On the modes of sepulture observable in late Romano-British and early Anglo-Saxon times in this country / by George Rolleston.

  • Rolleston, George, 1829-1881.
Date:
[1869?]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: On the modes of sepulture observable in late Romano-British and early Anglo-Saxon times in this country / by George Rolleston. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    {^Reprintcd from the Transactions of the International Congress of Prehistoric Archceology, Third OX THE MODES OF SEPULTURE OBSERVABLE IX LATE ROMAXO-BRITISII AND EARLY AXGLO-SAXOX TIMES IX THIS COUNTRY. By George Roeleston, E.sq., M.D., F.R.S. {Linacre Professor of Anatomy and Physiology, Oxford.) The author began his paper by saying that the admission of a paper on the modes of interment adopted in this country during the fourth, hfth, aivi sixth centuries of the Christian era into the list of papers to be read before a Congress of Prehistoric Archaeology, was an illustration of the truth of Mr. Goldwin Smith’s remark, that place as well as time could confer a prehistoric character on events.* The po- sitions taken up in his paper were mainly, though not ex- clusively, based upon investigations conducted by him in a cemetery at Prilford in Berkshire, belonging to Win. Aldworth, Esq. Interments to the nmnber of 123, and of five different kinds, have been taken note of in this cemeteiy alone. Two of the five kinds of interments were Roman or Romano-British; and the remaining three Anglo-Saxon. The first kind of interment was that of leaden coffins, rect- angular in shape, covered with a lid, occupying deeper graves than any of the other interments, more or less accurately oriented, sometimes containing coins, as of the Emperor Gratian (ob. 383), and sometimes not. The presence of large nails, with woody fibre still adherent to them, which micro- scopic examination had shown to be oaken, in relation with these coffins, went to prove that the leaden coffins had been surrounded with wooden ones when put into the graves.f * For the non-historic character of this period in Great Brilain see Kemble, ‘ Saxons in England,’ i. 22, 28 ; Gibbon, chap, xxxviii. vol. yi. ed. 1838, ad fin. t For descriptions of similar interments in leaden coffins see Abb6 Cochet, Normandie souterraine, p. 29; Professor Phillips, Yorkshire, p. 249 ; Bloxam,