Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-dzt6s Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-23T13:07:47.590Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

A mutilated human skull from Roman St Albans, Hertfordshire, England

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2015

Simon Mays
Affiliation:
Ancient Monuments Laboratory, English Heritage, 23 Savile Row, London W1X1AB, England
James Steele
Affiliation:
Department of Archaeology, University of Southampton, Highfield, Southampton SO9 5NH, England

Abstract

A skull excavated from a 2nd-century AD pit in the Roman city of St Albans shows evidence for violent injury and displays cut-marks which seem to indicate deliberate defleshing. The find appears to be without close parallel in Roman Britain.

Type
Notes
Copyright
Copyright © Antiquity Publications Ltd. 1996

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.)

References

Allen, W.H., Merbs, C.F. & Birkby, W.H.. 1985. Evidence for prehistoric scalping at Nuvakwewtakwa (Chavez Pass) and Grasshopper Ruin, Arizona, in Merbs, C.R. & Miller, R.J. (ed.), Health ir disease in She prehistoric South-West: 2342. Tempo (AZ): Arizona State University. Anthropological Research Papers 34.Google Scholar
Anger, S. & Dlek, A.. 1978. Skalpieren in Europa seit dem Neolithikum his um 1767 Nach Chr., Bonner Hefte zur Vorgeschichte 17: 153240.Google Scholar
Barkhr, P. 1981. Wroxeter Roman city excavations 1966-80. London: Department of the Environment.Google Scholar
Brothwell, D.R. 1981. Digging up bones. 3rd edition. Oxford: Oxford University Press for the British Museum (Natural History).Google Scholar
Green, M. 1986. The Gods of the Celts. Stroud: Alan Sutton.Google Scholar
Marsh, G. & West, B.. 1981. Skullduggery in Roman London?, Transactions of the London ir Middlesex Archaeological Society 32: 88102.Google Scholar
Mays, S.A. & Steele, J.. 1995. The Romano-British human bone from Folly Lane, St Albans (1991-1092 excavations). London: Ancient Monuments Laboratory. Report 19/95.Google Scholar
Niblbtt, R. 1992. A Catuvellaunian chieftain's burial from St Albans, Antiquity 66: 917-29.Google Scholar
Niblbtt, R. Forthcoming. The 1991-92 excavations at Folly Lane, St Albans.Google Scholar
Olsen, S.L. & Shieman, P.. 1994. Cutmarks and perimortem treatment of skeletal remains on the Northern Plains, in Owsley, & Jantz, (ed.): 377-87.Google Scholar
Ortner, D.J. & Plitschar, W.G.J.. 1985. Identification of pathological conditions in human skeletal remains. Washington (DC): Smithsonian Institution Press.Google Scholar
Owsley, D.W. & Jantz, R.L. (ed.). 1994. Skeletal biology in the Great Plains. Washington (DC): Smithsonian Institution Press.Google Scholar
OwsLey, D.W., Mann, R.W. & Bauch, T.O.. 1994. Culturally modified human bones from tire Edwards I site, in Owsley, & Jantz, (ed.): 363-75.Google Scholar
Philrott, R. 1991. Burial practices in Roman Britain. Oxford: British Archaeological Reports. British series 219.Google Scholar
Quinnkll, H. 1991. The Villa and Temple at Cosgrove, Northamptonshire, Northamptonshire Archaeology 23: 466.Google Scholar
Steinbock, K.T. 1976. Paleopathological diagnosis and interpretation. Springfield (IL): C.C. Thomas.Google Scholar
White, T.O. 1991. Human osteology. San Diego (CA): Academic Press.Google Scholar