Green, E. (2023). Death shall not part us: a potential case of the curation of human remains from Roman Ewell. Surrey Archaeological Collections 105. Vol 105, Guildford: Surrey Archaeological Society. pp. 65-72. https://doi.org/10.5284/1126089.
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Death shall not part us: a potential case of the curation of human remains from Roman Ewell
This article examines evidence for the curation of human remains during the 1st century AD in Ewell. Taphonomic analysis of human remains recovered from the structured deposit on the Nescot College former animal husbandry site revealed that eleven bones appeared to have a ‘polished’ surface, indicating a different post-mortem treatment to the rest of the assemblage. This paper evaluates the possible taphonomic causes of this effect to establish the likelihood of curation of the remains during the early Roman period. The polished state of a selection of the bones indicates that they were subject to different taphonomic pathways, indicating they were probably curated for a period before redeposition. The idea of curating parts of the body after death, while non-normative in Roman culture, is well attested in the British Iron Age. The Ewell example, therefore, has the potential to illustrate the continuity of belief and ritual immediately after the Roman conquest, as well as widening understanding of non-normative mortuary behaviours in Roman Britain.
