Filled pyre burials from the High Roman Empire period (early 2nd century) have been erected at Limonzie-Saint-Martin in southwestern France. It contains unusually valuable furnishings, including coins, gold sheets and an intaglio ring with a pendant engraved with Greek letters.
The site at a ford on the Dordogne River was known to contain the remains of a Neolithic settlement, but the discovery of a single Roman grave was unexpected. It consists of a rectangular pit with clearly defined burning material along the edges. A small terra sigillata vessel and a clear class vial were found in one corner, and beneath these were cremated human remains. A bronze coin confirmed that this is a pyre burial from the High Kingdom period.
This type of burial is known as a burial busta funerary grave where the cremated remains are left in place in a pyre, as opposed to the more common cemetery burial where a pyre was used multiple times and the cremated remains were collected for burial elsewhere. The pier would be built over a shallow pit that held the bones and ashes as the fire burned. Once the fire is out (or doused), the pit will be covered with soil.
A complex excavation to fill the pit began. Only six inches deep, the fill consists of ash and charcoal with bone fragments and grave goods. Any finds, bones and artifacts, were left in situ for photogrammetric recording to create a 3D model of the burial for later analysis.
The terra siglata beaker, produced in the local workshops of the Montagnards at the end of the 1st and 2nd centuries, was removed in a pile of clay. A long iron object, with what appears to be a wooden handle, was also driven into the soil in a heavy panic so that it could be X-rayed and fully excavated under laboratory conditions.
Toward the south end of the pit, a concentration of valuable grave goods was found, including a group of about 10 coins, sesterces and donkeys, along with small gold sheets that decorated a purse or case that once held coins. A group of crystals, possibly originally mounted on an organic base such as leather, were found in the bone remains.
Of the 22 gold objects (sheets, wires and beads), three in particular stand out: a bracelet made of a twisted band ending with a loop hook. A possible bella (a bubble-shaped pendant given to young men of wealthy Roman families) and an intaglio ring.
This ring, damaged by heat and its fall into the pier, is decorated with a claw-shaped bezel that once contained a small intaglio. Made of a material (rock crystal?) yet to be identified, it is very small and has seven letters inscribed in the Greek alphabet: Alal. Epigraphic study of this item will focus specifically on determining whether or not it may be the surname of the deceased.
The recovered remains and the structure will now be studied by a multidisciplinary team of researchers. In addition to examining the funerary process itself, researchers will consider its place in the wider landscape, where the necropolis associated with Bustum might have been, where there was a Roman-era settlement, and whether there was a Greek population as evidenced by inscribed ornamentation.
