The Roman Cemetery of Uriconium. 35 



field formed part of the cemetery, and trenches have been 

 carried from the hedge separating it from the Watling Street 

 road over the whole extent of the bank, and further over the 

 field to some distance to the south. One of the first dis- 

 coveries, made at the spot marked B, low down on the slope of 

 the bank, was a very important one — a thick slab of stone was 

 found lying on its face, on which, when raised, a rather long 

 and very well incized inscription was found, probably as 

 early as the second century, commemorating a soldier, whose 

 name appears to have been FLAMINTYS. T. POL. F. (the 

 latter letter, of course, standing for filius), who was forty- 

 five years of age, and had seen twenty-two years of military 

 service. Unfortunately, the inscribed side of the stone has 

 been much rubbed, and the inscription has not yet been com- 

 pletely deciphered. Further exploration showed that the whole 

 of this end of the bank was filled with interments, consisting 

 of cinerary urns and their usual accompaniments, which ap- 

 peared to have been put into the ground in rows. These inter- 

 ments covered the ground marked in , our plan with dots. 

 Trenches, carried further towards the ancient town wall, or 

 beyond the bank across the field, gave no traces of burials, so 

 that this appears to have been the extremity of the burial- 

 ground towards the town. The cemetery probably extended 

 over the next field F, which cannot conveniently be excavated 

 until the autumn of the present year. The excavators have 

 since been employed in the field H, on the other side of the 

 Watling Street, in the farm of Mr. Bayley, of Norton, but no 

 discoveries of sepulchral interments were found there, and the 

 cemetery would thus appear to have been confined to the 

 southern side of the road. An accidental discovery, however, 

 led to the examination of a garden in the hamlet of Norton, 

 at G in our plan, and there was found one well-defined inter- 

 ment, besides traces of others. It is not improbable, there- 

 fore, that the tombs of the citizens were seattered over the 

 ground outside the walls along the greater part of their extent. 

 We have not only by these excavations ascertained the site of 

 what was evidently the principal cemetery of Uriconium, but 

 we have obtained a number of objects and ascertained a num- 

 ber of facts, which illustrate the manners of the inhabitants 

 of Uriconium, and show us how entirely conformable they were 

 to those of the Romans in their native Italy. 



When we use the word cemetery, we do not of course 

 intend it to be taken strictly in its modern sense, but merely to 

 signify the locality where the sepulchral interments were col- 

 lected together. The Romans did not inclose and consecrate a 

 space of ground for burial purposes as we do in modern times, 

 but the family of the deceased bought a bit of ground to bury 



