This is the in-progress abstract for my dissertation:

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According to S. Esmonde Cleary, “The study of burial at military sites can hardly even be described as being in its infancy” (2001: 129). Even though he was referring to Roman Britain, the statement is apt for the whole of the Roman world. This is in part because few military cemeteries have been identified and fewer have been excavated and published, and the level of detail offered in the excavation reports is often not very high. Because there is this perception that there is not enough data available, no one has tried to put together a serious study of Roman military burials across the Empire, although many burials that appear to be of legionary and auxiliary soldiers are in fact known. With my dissertation, I seek to fill the gap in information about Roman military burials. On one level, the aim here is to compile and analyze all of the burials that have been or could be described as being those of Roman soldiers. The more difficult second step will be to explain them and the ideology behind them. We know that Roman soldiers were careful to distinguish themselves from civilians in life by means of their attire and lifestyle, as highlighted by several recent books and articles (e.g. James 1999, 2002; Goldsworth and Haynes 1999; Gardner 2007). This distinction is visible in death in the formulae on their tombstones (Hope 2001) and would feasibly appear in other aspects of their mortuary rites. By examining published reports of graves identified as those of soldiers as well as graves that might be soldiers based on broad criterion of find spots, sex, grave goods, and burial types, I will identify patterns that differentiate the graves of common soldiers from those of civilians. In order to do so, I will include within my dissertation chapters on the differences between soldiers and civilians, general Roman mortuary practices, burials with Roman military equipment and/or near military fortifications, dealing with excavated burials across the Roman world during the imperial period.

Reconstructed Monument, Trajanic Period, Adamklissi, Romania

S. Esmonde Cleary, 2001, “Putting the dead in their place: burial location in Roman Britain,” in J. Pearce, M. Millett and M. Struck, eds., Burial, Society and Context in the Roman World, Oxbow Books, Oxford: 127-142. A. Gardner, 2007, An Archaeology of Identity: Soldiers and Society in Later Roman Britain, University College London Press. A. Goldsworthy and I. Haynes, eds., 1999, The Roman Army as a Community, JRA Suppl. 34. V. Hope, 2001, Constructing Identity: The Roman Funerary Monuments of Aquileia, Mainz, and Nîmes, BAR Int. Ser. 960. S. James, 1999, “The Community of the Soldiers: a major identity and centre of power in the Roman empire,” in P. Baker, C. Forcey, S. Jundi, R. Witcher, eds., TRAC 98: Proceedings of the Eight Annual Theoretical Roman Archaeology Conference, University of Leicester, April 1998, Oxbow Books: 14-25. S. James, 2002, “Writing the Legions: The Development and Future of Roman Military Studies in Britain” Archaeological Journal, Vol. 159: 1-58.

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Sketch of sarchophagus from Via Amendola

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