Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-rdxmf Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-25T19:46:38.695Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

A Late Roman Military Burial from the Dyke Hills, Dorchester on Thames, Oxfordshire

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  03 July 2014

Paul Booth
Paul Booth*
Affiliation:
Oxford [email protected]
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Damage to part of the earthwork at Dyke Hills, Dorchester on Thames, provided the opportunity to recover the badly disturbed remains of a late Roman burial which had contained an elaborate belt set and an axe. This burial, of a type very unusual in Roman Britain, is argued to be of early fifth-century date and to be directly comparable with well-known burials recovered near by in 1874 which formed a starting point for the ‘soldiers and settlers’ debates of the 1960s and beyond. The Dorchester burials are seen here as those of late Roman military personnel, and their local and wider context is discussed.

Keywords

Dorchester on ThamesDyke Hillsweapon burialbelt buckleaxelate Roman armyAnglo-Saxon transition
Type
Articles
Information
Britannia , Volume 45 , November 2014 , pp. 243 - 273
Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s) 2014. Published by The Society for the Promotion of Roman Studies 

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

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Akerman, J.Y. 1867: ‘Report of excavations in an ancient cemetery at Frilford, near Abingdon, Berks’, Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries, 2nd series, 3, 136–41Google Scholar
Allen, T. 2000: ‘The Iron Age background’, in Henig and Booth 2000, 1–33Google Scholar
Allen, T.G., Cramp, K., Lamdin-Whymark, H., and Webley, L. 2010: Castle Hill and its Landscape; Archaeological Investigations at the Wittenhams, Oxfordshire, Oxford Archaeology Monograph 9, Oxford Google Scholar
Barber, B., and Bowsher, D. 2000: The Eastern Cemetery of Roman London: Excavations 1983–1990, MoLAS Monograph 4, London Google Scholar
Bennike, P., Bro-Rasmussen, F., and Bro-Rasmussen, P. 1987: ‘Dislocation and/or congenital malformation of the shoulder joint. Observations on a mediaeval skeleton from Denmark’, Anthropologischer Anzeiger 45, 117–29Google Scholar
Böhme, H.W. 1974: Germanische Grabfunde des 4. bis 5. Jahrhunderts zwischen unterer Elbe und Loire, Munich Google Scholar
Böhme, H.W. 1986: ‘Das Ende der Römerherrschaft in Britannien und die angelsächsische Besiedlung Englands im 5. Jahrhundert’, Jahrbuch des Römisch-Germanischen Zentralmuseums Mainz 33, 469–574 Google Scholar
Booth, P. 2001: ‘Late Roman cemeteries in Oxfordshire: a review’, Oxoniensia 66, 13–42 Google Scholar
Booth, P. 2007: ‘Roman pottery’, in Chambers and McAdam 2007, 33–8Google Scholar
Booth, P. 2010: ‘Pottery’, in Booth et al. 2010b, 247–61Google Scholar
Booth, P., Dodd, A., Robinson, M., and Smith, A. 2007: The Thames through Time: The Archaeology of the Gravel Terraces of the Upper and Middle Thames. The Early Historical Period: AD 1–1000, Oxford Archaeology Thames Valley Landscapes Monograph 27, Oxford Google Scholar
Booth, P., Gosden, C., and Hamerow, H. 2010a: ‘Dark earths in the Dorchester allotments’, Medieval Archaeology 54, 414–16Google Scholar
