LIFE FROM DEATH: MULTI-SPECIES FERTILITY RITUALS WITHIN A ROMANO-BRITISH RITUAL SHAFT IN SOUTHERN ENGLAND

Abstract

Romano-British shaft deposits are an important part of the ritual make-up of the province. However, understanding the meaning of these features is often difficult due to the lack of textual sources. This paper discusses a first century AD shaft from Surrey, England, using a multi-proxy approach to investigate potential ritual significance. Its unique assemblage, containing one of the largest deposits of human and animal remains ever excavated from a single Romano-British feature along with the first recorded instance of Romano-British use of red ochre on bone (a dog baculum, or penis bone), allowed for a series of cosmological connections to fertility be identified.