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Building a Roman Funeral Pyre

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  08 May 2015

David Noy
David Noy*
Affiliation:
University of Wales, Lampeter
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Extract

Until the second century A.D., the bodies of most people who died at Rome and in the western provinces of the Empire ended up on a funeral pyre, to be reduced to ashes which would be placed in a grave. The practical arrangements for this process have attracted some attention from archaeologists but virtually none from ancient historians. In this paper I shall try to combine literary and archaeological evidence to reconstruct how the pyre was prepared. I hope that this will provide a fuller background than currently exists for understanding the numerous brief references which can be found in Roman literature and the two surviving representations of a pyre (other than an emperor's) in Roman art. Cremation had different traditions in different areas, e.g. as an elite practice in parts of Gaul, even if ultimately it ‘may have been thought of as a sign of allegiance to Rome.’ There clearly were local differences, not just between provinces but between places quite close together, as well as changes over time, but many of the rites of cremation appear to have been similar throughout the Western Roman Empire, illustrating what Morris calls ‘a massive cultural homogenisation of the Roman world at a time when political and economic regionalism was increasing’.

Type
Research Article
Information
Antichthon , Volume 34 , November 2000 , pp. 30 - 45
Copyright
Copyright © Australasian Society for Classical Studies 2000

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References

1 Toynbee, J., Death and Burial in the Roman World (London 1971) 49–50Google Scholar, covers it in less than half a page; Walker, S., Memorials to the Roman Dead (London 1985) 55–7Google Scholar has slightly more. Morris, I., Death-ritual and Social Structure in Classical Antiquity (London 1992)CrossRefGoogle Scholar deals at length with cremation graves, but says nothing about the process of cremation. There is a fairly detailed reconstruction based mainly on literary evidence in Daremberg, C. & Saglio, E., Dictionnaire des Antiquités Grecques et Romaines (Paris1877–1919) 2.1394–6Google Scholar. The cremation of emperors, in the context of imperial funerals, has been discussed by Arce, J., Funus Imperatoram (Madrid 1988)Google Scholar and Price, S., ‘From noble funerals to divine cult: the consecration of Roman Emperors’, in Cannadine, D. & Price, S. (eds.), Rituals of Royalty (Cambridge 1987) 56–105Google Scholar. In what follows I shall make only limited reference to imperial cremations which, in scale and ultimate purpose (apotheosis) diverged increasingly from other cremations.

2 Some of the literary evidence is from epic poetry and therefore not intended to describe the practices of the authors’ own times; I have nevertheless assumed that it has some value in illustrating the rites with which they were familiar. For Servius, another important source, cremation was a matter of only antiquarian interest.

3 Morris (n.1) 47-9.

4 Illustrated by Ebel, W., Die römische Grabhügel des ersten Jahrhunderts im Treverergebiet, Marburger Studien zur Vor- und Frühgeschichte 12 (Marburg 1989) 127Google Scholar for part of Germany in the first century A.D.

5 Morris (n.1) 33, discussing the change from cremation to inhumation.

6 e.g. Livy 8.7.21; Ovid, Fasti 3.546Google Scholar, Her. 15.116Google Scholar, Tr. 1.3.98, 4.10.86Google Scholar, Ex.P. 3.2.32Google Scholar. It is also found in a verse epitaph: CIL 6.6986Google Scholar.

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10 Lucan 3.240-1; (Palladius), De gentibus Indiae et Bragmanis 2.39Google Scholar; Lucian, , Fugitivi 7Google Scholar; Mort.Per. 1, 25Google Scholar. Athenaeus 12.529b-c, quoting Ctesias, says that after a military defeat Sardanapalus built his own pyre on which he destroyed his wealth as well as himself and his wife.

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18 CIL 6.10237Google Scholar. Cf. 10346, also probably not from Rome as the dedicator is patrona decurionu: ‘She gave a place for the vigiles and a built monument and a place for an ustrina; across the road.’

19 CIL 6.3823Google Scholar=31577=12591, probably late 2nd or early 1st century B.C.: ‘neive ustrinae in eis loceis regionibusve nive foci ustrinae {ve} caussa fierent nive stercus terra[m]ve intra ea loca fecisse coniecisseve veli[t].’ Cf. 6.31614-5=12.838-9, the decree of L. Sentius, dated to the early 1st century B.C.: ‘nei quis intra terminos propius urbem ustrinam fecisse velit nive stercus cadaver iniecisse velit’ The reference to hearths is missing there, but the dumping of bodies has been added. See discussion by Bodel (n.17) 43-8.