Booth, P., Simmonds, A., Boyle, A., Clough, S., Cool, H.E.M., and Poore, D. 2010b: The Late Roman Cemetery at Lankhills, Winchester, Excavations 2000–2005, Oxford Archaeology Monograph 10, Oxford Google Scholar
Boyle, A., Dodd, A., Miles, D., and Mudd, A. 1995: Two Oxfordshire Anglo-Saxon Cemeteries: Berinsfield and Didcot, Oxford Archaeological Unit Thames Valley Landscapes Monograph 8, Oxford Google Scholar
Bradford, J.S.P., and Goodchild, R.G. 1939: ‘Excavations at Frilford, Berks., 1937–8’, Oxoniensia 4, 1–80 Google Scholar
Bradley, R. 1978: ‘Rescue excavation in Dorchester-on-Thames 1972’, Oxoniensia 43, 17–39 Google Scholar
Brooks, S., and Suchey, J.M. 1990: ‘Skeletal age determination based on the os pubis: a comparison of the Acsádi-Nemeskéri and Suchey-Brooks methods’, Human Evolution 5, 227–38Google Scholar
Brothwell, D.R. 1981: Digging Up Bones (3rd edn), Oxford Google Scholar
Brown, D. 1975: ‘A fifth-century burial at Kingsholm’, Antiquaries Journal 55, 290–4Google Scholar
Burnham, B.C., and Wacher, J.S. 1990: The ‘Small Towns’ of Roman Britain, London Google Scholar
Bushe-Fox, J.P. 1949: Fourth Report on the Excavations of the Roman Fort at Richborough, Kent, Reports of the Research Committee of the Society of Antiquaries of London 16, London Google Scholar
Buxton, L.H.D. 1921: ‘Excavations at Frilford’, Antiquaries Journal 1, 87–97 Google Scholar
Chambers, R.A. 1986: ‘An inhumation cemetery at Castle Hill, Little Wittenham, Oxon., 1984–5’, Oxoniensia 51, 45–8Google Scholar
Chambers, R.A. 1987: ‘The late- and sub-Roman cemetery at Queenford Farm, Dorchester-on-Thames, Oxon.’, Oxoniensia 52, 35–69 Google Scholar
Chambers, R.A., and McAdam, E. 2007: Excavations at Barrow Hills, Radley, Oxfordshire, 1983–5. Volume 2: The Romano-British Cemetery and Anglo-Saxon Settlement, Oxford Archaeology Thames Valley Landscapes Monograph 25, Oxford Google Scholar
Clarke, G. 1979: The Roman Cemetery at Lankhills, Winchester Studies 3: Pre-Roman and Roman Winchester Part II, Oxford Google Scholar
Coulston, J.C.N. 2010: ‘Military equipment of the “long” 4th century on Hadrian's Wall’, in Collins, R. and Allason-Jones, L. (eds), Finds from the Frontier: Material Culture in the 4th–5th centuries, CBA Research Report 162, York, 50–63 Google Scholar
Crummy, P. 2011: ‘Warrior burials and the coming of the English’, The Colchester Archaeologist 24, 10–13 Google Scholar
Dickinson, T.M. 1976: The Anglo-Saxon Burial Sites of the Upper Thames Region and their Bearing on the History of Wessex, circa AD 400–700, unpub. Oxford D.Phil. thesisGoogle Scholar
Durham, B., and Rowley, T. 1972: ‘A cemetery site at Queensford Mill, Dorchester’, Oxoniensia 37, 32–7Google Scholar
Eckardt, H. 2010: ‘A long way from home: diaspora communities in Roman Britain’, in Eckardt, H. (ed.), Roman Diasporas: Archaeological Approaches to Mobility and Diversity in the Roman Empire, Journal of Roman Archaeology Supplement 78, Portsmouth, Rhode Island, 99–130 Google Scholar
Elton, H. 1996: Warfare in Roman Europe AD 350–425, Oxford Google Scholar
Esmonde Cleary, A.S. 1989: The Ending of Roman Britain, London Google Scholar
Esmonde Cleary, S. 2013a: The Roman West, AD 200–500: An Archaeological Study, Cambridge Google Scholar
