POR CONDUCTAS DE HOSTIGAMIENTO PSICOLÓGICO

This section discusses the data from Dorchester in terms of object and material type. The database for Dorchester is found in Appendix 7 and includes all of the references from which

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the data were collected.The results of the following analyses of the objects/bodies deposited, along with the feature type, dating and the presence/absence of particular aesthetic qualities demonstrate that there were particular characteristics of Dorchester’s depositional practices that were similar to those found for Silchester and the other urban centres analysed in Chapter Two. Thus, the proceeding analyses provide further evidence for a general urban depositional practice. Furthermore, it is also apparent that within the range of urban depositional characteristics that Dorchester’s practices had some unique aspects that were different to those of Silchester. The implications of these differences and how they are interpreted in relation to the research agenda of this study is discussed more closely below.

Animal remains

Like Silchester and the other urban centres included in Chapter Two, dog remains are one the most prominent animal species deposited within the subterranean features from Dorchester (see Figure 36). The features that incorporated dogs include: F149 (17 individuals), F151 (9 adult individuals and 4 puppy individuals), F154 (3 individuals), F157 (1 individual), F158 (3 individuals), F161 (20 individuals) and F162 (11 individuals).

In terms of spatial distribution, the deposition of dog remains is restricted to the central insula. Temporally there is a peak in deposition of dog within the late second to mid third- century period (see Figure 38). Prior to this the deposition of dog remains was proportionately high when compared to other types of deposits but after the mid third century this mode of deposition appears to cease. This pattern is also the case for deposition of bird remains, with a steady rise in the number of instances of bird remains found until the mid-third century where this activity also seems to cease (see Figure 39). Indeed, within the central insula shafts, the deposition of any type of animal remains is absent from all of the shafts except for one example of unidentified animal remains from one feature (F164) dated to the AD 350-450 period. The deposition of personal objects appears to remain significant during this latest Roman period and will be discussed below. The cessation of animal deposition from the mid third century onwards is in complete contrast to the pattern for Silchester where there appears to have been an intensification in all types of deposition around this time. Although they were different, these major temporal shifts in depositional practices were found both in Dorchester and Silchester from the third century onwards. There was a decrease in animal deposits in Dorchester (and also an increase in infant deposition, which is discussed below).

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However, there was an apparent increase in all types of deposition at Silchester at this time. It is argued in this project that the changes to depositional practices seen within Dorchester, Silchester and indeed Verulamium from the third century onwards, related to wider changes to the urban landscapes of Roman Britain. Furthermore, it is also argued that these changes were in associated with shifts within the empire that affected the province of Britain both internally and externally. These social, economic and political changes to Roman Britain are discussed in detail in Chapter Six.

Birds were also found across a high proportion of the features (see Figure 37), with nine features from the central Insula containing bird remains. The features that incorporated birds include: F149 (4 indivduals), F151 (4 individuals), F152 (2 individuals), F153 (1 individual), F154 (2 individuals), F157 (1 individual), F158 (4 individuals), F161 (4 individuals) and F162 (2 individuals). This is a different pattern than was found for Sllchester and the other urban centres, where bird deposition was relatively rare. Significant bird deposition is a unique characteristic of Dorchester’s depositional repertoire. Although it has already been found that there were many similarities between urban centres in terms of depositional practices, it has also been found that there were intra-urban differences. The importance of bird deposition within Dorchester (or at least within the central sector of the town) is one of the identifiable intra-urban variations. It also appears that certain instances, some features’ deposits were of bird and dog together, with the absence of any other species (F154, F161, F162), or only bird (F152, F153). Although the evidence for this is small, it is another unique pattern which has been found at Dorchester. Thus, this finding emphasises that inter-urban difference existed within the range of urban depositional practices that have been identified by the analyses of this project.

Sheep deposits were also significant within the subterranean features of Dorchester, when the distribution of animal species in any given features is considered. The features that incorporated sheep include: F149 (4 individuals), F151 (7 individuals), F158 (7 individuals) and F159 (1 individual as an isolated deposit dated to sometime in the second century) (see Figure 40). An apparent peak in the deposition of sheep remains occurs during the second century within the features from the central insula. The marked increase in this mode of deposition is attributable to two features in particular. F158 contained the remains of what are thought to have been seven individuals, and F151 also contained instances of seven individuals. The sheep remains deposited within the central insula shafts were found in context with significant amounts of other animal remains, along with other objects.

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In any case, as for actual number of remains, dog is proportionately much higher than any other species. Apart from five examples of sheep remains being deposited within a pit from the northwest quarter of the Roman town (F166), no other animal remains were found outside of the central insula pits uncovered during the Greyhound Yard excavation. Again, this is in marked contrast to Silchester where all types of commonly deposited animal remains were found to be distributed fairly evenly across the town. The pattern found at Dorchester however appears much more prescriptive spatially, where animal deposits are generally restricted to the central insula.