20 CIL 6.29900–2Google Scholar: ‘ad hoc monumentum ustrinum applicari non licet. poena est.’ 4410: ‘huic monumento ustrinum aplicari [sic] non licet.’

21 Bodel (n.17) 51.

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23 Kampmann (n.22) 77; Rocca, E. la, La Riva a Mezzaluna (Rome 1984) 101, tav.XXIGoogle Scholar; Arce (n.1) 142. However, the structure could be an altar.

24 Boatwright, M., ‘The “Ara Ditis—Ustrinum of Hadrian” in the Western Campus Martius and other problematic Roman ustrina’, AJA 89 (1985) 495CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Strabo 5.3.8.

25 Kampmann (n.22) 78.

26 Frazer, A., ‘The pyre of Faustina Senior’, in Kopeke, G. & Moore, M.B. (eds.), Studies in Classical Art and Archaeology to P.H. van Blanckenhagen (Loust Valley NY 1979) 271–4Google Scholar.

27 Squarciapino, M. Floriani, Scavi di Ostia III. Le necropoli. I. Le tombe di età repubblicana ed auguslea (Rome 1956) 24-5, 42-6, 70-3, 101-4, 118, 124Google Scholar: the tombs are mainly datable to the first century A.D. Such an arrangement is probably referred to in a fragmentary inscription, CIL 14.604Google Scholar.

28 CIL 6.34476Google Scholar specifies a monumentum of 20 x 30+ feet, with a ustrinum behind it of 12 x 12 feet. In 30040, the ustrinum measuring 12 x 12 feet was purchased after the mam tomb which was 16 feet wide. 24471 refers to a ustrinufm) commu[ne?]. At the Vigna Codini, ustrina had their size specified as 13½ x 11½ and 12 x 12(?) feet (4415, 4417). Cf. 11576, 11706, 17662, 23808, 24374, 29519, 34565. According to Kampmann (n.22) 77, Fabretti described an ustrinum on the Via Appia.

29 CIL 10.6414Google Scholar (Tarracina) mentions an ustrinum 10½ feet wide. Cf. 6607 (Velletri), 8284 (Tarracina). At Aquileia there was an ustrinum 16 x 16 feet, and an inscription from Verona mentiones ustrinae commune [sic] (CIL 5. 8308, 3554Google Scholar).

30 Kockel, V., Die Grabbauten vor dem Herkulaner Tor in Pompeji (Mainz am Rhein 1983) 39Google Scholar.

31 Monacchi, D., ‘Acquasparta (Terni). Loc. Crocifisso. Scavo di un'area funeraria romana nel territorio carsulano con rinvenimento di letti di osso’, NS (1990/1991) 89Google Scholar.

32 CIL 6.36632Google Scholar; Supp It. 15.83Google Scholar.

33 Hood, S. & Walton, H., ‘A Romano-British cremating place and burial ground on Roden Downs, Compton, Berks.’, Transactions of the Newbury District Field Club 9 (1948) 13Google Scholar; Wenham, L.P.et al., The Romano-British cemetery at Trentholme Drive, York (London 1968) 21Google Scholar; Beraud, I. & Gébara, Ch., ‘Les lits funéraires de la nécropole Galloromaine de Saint-Lambert (Fréjus)’, Rev.Arch.Narb. 19 (1986) 186Google Scholar; Béraud, I. & Gébara, Ch., ‘Les nécropoles de Fréjus’, Nécropoles à Incinération du Haut-Empire; Table Ronde de Lyon 30&31 Mai 1986 (Lyon 1987) 25Google Scholar; Bel, V., ‘La nécropole Gallo-Romaine de Saint-Paul-Trois-Châteaux’ (ibid.), 36Google Scholar; Lequoy, M.C., ‘La nécropole gallo-romaine de Vatteville-la-Rue (Forêt de Brotonne - Les Landes - Seine Maritime)’ (ibid.) 56–7Google Scholar; Paris, P., Bonsor, G.et al., Fouilles de Belo vol.II (Bordeaux/Paris 1926) 46Google Scholar. It is not always clear from excavation reports that the area identified as an ustrinum actually was used as such rather than being a dumping area for pyre debris from elsewhere.