Esmonde Cleary, S. 2013b: ‘Southern Britain in the fifth century: a “collapsed state”?’, in Hunter, F. and Painter, K. (eds), Late Roman Silver: The Traprain Treasure in Context, Edinburgh, 45–53 Google Scholar
Evans, A.J. 1897: ‘A Roman villa at Frilford’, Archaeological Journal 54, 340–54Google Scholar
Evans, J.A., Chenery, C., and Montgomery, J. 2012: ‘A summary of strontium and oxygen isotope variation in archaeological human tooth enamel excavated from Britain’, Journal of Analytical Atomic Spectrometry 27, 754–64Google Scholar
Evison, V.I. 1975: ‘Sword rings and beads’, Archaeologia 105, 303–15Google Scholar
Frere, S.S. 1962: ‘Excavations at Dorchester on Thames, 1962’, Archaeological Journal 119, 114–49Google Scholar
Frere, S.S. 1984: ‘Excavations at Dorchester on Thames, 1963’, Archaeological Journal 141, 91–174 Google Scholar
Giles, E., and Elliot, O. 1962: ‘Race identification from cranial measurements’, Journal of Forensic Science 7, 147–57Google Scholar
Gill, G.W. 1984: ‘A forensic test case for a new method of geographical race determination’, in Rathbun, T.A. and Buikstra, J.E. (eds), Human Identification: Case Studies in Forensic Anthropology, Springfield, 329–39Google Scholar
Gustafson, G., and Koch, G. 1974: ‘Age estimation up to 16 years of age based on dental development’, Odontologisk Revy 25, 297–306 Google Scholar
Halsall, G. 2007: Barbarian Migrations and the Roman West, 376–568, Cambridge Google Scholar
Harden, D.B. 1940: ‘Archaeological notes’, Oxoniensia 5, 161–4Google Scholar
Härke, H. 1989: ‘Knives in early Saxon burials: blade length and age at death’, Medieval Archaeology 33, 144–8Google Scholar
Harman, M. 1995: ‘The human bones’, in Boyle et al. 1995, 106–8Google Scholar
Harman, M., Lambrick, G., Miles, D., and Rowley, T. 1978: ‘Roman burials around Dorchester-on-Thames’, Oxoniensia 43, 1–16 Google Scholar
Harman, M., Molleson, T.I., and Price, J.L. 1981: ‘Burials, bodies and beheadings in Romano-British and Anglo-Saxon cemeteries’, Bulletin of the British Museum of Natural History 35, 145–88Google Scholar
Harper, K.W., Helms, C.A., Haystead, C.M., and Higgins, L.D. 2005: ‘Glenoid dysplasia: incidence and association with posterior labral tears as evaluated on MRI’, American Journal of Roentgenology 184, 984–8Google Scholar
Hawkes, S.C. 1986: ‘The early Saxon period’, in Briggs, G., Cook, J. and Rowley, T. (eds), The Archaeology of the Oxford Region, Oxford, 64–108 Google Scholar
Hawkes, S.C., and Dunning, G.C. 1961: ‘Soldiers and settlers in Britain, fourth to fifth century’, Medieval Archaeology 5, 1–70 Google Scholar
Henig, M., and Booth, P. 2000: Roman Oxfordshire, Stroud Google Scholar
Hills, C., and O'Connell, T.C. 2009: ‘New light on the Anglo-Saxon succession: two cemeteries and their dates’, Antiquity 83, 1–13 Google Scholar
Hinton, D.A. 2005: Gold and Gilt, Pots and Pins: Possessions and People in Medieval Britain, Oxford Google Scholar
Hirst, S., and Clark, D. 2009: Excavations at Mucking: Volume 3, The Anglo-Saxon Cemeteries, London Google Scholar
Hogg, A.H.A., and Stevens, C.E. 1937: ‘The defences of Roman Dorchester’, Oxoniensia 2, 41–73 Google Scholar
Hutton, R. 2011: ‘Romano-British reuse of prehistoric ritual sites’, Britannia 42, 1–22 Google Scholar
