Building a Roman Funeral Pyre

Abstract

Until the second century A.D., the bodies of most people who died at Rome and in the western provinces of the Empire ended up on a funeral pyre, to be reduced to ashes which would be placed in a grave. The practical arrangements for this process have attracted some attention from archaeologists but virtually none from ancient historians. In this paper I shall try to combine literary and archaeological evidence to reconstruct how the pyre was prepared. I hope that this will provide a fuller background than currently exists for understanding the numerous brief references which can be found in Roman literature and the two surviving representations of a pyre (other than an emperor's) in Roman art. Cremation had different traditions in different areas, e.g. as an elite practice in parts of Gaul, even if ultimately it ‘may have been thought of as a sign of allegiance to Rome.’ There clearly were local differences, not just between provinces but between places quite close together, as well as changes over time, but many of the rites of cremation appear to have been similar throughout the Western Roman Empire, illustrating what Morris calls ‘a massive cultural homogenisation of the Roman world at a time when political and economic regionalism was increasing’.

Death on the frontier: Military cremation practices in the north of Roman Britain

“…The deceased was transported on a funeral couch or bier to the pyre for burning and was positioned supine atop the pyre structure. This location not only provided a good view of the body for spectators but also was the optimum for the purposes of combustion (Noy 2000;McKinley 1994). Funerary offerings would be placed around the corpse on the pyre, which could include items such as jewellery, incense and even full or partial animal carcasses given as sacrifices (Toynbee, 1971).…”

‘Dulce et decorum est pro patria mori’: the practical and symbolic treatment of the Roman war dead

“…Elements of this are paralleled in descriptions of funerals of the Roman elite, while pyre debris indicates that objects and animals were offered to and cremated with the civilian dead (e.g. Noy, 2000). However, Virgil's poem was set in a mythical past, and it is difficult to judge how much, if any, of the 7 description pertained to the military of his own day (late first century BC); Virgil may be conforming more to Homeric than contemporary models (see, e.g.…”

“…The skeletal remains found at Kalkriese were inhumed without prior burning, but this burial took place some years later, when the bones were de-fleshed. It can be noted, however, that cremation, especially on a large scale, would have been time, labour and resource intensive (Noy, 2000), and even when the normative rite, may have been challenging to facilitate.…”

“…For the Imperial Roman army, which was widely recruited and served across the Empire, any repatriation would have been impractical (for exceptions, Carroll, 2006, pp. 163-168; 24). This suggests that until then bodies, especially bodies of the elite, could be returned to Rome, but thereafter this was unusual.…”