34 Davey, N. ‘The Romano-British cemetery at St Stephens, near Verulamium’, Transactions of the St Albans & Herts Architectural & Archaeological Society (1935) 245Google Scholar.

35 Doorselaer, A. van, Les Nécropoles d'Époque Romaine en Gaul Septentrionale (Bruges 1967) 34–5Google Scholar.

36 Ebel (n.4) 85;Servius, , In Aen. 11.201Google Scholar; Festus 29L s.v. bustum. Pompey's impromptu pyre on the Egyptian shore became a bustum (Lucan 8.772-791), as there was no possibility of moving his remains from there.

37 Philpott, R., Burial Practices in Roman Britain. A survey of grave treatment and furnishing A.D.43-410 (London 1991) 48–9Google Scholar; van Doorselaer (n.35) 107.

38 ILS 8210.

39 CIL 8.9392Google Scholar. The expression used is ‘cupulam superstitem rogus eius’. Rogus should probably be understood as rogi, i.e. ‘the monument surviving his pyre’.

40 Taglietti, F. in Baldassare, I.et al., ‘Sepolture e riti nella necropoli dell'Isola Sacra’, Bollettino di Archeologia 5-6 (1990) 82Google Scholar; Tranoy, L., ‘La mort en Gaul romaine’, in Crubézy, E.et al. (eds.), L'Archéologie Funéraire (Paris 2000) 139Google Scholar. Caronna, E. Lissi, NS (1970) 358Google Scholar, describes one from Rome, on the Janiculum.

41 ‘Aeration channels’ have been identified in some busta (van Doorselaer [n.35] 33).

42 Lucian, , Mort.Per. 25Google Scholar. Peregrinus is described (ibid. 21) as digging a pit (βόθρον) as part of his preparations; presumably this was to make it easier for him to jump on to the pyre.

43 Jessup, R.F., ‘Barrows and walled cemeteries in Roman Britain’, JBAA 3rd ser. 22 (1959) 6Google Scholar; Tranoy, L., ‘La nécropole de La Favorite à Lyon’, Nécropoles à Incinération du Haut-Empire; Table Ronde de Lyon 30&31 Mai 1986 (Lyon 1987) 44Google Scholar; Ebel (n.4) 84.

44 Barocelli, P., ‘Albintimilium. I sepolcri’, MonAnt 29 (1923) 58Google Scholar; Lissi Caronna (n.40) 358; Mercando, L., NS (1974) 149Google Scholar; Mercando, L.et al., NS (1982) 112, 315Google Scholar; Tranoy (n.43) 44; Ebel (n.4) 82; van Doorselaer (n.35) 33, 108.

45 [Quintilian] Deel. 329; Dio 56.42, 59.11; Epicedion Drusi 217; Statius Theb. 6.213-16; Virgil, Aen. 11.188–90Google Scholar; Florus, Epit. 2.8Google Scholar; Boatwright (n.24) 494.

46 Dio 75(74).5.3 says that Pertinax's pyre was built like a tower with three storeys. A coin of the consecratio of Julia Maesa clearly shows her kline on second storey (Arce [n.1] 142).

47 One in the Museo Capitolino (inv.no.618), of which there is a drawing, fig.l here, in Daremberg-Saglio (n.1) fig.3363 (which does not explain the context), is best illustrated in LIMC 6 Meleagros 148; it is actually a sarcophagus lid, from the second century according to S. Woodford, ad loc. (Jones, H. Stuart, A Catalogue of the Ancient Sculptures Preserved in the Municipal Collections of Rome. The sculptures of the Museo Capitolino [Oxford 1912] 267–8Google Scholar, makes it third century). The other, Matz-Duhn no. 3262, illustrated by Robert, C., Die Antiken Sarkophag-Reliefs im Auftrage des Kaiserlich Deutsches Archaeologisches Instituts, vol.3 Einzelmythen, 2te Abt. Hippolytos-Meleagros (Berlin 1904) no.230aGoogle Scholar, is from the Palazzo Sciarra (formerly in the Palazzo Barberini according to Matz, F., ‘Sarcofaghi con rappresentanze del mito di Meleagro’, BullIstCorrArch [1869] 100Google Scholar); most of the scenes depicted are similar.

