j.jas.2010.09.003CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pearce, J. 2013: Contextual Archaeology of Burial Practice: Case Studies from Roman Britain, BAR British Series 588, Oxford10.30861/9781407311968CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Philpott, R.A. 1991: Burial Practices in Roman Britain: A Survey of Grave Treatment and Furnishing A.D. 43–140, BAR British Series 219, Oxford10.30861/9780860547259CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Piggott, S. 1962: ‘Heads and hoofs’, Antiquity 36, 110–1810.1017/S0003598X00029720CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Potter, T.W. 1979: Romans in North-West England: Excavations at the Roman Forts of Ravenglass, Watercrook and Bowness on Solway, KendalGoogle Scholar
Rattue, J. 1995: The Living Stream: Holy Wells in Historical Context, LondonGoogle Scholar
RCHM 1962: An Inventory of the Historical Monuments in the City of York 1: Eburacum, Roman York, London, https://www.british-history.ac.uk/rchme/york/vol1 (accessed February 2020)Google Scholar
Reimer, P.J., Bard, E., Bayliss, A., Beck, J.W., Blackwell, P.G., Bronk Ramsey, C., Grootes, P.M., Guilderson, T.P., Haflidason, H., Hajdas, I., Hatté, C., Heaton, T.J., Hoffmann, D.L., Hogg, A.G., Hughen, K.A., Kaiser, K.F., Kromer, B., Manning, S.W., Niu, M., Reimer, R.W., Richards, D.A., Scott, E.M., Southon, J.R., Staff, R.A., Turney, C.S.M., and van der Plicht, J. 2013: ‘IntCal13 and Marine13 radiocarbon age calibration curves 0–50,000 years cal BP’, Radiocarbon 55, 1869–8710.2458/azu_js_rc.55.16947CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Richmond, I.A. 1945: ‘The Sarmatae, Bremetenacum Veteranorum and the Regio Bremetennacensis’, Journal of Roman Studies 35, 104–2510.2307/297275CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rodwell, K.A. 1988: The Prehistoric and Roman Settlement at Kelvedon, Essex, CBA Research Report 63/Chelmsford Archaeological Trust Report 6, LondonGoogle Scholar
Rohl, B. 1996: ‘Lead isotope data from the isotrace laboratory, Oxford: Archaeometry data base 2, galena from Britain and Ireland’, Archaeometry 38, 165–8010.1111/j.1475-4754.1996.tb00769.xCrossRefGoogle Scholar
Roskams, S., Neal, C., Richardson, J., and Leary, R. 2013: ‘A late Roman well at Heslington East, York: ritual or routine practices?’ Internet Archaeology 34, http://intarch.ac.uk/journal/issue34/roskams_toc.html (accessed February 2020)Google Scholar
Scott, E. 1991: ‘Animal and infant burials in Romano-British villas: a revitalization movement’, in Garwood, P., Jennings, D., Skeates, R. and Toms, J. (eds), Sacred and Profane, Oxford University Committee for Archaeology Monograph 32, Oxford, 115–21Google Scholar
Shaw, H., Montgomery, J., Redfern, R., Gowland, R., and Evans, J. 2016: ‘Identifying migrants in Roman London using lead and strontium’, Journal of Archaeological Science 66, 57–6810.1016/j.jas.2015.12.001CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Shotter, D.C.A. 2004: Romans and Britons in North-West England (3rd edn), LancasterGoogle Scholar
Shotter, D., and White, A. 1995: The Romans in Lunesdale, LancasterGoogle Scholar
Simoons, F. 1994: Eat Not This Flesh: Food Avoidances from Prehistory to the Present, MadisonGoogle Scholar
Smith, I.R. 2012: ‘Kirkhead Cave, Kent's Bank Cavern and Whitton's Cave near Allithwaite: geology, sediments and archaeology’, in O'Regan, H.J., Faulkner, T. and Smith, I.R. (eds), Cave Archaeology and Karst Geomorphology of North-West England, Liverpool, 98–102Google Scholar
Tomlin, R.S.O. 2004: ‘A Roman will from north Wales’ Archaeologia Cambrensis 150, 143–56Google Scholar
Tyers, P.A. 1996: Roman Pottery in Britain, LondonGoogle Scholar
Webster, P. 2011: ‘Roman pottery in the north west’, in Saunders, T. (ed.), Roman North West England: Hinterland or ‘Indian Country’?, Archaeology North West (New Series) 2, Manchester, 58–73Google Scholar
Wilkinson, D.M., O'Regan, H.J., and Thorp, J. 2011: ‘Dogs, scouts and cavers: a history of archaeological excavation at Dog Hole Cave, Haverbrack, Cumbria, north west England’, Cave and Karst Science 38, 125–30Google Scholar
Supplementary material: PDF

O'Regan et al. supplementary material

O'Regan et al. supplementary material

Download O'Regan et al. supplementary material(PDF)
PDF 855.6 KB