the Trust excavates rare Roman burial at Colchester

In late October, the Trust excavated a Roman burial during our archaeological watching brief at the Flagstaff House complex in the old garrison at Colchester. The burial consisted of what looked like a cremation burial, with a cremation urn placed in a grave-pit with four pottery vessels, and which produced fragments of pottery and animal bone, some small finds, and a number of iron nails. The burial is very interesting, with its group of complete and almost-complete vessels, but it is a rare burial because it includes one really special vessel…

The Flagstaff House complex is within the old Colchester garrison and originally included the garrison’s commanding officers’ quarters, later the garrison HQ. The site where the complex stands includes part of the site of the Roman circus and several Roman burials. The surviving garrison buildings have been converted for residential use and new dwellings are being built in between them, and the Trust is conducting the watching brief on the construction works.

The partially-disturbed burial was uncovered by machine in the ‘pocket park’ at the Flagstaff House complex site, near the site of the Roman burials uncovered by the Colchester Archaeological Group in September 2015. Five domestic pottery vessels had been placed in the grave-pit. Today (14th December), Trust pottery specialist Steve Benfield identified the vessels. These are a storage jar which had been re-used as the cremation urn and held the cremated human bone, a used cooking-pot, a colour-coated beaker, a small dish and a medium-sized dish. Apart from the colour-coated beaker, three of the vessels are made of grey ware while one is made of pale grey ware. The pottery is all lower quality and the cooking-pot even includes sooting on the exterior and traces of scale on the interior, which suggests that it had been used for boiling water. Three of the vessels represent table wares and, perhaps, a basic table setting, with the small dish, the medium-sized dish and the beaker, while the other two vessels are the used cooking-pot and the re-used storage jar.

The vessels were all made in the Colchester area and, because of the dating of the vessels, Steve dates the burial to the late 2nd-mid 3rd century AD or a bit later. The surviving iron nails suggest that the cremation urn and the burial goods had been buried in a large nailed wooden chest, although the wood has not survived. Four of the vessels – not the cremation urn – probably contained food and drink when they were placed in the grave as an offering to the gods or as food for the deceased on their journey to or for their ‘life’ in the Underworld. Unfortunately, the cremation urn was damaged by the machine. Although the vessels are of normal size, we think that the burial was, sadly, of a child, possibly a young girl.

Steve says that it is a fascinating burial, because of the really special vessel, which is the medium-sized dish. This is special because of its contents. You can read about the really special vessel in our next blog post…

The Trust’s archaeological fieldwork projects at the Flagstaff House complex – now called ‘Arena Place’ – are being funded by Taylor Wimpey. The fieldwork is being undertaken by various members of our excavation team and the burial was excavated by Trust excavators Nigel Rayner and Alec Wade.

The images show a photo. of the burial during excavation, with the special dish at top right, and the small dish, the cooking-pot and the beaker arranged to the left; and the pottery vessels here at the Roman circus centre today, with the colour-coated beaker, the small dish, and Steve holding the cooking-pot (you can see the dark sooting on the exterior of the pot).

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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