Forums Forums Wirral History : Chasing the Past Wirral History Romans In Wirral

Just wondering about how the Romans and Vikings in Wirral/Britain disposed of dead people in the towns and villages.
Cremation? or did they have special places where where they buried
their dead or just dug a hole anywhere.
Over the centuries of occupation there must have been thousands and if there was anything like a cemetary has any been found?
Not particularly talking about the rich and noble but the plebs

Derekdwc,
When I went to Rome, as the question raised was about Gladiators, one of the guides stated that there had never been any remains found of Gladiators.
Having listened to a programme since, that made a point of prior to Christianity, cremation was the only way of disposing of the bodies.

Depending on when Christianity came to Britain, would then lead us to believe that change didn't come immediately.

This is probably why there are Catacombs in Rome and other ancient cities. No doubt once the wealthy had converted, they would want a safe place of burial.

The last paragraph is my own bit of reasoning as I have not seen anything about that issue.

I am sure Archaeo could enlighten you further on your question.

Think of an army deployment to Afghanistan...mostly occasional patrols from a single base, probably similar with Roman activity on the Wirral. The main centre being Deva (Chester) from which no doubt patrols set forth, possibly settingup temporary presence on some routes into the Peninsular. This of course is a different scenario to the native (Brythonic) population being wiped out by massive numbers of invading Romans.