The repetitive appearance of various species of corvidswithin depositional contexts in Roman Britain has recently been focused upon as a significant area of research (Serjeantson & Morris 2011). It is thought that these types of birds were an important component in purposeful deposition, and that their appearance in subterranean features could be linked to beliefs concerning the relationship of black birds and the transcendent (Sejeantson & Morris 2011, p.94). Accordingly, the raven and crow deposits in Dorchester’s central insula have been interpreted as part of range of foundation rites (Woodward & Woodward 2004). The importance of corvid deposition at Dorchester again suggests that there were distinctive inter- urban differences in the nature of depositional practices, and that particular bodies and/or objects were more commonly used in these events within particular urban centres as compared to others.

The density of bird deposits in Dorchester’s central insula is not high when compared to the density of dog individuals deposited. They were, however, well-represented in terms of distribution across the 24 features included in the database for Dorchester. That they were never found in high numbers is not surprising considering the nature of their species being wild. Like Silchester, and the other urban centres, it is clear that domesticated species were the most commonly deposited animals within urban contexts.This pattern of domesticated species dominating animal deposits was found also at Silchester and the other urban centres discussed above. This pattern was in contrast, however, to the evidence from non-urban and sacred precinct sites where the deposition of wild species was more common, as discussed above in Chapter Two. The evidence from Dorchester further confirms that urban depositional practices were distinct from depositional practices in other locations outside of urban centres. That domesticated species would have been a more logical choice for ritual or meaningful deposition seems obvious in that they are easy to acquire, and in any case often need to be disposed of after death or butchering for more ‘mundane’ rubbish disposal purposes.

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A complete absence of cattle remains is also in direct contrast to the evidence from Silchester, and also in comparison to other location types both urban (Wroxeter and Caerwent in particular) and non-urban locations where there were some examples of large numbers of cattle being deposited into particular subterranean features. Thus, cattle was only significant as a depositional body at some towns and this provides further evidence that distinctive patterns of depositional behaviour were present at each urban location. It is thought that Inter-urban differences at the level of depositional object/body could be suggestive of differing modes of production, trade and consumption at different sites. Differences in these processes and how they may have related to what was deposited within subterranean features is explored further in Chapter Six.

There were however many similarities between Dorchester and all of the other urban centres analysed so far in terms of patterns of animal species deposition. As at Silchester and the other urban centres discussed in Chapter Two, there is a complete absence or only a rare occurrence of horse, pig, oyster, deer and other wild species (apart from corvids). This pattern marks out deposition of animals within urban contexts as different from those in non-urban and sacred precinct locations as discussed above in Chapter Two. Thus, there have been a number of intra-urban variations identified for animal deposition between Dorchester and Silchester. However, the rarity and/or absence of horse, pig and most wild species is a characteristic common to all of the urban centres investigated so far and marks urban depositional practices as distinctive from those at other location types.

Figure 36: Proportion of animal species across the subterranean features of Dorchester n=39 29% 21% 18% 5% 13% 3% _11% None Birds Dogs Cats Sheep Pig Uncertain Remains

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Figure 37: Density of species across the subterranean features of Dorchester that contained animal deposits n=131

Figure 38: Temporal distribution of dog deposits from Dorchester 1% 18% 59% 1% 16% 1% 4% Rodent Birds Dogs Cats Sheep Pig Uncertain Remains 0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 Late 1st - Early 2nd C 2nd C Late 2nd - Mid 3rd C

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Figure 39: Bird deposits from the subterranean feature of Roman Dorcehster

Figure 40: Sheep deposits from the subterranean features of Roman Dorchester

Human remains

There were only two instances of adult human bones within any given feature from Roman Dorchester (see Figure 41). An adult human skull was found in the lower levels of one of the shafts (F149) from the central insula and was dated to the AD 75-120 period. This find was not

0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Late 1st - Early 2nd C 2nd C Late 2nd - Mid 3rd C

Late 3rd - 4th C Post Roman

0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 Late 1st - Early 2nd C 2nd C Late 2nd - Mid 3rd C

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isolated, and other deposited objects include a range of animal bones from a variety of species, a crucible, a number of complete and broken pots and three personal objects. This shaft was located under Building 5433. The only other instance of deposited human remains was the adult radius fragment found in a pit that had been sealed by clean chalk and was dated to the first century. The pit was located within the north-west quarter of the Roman town (F165). There were a series of infant deposits (F275) found in the northern range of an extended courtyard building in the central insula which have been dated to the AD 350-450 period (Woodward & Woodward 2004, p.72)

There was one instance of infant deposition from the north-west quarter. In this location there were 6 individuals deposited beneath a building and which were dated to the late Roman period (F167). There were no other objects deposited in context with the infants. The larger proportion of deposited human remains came from infant bones discovered mainly from deposits under buildings found at the former County Hospital site in the south-western quarter of the Roman town. The infant deposits were found in F169 (1 infant dated possibly to the first or second century deposited under an atrium-style garden of a house), F170 (2 infants dated to the late third-early fourth century deposited under a building), F171 (5 infants dated to late third-early fourth century deposited under a building) and F172 which included probably redeposited infant bones underneath a building and dated to the post-Roman period.

