A Little Archeaology

[Celethiel]

http://news.yahoo.com/archaeologists-discover-roman-free-choice-cemetery-173241002.html

a Little Roman Archeaology...which i find interesting.

[Graeme]

Very interesting, though we have to be careful with assigning interpretation, especially motivation, to what was found. It's hard enough guessing motivation for something that occurred only a couple of hundred years ago, let alone a couple of thousand years with less data!

[Bill W]

I love things like this and found it very interesting.  Thanks for sharing.

[Gene Splicer PHD]

Very interesting, though we have to be careful with assigning interpretation, especially motivation, to what was found. It's hard enough guessing motivation for something that occurred only a couple of hundred years ago, let alone a couple of thousand years with less data!

Yep. This article doesn't ...er... dig into the details here - different burial practices were in favor at different times. If there are 4 burials, for example, two of which are cremations and two which are inhumations (burial of the body with or without a coffin), it's often assumed that the cremations happened rather early (before the rise of Christianity) and the burials later (unless the burials aren't oriented east/west). Lots of factors and not much detail in the news article. Still, very interesting find.

[W_L]

The  Romans in their republic and early imperial period were an international Empire with many diverse peoples and customs, wouldn't this be expected? Only later on did a certain monotheistic religion took over, based on an Emperor's recommendation with adjustments to its practices, that any attempt to institute a state religion with a strict set of orders. (I remember an old story about a Roman Emperor who learned a wealthy man had just died. He went to the family and demanded that they pay for the dead man's salvation, which he could grant.) Don't you wonder why it is said death and taxes go hand and hand

 

In the early Empire, I imagine you'd see Parthian, Egyptian, Greek, Numidian, Macedonian, Anatolian, African, and other burial rights being practiced throughout the empire.

Edited July 25, 2014 by W_L