48 Pearson, M. Parker, The Archaeology of Death and Burial (Stroud 1999) fig. 1.1Google Scholar; J. McKinley, , ‘Bronze Age “barrows” and funerary rites and rituals of cremation’, Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society 63 (1997) fig.2CrossRefGoogle Scholar. Jacqueline McKinley also carried out a televised reconstruction of a Roman pyre for the Time Team programme on Channel 4, broadcast on 30th Jan. 2000.

49 Seneca, Herc.Oet. 1637Google Scholar: ‘aggeritur omnis silua et altemae trabes’.

50 Servius in Aen. 6.177; Isidore, Etym. 20.10.9Google Scholar.

51 Barber, P.T., ‘Cremation’, Journal of Indo-European Studies 18 (1990) 380Google Scholar.

52 Pearson (n.48) 49. Parry, J.P., Death in Banaras (Cambridge 1994) 96Google Scholar. People would of course normally want to use much more than the minimum.

53 Vemhet (n.7) 88.

54 Meiggs, R., Trees and Timber in the Ancient Mediterranean World (Oxford 1982) 258–9Google Scholar.

55 Peregrinus actually used for his pyre, which should probably be understood in the context as pine-wood torches, no doubt plentiful at Olympia. Meiggs (n.54) 422 believes that picea is really spruce.

56 Pliny, , H.N. 16.40Google Scholar, describes picea as rogis virens. Several sources list types of wood used. Seneca, Herc.Oet. 1639–42Google Scholar: pine, oak (robur, ilex), poplar. Silius Italicus 10.533ff: oak (quercus), pine, cypress. Virgil Aen. 6.214Google Scholar (Misenus' pyre) and 4.505 (Dido's): pitch-pine (taeda) and oak (robur). According to Taylor, M., Wood in Archaeology (Prince's Risborough 1981) 54Google Scholar, poplar would not be a suitable wood to use.

57 Wenhametal. (n.33) 101.

58 Wenham et al. (n.33) 21. He suggests that the use of coal may have required some sort of permanent structure rather than the usual open pyre.

59 Monacchi (n.31) 92.

60 Sena Chiesa (n.8) 593.

61 Davey (n.34) 245.

62 Taylor (n.56) 46.

63 Wesch-Klein, G., Funus publicum (Stuttgart 1993)Google Scholar app.

64 CIL 14.413Google Scholar.

65 Arce (n.1) 22; Bodel (n.12) 16; Appian, B.C. 1.12.105–6Google Scholar; Plutarch SW.38.

66 Pliny, H.N. 35.49Google Scholar (tr. H. Rackham, slightly altered).

67 Lucan 5.277ff., 7.797ff.; Lucretius 6.1293-6; Martial 8.75.9-10.

68 CIL 6.5163Google Scholar: ‘uno rogo combusta in uno’.

69 The Palazzo Sciarra sarcophagus showing the cremation of Meleager (see n.47) appears to show his body being laid directly on the pyre (according to Robert's illustration, only the feet are preserved), but Meleager is also depicted as being carried straight from the battlefield, so this should not be regarded as normal.

70 Photograph in Toynbee (n. 1) pi. 11.

71 Ovid, Met. 3.507Google Scholar: the Dryads prepare one for Narcissus even though there is no body. According to Isidore, , Etym. 20.11.7Google Scholar, feretrum was a Greek-derived word for which capulus was the Latin equivalent.

72 Nicholls, R.V., ‘A Roman couch in Cambridge’, Archaeologia 106 (1979) 26CrossRefGoogle Scholar suggests that this was normal practice with highly ornamented couches.

73 Lucan 6.536: ‘feralis fragmenta tori’.

74 Paris & Bonsor (n.33) 17; Sena Chiesa (n.8) 51.

75 Suetonius, Caes. 84Google Scholar; Dio 75(74).4.3.

76 Talamo, E., ‘Un letto funerario da una tomba dell'Esquilino’, BCAR 92 (1987/1988) 25Google Scholar. Cf. Brizio, E., NS (1902) 446, 452Google Scholar; Mezzera, R. Mollo, ‘Augusta Praetoria. Aggiomamento sulle conoscenze archeologiche della città e del suo territorio’, in Atti del Congresso sul Bimillenario della Città di Aosta (Aosta 1982)Google Scholar; Béraud & Gébara 1986 (n.33) 187; Béraud & Gébara 1987 (n.33) 27; Faita, M., ‘Due letti funerari con rivestimenti in osso da Aielli (Aq.)’, SCO 39 (1989)Google Scholar; Monacelli (n.31) 110-145. Such elaborate couches were probably used more often for inhumation (Nicholls, n.72).

