Rich Roman Cremation Pyre Discovered in France – History Blog

A richly furnished cremation pyre from the height of the Roman Empire (early 2nd century) was unearthed at La Monzy-Saint-Martin in southwestern France. It contains very valuable furniture, including coins, gold pieces and an intaglio ring with a pendant inscribed with Greek letters.

A ford site on the Dordogne River was known to contain the remains of a Neolithic settlement, but the discovery of a sole Roman grave was a surprise. It consists of a rectangular pit whose edges are clearly defined by burning material. A small terra sigillata container and a transparent vial were found in one corner, with the cremated human remains underneath them. A copper coin confirms that this was a High Empire cremation.

This type of burial is called broken to piecesCremation graves, where the remains of the charred body are left on a pyre, as opposed to the more typical cremation burials, where a pyre is used multiple times and the charred bones are collected and buried elsewhere. The pyre will be built over a shallow pit that will collect bones and ashes as the fire burns. Once the fire is extinguished (or extinguished), the pit is covered with dirt.

The filling of the pit was then carefully excavated. The filling was only six inches deep and consisted of ash and charcoal as well as cremated bone fragments and grave goods. All bones and artifacts found were left in situ and photogrammetrically recorded in order to create 3D models of the burials for later analysis.

The terra sigillata beaker was probably made in a local workshop in Montas at the turn of the first and second centuries and was removed from a clump of earth. A long iron object, so badly corroded that it looked like a wooden handle, was also removed from the soil so that it could be X-rayed and fully excavated under laboratory conditions.

At the southern end of the pit, a number of valuable grave goods were found, including a group of approximately 10 coins, sestertii and donkeys, interspersed with small gold flakes that may have decorated the purses or chests that once contained the coins. A set of crystals were found within the bone remains, which may have originally been mounted on an organic base such as leather.

Of the 22 gold objects (gold flakes, gold threads and gold drops), 3 are particularly striking: a bracelet made of twisted band with an annular clasp at the end; a possible bulla (a bubble-shaped pendant given to young men of wealthy Roman families) and an intaglio ring.

The ring, deformed by the heat and dropped into a collapsed pyre, features a claw-shaped bezel that was once engraved with a small intaglio pattern. It is made of an as yet unidentified material (crystal?), is very small, and is engraved with seven Greek letters: Allallé. Research on the inscription on this object will focus specifically on determining whether this could have been the surname of the deceased.

The recovered remains and structures will now be studied by a multidisciplinary research team. In addition to studying the funerary practices themselves, researchers will consider where it fits within the wider landscape, where the burial sites associated with the busts might be, where Roman-era settlements were located, and whether carved gemstones prove there was a Greek population here.