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Data copyright © Mark Bell, Dr H E M Cool unless otherwise stated

Primary contact

Dr H E M Cool
Director
Barbican Research Associates
16 Lady Bay Road
West Bridgford
Nottingham
NG2 5BJ
England
Tel: 0115 9819 065

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Resource identifiers

• ADS Collection: 372
• DOI:https://doi.org/10.5284/1000226
• How to cite using this DOI

Overview

• Project Background
• The Excavations
• Post Excavation Work
• The 2000-2002 Project Team
• Summary Results
• An Introduction to the database

Project Background

The Roman fort and settlement of Brougham is situated on the west side of the broad Eden valley, some 2km to the south-east of the modern town of Penrith, and a similar distance to the east of the modern cross-roads of the north-south A6 trunk road and the east-west A66. It lay at the junction of several important Roman roads. The road north went to Carlisle, that to the south went to Ribchester and beyond. To the east a road went across the Pennines to Catterick and York. To the west a minor road led to the Lake District forts of Ambleside and Hardknott. Little is known of the fort and vicus because very little excavation has ever been carried out. There are, however, many antiquarian finds of gravestones, altars etc.

In 1966 it was realised that the proposed widening and re-routing of the A66 to the east of the modern village of Brougham would cut through a Roman cemetery. The then Ministry of Public Buildings and Works conducted preliminary excavations in the summer under the direction of the late Dorothy Charlesworth. It was intended that more extensive excavations would take place in 1967 in advance of the building work. Unfortunately the building work started unexpectedly early in 1967 and so the excavations took place under very difficult rescue circumstances. They were directed by the late Tony Pacitto.

Various attempts have been made to study the archive over the subsequent years. The data lodged with the ADS results from the work done in the period 2000-2002 which has led to the final publication of the site. The aim of the project was to re-assess the material in the light of methodological advances in the interpretation of cremated remains and theoretical approaches to mortuary ritual in the Roman north. The research aims identified were:

• Placing the assemblage in the public domain
• Establishing the funerary ritual at Brougham
• Placing the Brougham ritual within the regional and national background
• Establishing the nature of the occupation at Brougham in the 3rd century
• Preparing the archive to be a lasting research resource

The Excavations

The excavations were centred on National Grid Reference NY 545290 and covered an area of approximately 70 metres north/south by 200 metres west /east. The cemetery lay on the hilltop to the east of the fort and vicus and mainly to the north of the Roman road that ran across the Pennines. It was thought that the full west / east extent of the cemetery was explored but it was likely that it had originally extended further north in an area that was not excavated.

In 1966 12 trenches were opened. In 1967 there were two seasons of excavation. The first under very difficult circumstances when the building work started. The second under more controlled circumstances when access to an area 17×80metres was negotiated for three weeks.

The records for the excavations are very variable. Most of the paper record for 1966 has disappeared over the years but the original site plan, photographs and a small notebook do survive. A site plan also survives for the 1967 work together with the notebooks (called cremation books) that recorded all the finds recovered. There is a notebook summarising the excavations for the first season together with some drawings of individual features and some photographs. It should be realised that the aim of the first season was to rapidly excavate graves prior to them being destroyed by the earthmoving machines. Detailed recording was not an option for the excavators. There are two notebooks for the second 1967 season with more detailed context descriptions, drawings of individual features and proportionally more photographs.

For all stages of the excavation additional information about the deposits can be gained from the information written on the bags in which the finds were stored. In 1967 finds were allocated an alphabetic code with the first two letters being the site code (BC/AA, BC/AB etc). It is often possible to identify where the cremated bone came from as it was given the same code as the vessel it was found in. Some but not all small finds were also allocated a small find number.

Post Excavation Work

Previous attempts to analyse the archive had been unsuccessful because not all the elements now known to survive had been located. The 2000 to 2002 work commenced by entering all the known information onto a set of linked databases. A new unique number was assigned to each deposit as the original numbering system included duplicates. Grid references were also calculated. New reports were commissioned on the cremated bone (human and animal) and the pottery, and existing reports on other classes of finds were updated.

The original excavators had considered that approximately 40% of the graves had been robbed. In the light of new studies of cremation burial, it was suspected that most of these robbed deposits were in fact re-deposited pyre debris. This was found to be the case when the distribution of the pyre goods was examined. It was possible to classify deposits into four main categories urned cremation burials, unurned cremation burials, pyre debris deposits, and special pot deposits. The latter had all hallmarks of being an urned cremation burial apart from the fact that no or very little human bone was found with them. Some of the urned cremation burials had re-deposited pyre debris in the fill. A very small number of deposits had been deliberately emptied as something had clearly been removed from them. A small number long cists were recovered that were thought to have originally contained inhumations though no bone remained because the extremely acid soil at Brougham.

Phasing was provided by the pottery as very few of the deposits had any recoverable stratigraphic relationships. The key phasing tool were Black Burnished 1 jars. The cremation cemetery was divided into three phases. The long cists were clearly of Roman or later date because several used broken fragments of Roman tombstones in their construction. They were assigned to Phase 4, though it is possible they are contemporary with the cremation burial cemetery, it is thought they were of late Roman or sub-Roman date. The phasing of the cremation cemetery is as follows.

