COMMUNICATIONS 
TO THE 
MONTHLY MEETINGS 
OE THE 
YORKSHIRE PHILOSOPHICAL SOCIETY, 
1876. 
January 4th. —The Pev. Canon Paine read the following 
paper on Ponian cemeteries at York, their arrangements and 
the mode of burial in them :—He said : 6 The recent excavations 
in one of the large Roman cemeteries of Eburacnm have 
added much to our knowledge of the rites of sepulture in use 
among the great nation of the world, and have given us some 
idea of the very large population of our city in those early 
times. These cemeteries were outside the Roman towns and 
cities, although they were occasionally disregarded when the 
population overflowed the camp, and extra-mural habitations 
became necessary. This is especially observable in Micklegate. 
In the earliest period of the Roman settlement, Micklegate-hill 
was used as a burial ground, especially the neighbourhood 
of the old Trinity Gardens; in process of time the hill was 
needed for temples and houses, and the previous interments 
were forgotten. Under the city wall, close to Micklegate Bar, 
is the pavement of a building of this description, which shows 
how a part of an old burial ground had been encroached upon 
and passed by. There is another point also about which we 
must disabuse ourselves. The old Roman laws decreed the 
sanctity of the grave, but Roman practice, at least under the 
later empire, most certainly disregarded it. We find bodies 
interred, sometimes, two or three deep. We often find sepulchral 
urns which have been broken by persons who have been digging 
out a place to deposit some similar vessels. Even the large 
D 