77 Sena Chiesa (n.8) 38. Cf. Zuccàia, M.F., NS (1979) 20–1Google Scholar. The ivory and terracotta fragments mentioned by Floriani Squarciapino (n.27) 12 at Ostia may have been from a feretrum.

78 Taglietti in Baldassare et al. (n.40) 83.

79 Sena Chiesa (n.8) 244-5, t.11.

80 Clarke, G., The Roman Cemetery at Lankhills (Winchester Studies 3.Il) (Oxford 1979) 129Google Scholar.

81 Dutour, O., Berato, J., Lafont, R. & Permet, G., ‘Analyse de la température de crémation d'incinérations antiques par diffractométrie r.x. (Nécropole du Haut Empire de Saint Lambert de Fréjus, Var)’, Revue d'Archéometrie 13 (1989) 27Google Scholar.

82 McKinley, J.I., ‘A pyre and grave goods in British cremation burials; have we missed something?’, Antiquity 68 (1994) 134CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

83 Pliny, H.N. 7.173Google Scholar; Valerius Maximus 1.8.12-13.1 owe this idea to Annie May.

84 McKinley (n.82) 132.

85 e.g. Janssens, P., ‘Examen des ossements du cimitière gallo-romain de Blicquy’, in Laet, S.J.et al., La Nécropole Gallo-romain de Blicquy (Dissertationes Archeologicae Gandenses 14) (Bruges 1972) 156, 159–60Google Scholar.

86 Dio 75(74).5.4; Frazer (n.26) 272.

87 Pliny, H.N. 11.149Google Scholar: ‘ita more condito, ut neque ab homine supremum eos spectari fas sit et caelo non ostendi nefas’. A. Emout & R. Pépin, in the Budé edition, translate: ‘la religion ne permettant pas qu'ils soient vus par quiconque au moment suprême, ni qu'ils ne se montrent pas au ciel’.

88 e.g. Propertius 1.13.26, 4.11.9-10; Seneca, Tro. 381Google Scholar; Statius, , Silv. 2.6.14–15Google Scholar; Lucretius 6.1285.

89 e.g. Valerius Maximus 4.6.3, 5.5.4 ; Lucan 8.740.

90 e.g. Virgil, Aen. 6.223–4Google Scholar; Lucan 5.634-5.

91 Herodian 4.2.10. Severus' pyre was lit by his sons who were also his successors: Dio 77(76).15.3.

92 Dio 77(76).15.3 specifically says that soldiers threw () their gifts on to Severus' pyre.

93 McKinley (n.82).

94 Pomponius Mela 3.19 attributes the belief to the Gauls. In Gk. Anth. 11.133 (Lucilius), the lyric poet Eutychides orders twelve lyres and twenty-five cases of music to be burnt with him, so that he can use them in the underworld. Gk.Anth. 9.242 (Antiphilus of Byzantium) describes how a ferryman has his boat burnt with him, perhaps for the same reason.

95 Cf. how a woman named Helvia Prima from Beneventum (CIL 9.1837Google Scholar) apparently refers to the role of cremation in getting her into the Underworld, a belief not shared by the elite: ‘deducta et fatali igne et aqua Stygia.’ She describes herself as being ‘cinis et tosta favilla’. On varying beliefs about the connection between cremation and reaching the Underworld, see Noy (n.9) 192-3.

96 Cicero, Leg. 2.60Google Scholar: ‘ne sumptuosa respersio’.

97 Caesar, B. G. 6.19.4Google Scholar; Pomponius Mela 3.19.

98 CIL 13.5708Google Scholar; Walker (n.1) 16; Bodel (n.12) 14. Cf. the remains of a bronze-mounted folding stool from the early 3rd century found in a cremation in Kent: Jessup, R.F., ‘Barrows and walled cemeteries in Roman Britain’, JBAA 3rd ser. 22 (1959) 7Google Scholar.

