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Summary

Mixed-rite then inhumation cemetery, c.AD 175-450; including infant burial with Dea Nutrix figurine

Monument Types

• MIXED CEMETERY (Roman - 50 AD to 409 AD)
• INHUMATION CEMETERY (Late Roman to Sub Roman - 201 AD to 549 AD)

Associated Finds

• IDOL (Undated)
• SHERD (Late Neolithic - 3000 BC to 2501 BC)

Full description

Excavation and observation during redevelopment of 5a Royston Road uncovered burials and evidence of the disturbance of many more inhumations. The late Roman cemetery was just east of the late Iron Age burial enclosure [13194] and may have respected its boundary, although more than a century had elapsed since the earlier cemetery ceased being used <2>. The first burials in the late cemetery were deposited shortly before AD 200; the latest were almost certainly 5th century (and possibly as late as the second half of the 5th century, or even later <3, 4>). 36 burials from the late cemetery have been recorded; 29 were inhumations, in rows, six were urned cremations and one an unurned cremation. The easternmost burial was that of a year-old infant, buried in a wooden coffin with a 2nd century pipeclay Dea Nutrix figurine from central Gaul and up to three wood caskets, the whole possibly under a superstructure. The date of this burial was apparently early 4th century. In the grave and coffin fills were redeposited sherds ranging from late Neolithic Grooved Ware to late Iron Age and 1st to 3rd century Roman <1>. Burials with Deae Nutrices are rare in Britain but common in Gaul.
The extent of this cemetery is unknown; it (with its predecessor) is the only known Baldock cemetery on the north side of the contemporary Icknield Way.

<1> Burleigh, G R, Fitzpatrick-Matthews, K J, & Aldhouse-Green, M J, 2006, A Dea Nutrix figurine from a Romano-British cemetery at Baldock, Herts; Britannia 37, 273-94 (Article in serial). SHT16663.

<2> Fitzpatrick-Matthews, Keith J, & Burleigh, Gilbert R, 2007, Excavations at Baldock 1978-1994: fieldwork by G R Burleigh. Draft, RNO 1779 p46, 105-7 (Unpublished document). SHT16863.

<3> Fitzpatrick-Matthews, Keith J, 2010, Collapse, change or continuity? Exploring the three Cs in sub-Roman Baldock; IN Procs of the 19th annual Theoretical Roman Archaeology Conference, eds A Moore et al, p132-48, - p135, 136-7 (Article in monograph). SHT9786.

<4> Fitzpatrick-Matthews, Keith, & Burleigh, Gil, 2010, Baldock and the end of Roman Britain; Current Archaeology no.246 (Sept 2010), 28-35, - p31-4 (Article in serial). SHT5785.

Sources and further reading

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