Abstract
After the Roman conquest many aspects of British culture changed. Namely, a large change was seen in burial styles – moving from inhumation to cremation. Traditionally the transition from inhumation to cremation has been explained by the process of Romanisation. It has long been acknowledged that Romanisation is insufficient to capture the nuance of cultural changes that occurred in Britain as it tracks these changes on a one dimensional path from less to more Roman. However, such lines of thought have largely led to debates about what model should replace it, instead of a bottom-up approach of re-examining the evidence and drawing conclusions from it, with the exception of Pollock’s examination of burial rites in Wales.
In this thesis the major trends in burial style in the centuries before and after the conquest of Britain will be examined and it will be determined why certain Roman burial rites were adopted in Britain, and why others were not. The findings of this thesis are based primarily on evidence from archaeological excavations, and the modern interpretations of the archaeological evidence supplemented by commentary from Roman historians where available.
It will be argued that the people of Britain had a well established concept of proper burial, and that decisions to either adopt or reject Roman rites were based on how well these rites fit in with contemporary British concepts of proper burial. Evidence presented will show that the people of Britain did adopt and reject rites from the Roman Empire based on how well these rites aligned with their existing practices and preferences for the treatments of the dead. These conclusions suggest that the need to appear Roman was not the main driving force behind the adoption of Roman burial rites within Britain. The need to treat the dead respectfully had a strong influence over which rites were accepted and which were rejected.