Jones, B., and Mattingly, D. 1990: An Atlas of Roman Britain, Oxford Google Scholar
Kirk, J.R., and Leeds, E.T. 1952/3: ‘Three early Saxon graves from Dorchester, Oxon.’, Oxoniensia 17/18, 63–76 Google Scholar
Laycock, S. 2007: ‘Section 2: 4th century–5th century AD’, in Appels, A. and Laycock, S., Roman Buckles and Military Fittings, Witham Google Scholar
Laycock, S. 2008: Britannia – The Failed State: Tribal Conflicts and the End of Roman Britain, Stroud Google Scholar
Leach, S., Lewis, M., Chenery, C., Eckardt, H., and Müldner, G. 2009: ‘Migration and diversity in Roman Britain: a multidisciplinary approach to immigrants in Roman York, England’, American Journal of Physical Anthropology 140, 546–61CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Leahy, K. 2007: ‘Soldiers and settlers in Britain, fourth to fifth century – revisited’, in Henig, M. and Smith, T.J. (eds), Collectanea Antiqua: Essays in Memory of Sonia Chadwick Hawkes, BAR International Series 1673, Oxford, 133–43Google Scholar
Manning, W.H. 1976: Catalogue of Romano-British Ironwork in the Museum of Antiquities, Newcastle Upon Tyne, Newcastle Upon Tyne Google Scholar
Manning, W.H. 1984: ‘Objects of iron’, in Frere 1984, 139–52Google Scholar
Mattingly, D. 2006: An Imperial Possession: Britain in the Roman Empire, 54 BC–AD 409, London Google Scholar
May, J. 1977: ‘Romano-British and Saxon sites near Dorchester-on-Thames’, Oxoniensia 42, 42–79 Google Scholar
Mays, S.A. 2005: ‘Supra-acetabular cysts in a mediaeval population’, International Journal of Osteoarchaeology 15, 233–46Google Scholar
Mays, S.A. 2009: ‘A scapula deformity in two burials from mediaeval England’, International Journal of Osteoarchaeology 19, 642–51Google Scholar
Mays, S. 2010: The Archaeology of Human Bones (2nd edn), London Google Scholar
Mays, S., Vincent, S., Snow, M., and Robson-Brown, K. 2011: ‘Concha bullosa, a neglected condition in palaeopathology’, International Journal of Paleopathology 1, 184–7Google Scholar
Miles, D. (ed.) 1986: Archaeology at Barton Court Farm, Abingdon, Oxon: An Investigation of Late Neolithic, Iron Age, Romano-British and Saxon Settlements, CBA Research Report 50, London Google Scholar
Miles, D., Palmer, S., Lock, G., Gosden, C., and Cromarty, A.M. 2003: Uffington White Horse and its Landscape: Investigations at White Horse Hill, Uffington, 1989–95, and Tower Hill, Ashbury, 1993–4, Oxford Archaeology Thames Valley Landscapes Monograph 18, OxfordGoogle Scholar
Morrison, W.A. 2009: A Synthesis of Antiquarian Observations and Archaeological Excavation at Dorchester-on-Thames, Oxfordshire, BAR British Series 491, Oxford Google Scholar
Pollard, A.M. 2011: ‘Isotopes and impacts: a cautionary tale’, Antiquity 85, 631–8Google Scholar
Rogers, J. 2000: ‘The palaeopathology of joint disease’, in Cox, M. and Mays, S. (eds), Human Osteology in Archaeology and Forensic Science, London, 163–82Google Scholar
Rolleston, G. 1869: ‘Researches and excavations carried on in an ancient cemetery at Frilford, Abingdon, Berks, in the years 1867–1868’, Archaeologia 42, 417–85Google Scholar
Rolleston, G. 1880: ‘Further researches in an Anglo-Saxon cemetery at Frilford, with notes on the northern limit of Anglo-Saxon cremation in England’, Archaeologia 45, 405–10Google Scholar