• Phase 1 c. A.D. 200/20 to 240,
• Phase 2 c. A.D. 240 to 270,
• Phase 3 c. A.D. 270 to 300/310. The deposits with Crambeck greywares allowed a slight refinement of the Phase 3 dates to A.D. 280/5 to 300/10. These have been designated Phase 3b.

It became clear that there were strong associations between particular types of grave and pyre goods. These associations were tested using statistical significance tests.

The 2000-2002 Project Team

The project team and their responsibilities were as follows:

In addition a report on a pipe clay figurine by the late Frank Jenkins is included in the report. The database used during the analysis was designed by Phil Mills. The database prepared for the ADS and the CD that accompanies the report was prepared by Mark Bell.

Summary Results

The cremation cemetery was used for a relatively short period c. AD 200 to 310 at the widest estimate and more likely only from c. AD 220 to 300. No certain pyre sites could be identified within the area excavated, but the amount of pyre debris recovered indicates they must have been very close. The cemetery was orderly and there is no evidence of one grave cutting another apart from in the case of the long cists. This orderliness and the gravestones found before, during and after the excavations suggest the graves would have been clearly marked. Evidence of at least two funerary monuments in the form of towers were recovered. There is evidence that these would have been decorated by sculptured reliefs.

People of all ages were buried in the cemetery other than very young babies of less than 6 months. There are some changes with time. in Phase 1 people of all ages are found scattered throughout the area. In Phase 2 the graves of infants (defined here as those individuals aged 5 years or less) were concentrated around one the monumental towers. There are no infants assigned to Phase 3, possibly suggesting that the appropriate place to bury them had moved to an area of the cemetery that was not excavated.

There was very strong evidence that the whole funeral ritual was governed by the age and sex of the deceased. Adults were taken to their pyres on biers decorated by bone veneers probably inlaid into the wood, the remains of immature individuals were not found associated with these veneers. Amongst the pyre goods, whole animals and joints of meat were burnt with the adults but not the children. The same pattern could be seen in metal vessels, and for them there was some evidence that large buckets were the preserve of adult females. Other pyre goods included items of ivory, military equipment, figurines and jewellery. The range of animals identified included horses, sheep, cattle, chicken, geese and a dog. Pigs were conspicuously rare. It was clear that a considerable amount of wealth was consumed by the pyre.

Some of the cremated bone was gathered for formal burial. The normal rite was as an urned burial but unurned burials were also present. The burials were made in both pits and cists. Grave goods were overwhelmingly in the form of pottery vessels with BB1 jars generally being used as urns. There were considerable numbers of Trier colour-coated beakers and a large samian assemblage, mainly of East Gaulish origin but including some decorated Central Gaulish bowls that were clearly antiques when deposited. A noteworthy element of the samian assemblage were the number of samian mortaria that had been deposited as grave goods. Glass vessels, primarily drinking vessels, were also present as well as an enamelled copper alloy patera. This too must also have been an antique when deposited.

The selection of grave goods was also clearly influenced by the age and sex of the deceased. Samian cups (Dr. 33) were only found with very young children whereas the deep samian bowls were only placed with adults. It was also noticeable that items that could be viewed as antiques were placed with the oldest adults. In Phase 1 colour-coated beakers were only ever placed with children. Glass drinking cups were the preserve of men. In the light of these very strong associations, the fact that some adult females were found who had clearly had military equipment and horses placed on their pyres opened up interesting questions about the gender roles they adopted in life.

There were indications in the material culture, from the epigraphic evidence and from some elements of the grave ritual that the people being buried had come from the Danubian area, and it can be suggested that this cemetery was used by a particular army unit and their families who had been transferred from that area.

An Introduction to the database

The database consists of nine tables:

• Brougham Database Description
• Cremated_animal_bone_catalogue
• Cremation catalogue
• Grave_data
• Pathology_codes
• Pot_catalogue
• Pottery_fabric_code
• Small_finds
• Veneer_type

Brougham Database Description

A table listing all the other tables and fields in the database with a description of their content.

Cremated_animal_bone_catalogue

Lists the entire cremated animal bone; there can be multiple bone deposits for a grave. Animal bone grave number connects this table to the grave data table.

Cremation catalogue

Lists the cremations found, there can be more than one cremation in a grave deposit. Cremation grave number links to the grave data table.

Grave_data

This is the main table and links to the other tables using the Grave_Number field. This includes the transcription of the original site notebook entry for each deposit. The grave number has been allocated during the new analysis of 2000-2001.

Pathology_codes

This table explains the code letters in the field Pathology in the table Cremation_catalogue.

Pot_catalogue

This table lists the pottery found. References the grave by the field Pot_grave_number.

Pottery_fabric_code

This table explains the codes used in the Ware field of the Pot_catalogue table.

Small_finds

This table lists the small finds from each grave, with a description and links to the main grave table using the Small_find_grave_number field.

Veneer_type

This lists the broad classification of the bone veneer types, listed in the Small_finds table field Bone_veneer_classification.

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