One of the most significant aspects of these deposits is that within Dorchester, they are only found in contexts under buildings (or associated features such as the atrium-style garden of Building 7 (F169)), and never in shafts or pits, and are other notable objects or materials are absent from these finds. Furthermore, there is a significant peak in this kind of depositional activity in the late third to fourth century period (seeFigure 42). This increase in infant deposition in Roman Dorchester occured at the same time as the cessation of dog and bird deposition in the central insula as discussed above. These changes to the depositional practices at Roman Dorchester occurred at the same time as changes to the depositional changes also found for Silchester above in Chapter Three. These depositional changes, along with other shifts in the physical, social and economic fabrics of these two towns, is considered more closely below in Chapters Six and Seven. It is noted that during the fourth century there has been an observable pattern of increasing infant burial within villas in Roman Britain (Scott 1991). Furthermore, these burials were often made within the agricultural precincts of villa compounds and are therefore linked to the cultural and economic pressures extant within Roman Britain at the time. Because of the deceased infants’ inherently liminal position

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between birth and death they were appropriately placed within agricultural precincts in order to promote fertility (Scott 1991, p.114). It is possible that the increase in infant deposition in the late third and fourth centuries at Dorchester may also have been in response to the social and economic stresses felt at this time within the province. It is argued here that these pressures and broader changes to the nature of Britain as a province within the Roman Empire, can be linked to other changes in depositional behaviours that have also been observed at Silchester. The implications of these broader changes are discussed further below in Chapters Six and Seven.

The general pattern of infant deposition corresponds to the pattern observed at Silchester where infant deposition was relatively common (particularly in Insula IX). However, the mode of infant deposition between the towns of Dorchester and Silchester is different in terms of the feature type and associated objects. At Silchester, infant deposits are nearly always found in pits in close proximity to buildings, but at Dorchester they were always made underneath buildings and other structures, such as the deposit under the atrium-style garden in the south- western quarter of the town (F169). Another intra-urban difference that has been found is that at Silchester, infant deposits were often made in conjunction with other objects, and in particular they seem to correlate with dog deposits being carried out within the same depositional episode (see Chapter Three above). At Dorchester infant deposits were always made to the exclusion of other objects or materials.

The pattern of human deposition therefore is similar across Dorchester, Silchester and the other urban centres under consideration in that adult remains are rare but infant deposits are reasonably common. This is a different pattern from human deposition in non-urban and sacred precinct locations where adult remains were more commonly found as part of depositional events. Overall then, infant deposition is a common characteristic of urban depositional practices. However it has also been found that although this was a common component of the urban depositional repertoire, there were intra-urban differences in terms of how these deposits were integrated into the landscape and in association with or without other objects and materials.

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Figure 41: Proportion of human adult and infant remains found within the subterranean features of Dorchester n=33

Figure 42: Number of infant individuals within the subterranean features of Roman Dorchester at different time periods

Pottery

The appearance of pottery is confined to three shafts from the central insula (F149, F150 and F151). Another characteristic of this depositional category is that the appearance of pottery was restricted to shafts dated to either the AD 75-120 period or the AD 100-200 period. All of

49% 45% 6% None Infants Adults 0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 Late 1st - Early 2nd C 2nd C Late 2nd - Mid 3rd C

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the pottery deposits included an amount of complete pots and an amount of fragments or nearly complete pots (see Figure 43 for the proportions of different vessel types found). Additionally, all the depositional contexts included other objects and/or animal remains. Deposits containing just pottery were not found in the data from Dorchester.

A defining feature of this group of deposits is the way in which they were restricted temporally to the first and second centuries with a complete absence of pottery deposition after AD 200. Therefore, along with the almost complete cessation of animal deposition during the third century, there was also an apparent cessation of pottery deposition at the beginning of the third century. These notable changes in the nature of urban depositional practices during the third century are a major finding of this thesis. This finding is applied to the major research questions of this project in Chapter Six, where the inter-urban differences in terms of spatial distribution of features, and the changes to urban depositional behaviour during the third century, are focused upon.

Compared to Silchester, pottery deposition at Dorchester was relatively infrequent in terms of its appearance within any given feature. Only 3 out of the 23 features under consideration for Dorchester contained any pottery, which is in contrast to Silchester where over a third of all of the features located there contained some type of pottery deposition. Furthermore, at Silchester, there is evidence that over half of the features containing pottery did so to the exclusion of any other object type. There was also an indication of a pattern of isolated pottery deposition from the other urban centres discussed in Chapter Two. So again, although pottery deposition (and specifically the deposition of complete pots) is not rare at Dorchester, there is further evidence for inter-urban difference in that it did not have the same significance as it did at Silchester, and possibly the other urban centres discussed in Chapter Two.

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Figure 43: Proportion of vessel type and/or fabric found deposited in the subterranean features of Dorchester n=27

Personal objects, coins and other objects and materials

The deposition of personal objects is much more common at Dorchester than Silchester, or