Rowley, T., and Brown, L. 1981: ‘Excavations at Beech House Hotel, Dorchester-on-Thames 1972’, Oxoniensia 46, 1–55 Google Scholar
Salway, P. 1999: ‘Roman Oxfordshire’, Oxoniensia 64, 1–22 Google Scholar
Sellevold, B.J., Hansen, U.L., and Jørgensen, J.B. 1984: Iron Age Man in Denmark, Prehisoric Man in Denmark, Volume III, Kongelige Nordiske Oldskriftselskab, København Google Scholar
Simmonds, A., Anderson-Whymark, H., and Norton, A. 2011: ‘Excavations at Tubney Wood Quarry, Oxfordshire, 2001–2009’, Oxoniensia 76, 105–72Google Scholar
Simpson, C.J. 1976: ‘Belt-buckles and strap-ends of the later Roman Empire: a preliminary survey of several new groups’, Britannia 7, 192–223 Google Scholar
Sommer, M. 1984: Die Gürtel und Gürtelbeschläge des 4. und 5. Jahrhunderts im römischen Reich, Bonner Hefte zur Vorgeschichte 22, Bonn Google Scholar
Swanton, M.J. 1973: The Spearheads of the Anglo-Saxon Settlements, London Google Scholar
Swanton, M.J. 1974: A Corpus of Pagan Anglo-Saxon Spear-Types, BAR British Series 7, Oxford Google Scholar
Swift, E. 2000: Regionality in Dress Accessories in the Late Roman West, Monographies Instrumentum 11, Montagnac Google Scholar
Theews, F. 2009: ‘Grave goods, ethnicity and the rhetoric of burial rites in late antique northern Gaul’, in Derks, T. and Roymans, N. (eds), Ethnic Constructs in Antiquity: The Role of Power and Tradition, Amsterdam Archaeological Studies, Amsterdam, 293–319 Google Scholar
Theodorou, S.J., Theodorou, D.J., and Resnick, D. 2006: ‘Hypoplasia of the glenoid neck of the scapula: imaging findings and report of 16 patients’, Journal of Computer Assisted Tomography 30, 535–42Google Scholar
Trotter, M., and Gleser, G.C. 1958: ‘A re-evaluation of estimation of stature based on measurements of stature taken during life and of long-bones after death’, American Journal of Physical Anthropology 16, 79–123 Google Scholar
Waldron, T. 2007: St Peter's Barton-upon-Humber. A Parish Church and its Community. Volume 2: The Human Remains, Oxford Google Scholar
Welch, C. forthcoming: ‘The destruction of the Dyke Hills, Dorchester-on-Thames’, Oxoniensia Google Scholar
White, R. 2007: Britannia Prima, Stroud Google Scholar
Williams, G. 2013: 11 Wittenham Lane, Dorchester-on-Thames, Oxfordshire, Archaeological Excavation Report, unpub. post-excavation assessment report, John Moore Heritage ServicesGoogle Scholar
Williams, H.M.R. 1998: ‘The ancient monument in Romano-British ritual practices’, in Forcey, C., Hawthorne, J. and Witcher, R. (eds), TRAC 97: Proceedings of the Seventh Annual Theoretical Roman Archaeology Conference, Nottingham, 1997, Oxford, 71–86 Google Scholar
Worrell, S., and Pearce, J. 2012: ‘Roman Britain in 2011 II. Finds reported under the Portable Antiquities Scheme’, Britannia 43, 355–93Google Scholar
Wright, R. 2010: Guide to Using CRANID Programs CR6bIND: For Linear and Nearest Neighbours Discriminant Analysis. Available at: http://www.box.net/shared/h0674knjzl (accessed November 2010)Google Scholar
Young, C.J. 1977: The Roman Pottery Industry of the Oxford Region, BAR British Series 43, Oxford Google Scholar
Supplementary material: PDF

Booth Supplementary Material

Appendix

Download Booth Supplementary Material(PDF)
PDF 491.9 KB