Burial Practices
In Britain the toleration which Romans showed great toleration towards religious beliefs and therefore rites relating to the formal disposal of the dead. Celtic religious ideas are seen to continue throughout the Roman period even after the adoption of Christianity, and personal choice was permitted in both religious and burial practices
In the 1st and 2nd centuries the bodies of the dead in Roman Britain were usually cremated. While the body was burning it was thought that the soul escaped. After burning the ashes were collected and put into an urn or box for burial in the ground. The tradition of cremation apparently gained popularity to the point of virtual exclusivity in the first century A.D., and remained predominant in Britain until the 3rd century. By the end of the 3rd century cremation had gone out of fashion and dead people were put straight into the ground in a grave which was usually a roughly bath-shaped pit.
Research suggests that pre-Roman conquest, only a portion of people in Britain could afford burial rites, probably only the elite, but after the conquest it appears that both high and low were afforded burial or cremation, though with differing elaboration.
In the 1st and 2nd centuries the bodies of the dead in Roman Britain were usually cremated. While the body was burning it was thought that the soul escaped. After burning the ashes were collected and put into an urn or box for burial in the ground. The tradition of cremation apparently gained popularity to the point of virtual exclusivity in the first century A.D., and remained predominant in Britain until the 3rd century. By the end of the 3rd century cremation had gone out of fashion and dead people were put straight into the ground in a grave which was usually a roughly bath-shaped pit.
Research suggests that pre-Roman conquest, only a portion of people in Britain could afford burial rites, probably only the elite, but after the conquest it appears that both high and low were afforded burial or cremation, though with differing elaboration.