99 CIL 6.12649Google Scholar.

100 Suetonius, Caes. 84.4Google Scholar; Dio 56.42; Silius Italicus 10.562-4; Statius, Theb. 5.313–19, 12.60-4Google Scholar; Virgil, Aen. 11.193–6Google Scholar.

101 Dussot (n.8) 125; Lintz (n.8) 282; Vernhet (n.7) 88; Ebel (n.4) 112.

102 Down & Rule (n.8) 73; Branigan, K., ‘An unusual Romano-British cremation burial’, AnJ 52 (1972) 185Google Scholar; Clarke (n.80) 129; Dussot (n.8) 125; Lintz (n.8) 282. Boots were also sometimes placed in the burial of the cremated remains, not burnt themselves.

103 Mercando et al. (n.44) 112; Mercando (n.44) 149; J. Allain, I. Fauduet & Tuffreau-Libre, M., La Nécropole Gallo-romaine du Champ de l'Image à Argentomagus (Saint-Marcel, Indre) (Saint-Marcel 1992) 126Google Scholar; Monacchi (n.31) 94; Barthelemy, A., ‘La nécropole de Macon’, Nécropoles à Incinération du Haut-Empire; Table Ronde de Lyon 30&31 Mai 1986 (Lyon 1987) 115Google Scholar; Dussot (n.8) 125; Lintz (n.8) 282.

104 Ebel (n.4) 122.

105 Wenham et al. (n.33) 32; Biddle (n.8) 231. In a burial at Verulamium, they were scattered over the cremated remains, not burnt themselves: Niblett, R. & Reeves, P. (1990), ‘A wealthy early Roman cremation from Verulamium’, AnJ 70 (1990) 444Google Scholar.

106 Ebel (n.4) 114, 121.

107 Béraud & Gébara 1987 (n.33) 27; Paris & Bonsor (n.33) 23.

108 Catullus 59; Epicedion Drusi 255; Virgil, , Aen. 6.225Google Scholar.

109 Terence, Eun. 491Google Scholar; Catullus 59.3. The insult bustirape in Plautus Ps. 350 may refer to this rather than to tomb-robbing.

110 Barber, B., Bowsher, D. & Whittaker, K., ‘Recent excavations of a cemetery of Londinium’, Britannia 21 (1990), 8CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Sena Chiesa (n.8) 39, 93-4, 594. Sena Chiesa notes that such remains could be from a funerary meal or purificatory fire rather than from the pyre itself.

111 Barocelli (n.44) 51; Wenham et al. (n.33) 25; Bel (n.33) 37.

112 Sena Chiesa (n.8) 93-4, 594; Bel (n.33) 37.

113 Wenham et al. (n.33) 32; Ebel (n.4) 126; Karpf, G. & Volk, P., ‘Medizingeschichtliche, anthropologisch-paläopathologische und paläodemographische Befunde des römischen Brandgräberfeldes von Schallstadt’, Archäologisches Korrespondenzblatt 3 (1973) 56Google Scholar.

114 Virgil, Aen. 11.197–9Google Scholar: sacrifice of oxen and sheep. Dionysius of Halicamassus Ant.Rom. 8.59.4Google Scholar: funeral of Coriolanus.

115 Biddle (n.8) 227. Janssens (n.85) 156 notes both burnt and unbumt animal bones.

116 Chausserie-Laprée, J.. & Nin, N., ‘La nécropole à incinération d'époque augustéenne de La Gatasse (Commune de Martigues, Bouches-du-Rhône), Nécropoles à Incinération du Haut-Empire; Table Ronde de Lyon 30&31 Mai 1986 (Lyon 1987) 79Google Scholar.

117 C. Olive, ‘Premières observations sur les offrandes animales des nécropoles de Saint-Paul-Trois-Châteaux (Drôme) et d'Avenches (Suisse)’, ibid. 97.

118 Morris (n.1) 17.

119 This paper derives from one given to a research seminar at Lampeter in January 2000, and parts of it have also been developed through teaching undergraduate and postgraduate students there. I am very grateful to everyone who has provided information and criticism. 1 intend to look at the next stage of the process, the quenching of the pyre and collection of the remains, in a separate paper.