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Knife twists mystery of dog burials
Maev Kennedy, arts and heritage correspondent
Tuesday January 1, 2002
The Guardian
The discovery of a unique knife, carved with an image of two dogs mating, has deepened the mystery of a Roman site which seems to be a graveyard of dead dogs, ritually buried for reasons which archaeologists are struggling to understand.
The dogs of Silchester are beginning to haunt Michael Fulford, and his team from Reading University, who have been working for years at the Hampshire site, one of the most enigmatic Roman sites in Britain.
He has found half a dozen burials, probably spanning two centuries. Three are of two dogs buried together, one where the dog was buried with the body of an infant, and one extraordinary burial where the dog was carefully positioned standing up as if on guard, with the earth meticulously packed in around to support it upright in its grave. The implication is that these were buried as guardians, though it has not been possible to tell whether they died naturally or were killed.
"We are either dealing with something quite extraordinary, or something absolutely typi cal which may have happened at many other Roman sites but the evidence has been missed or misinterpreted," he said.
The beautifully carved knife, a luxury imported object, was found in a pit together with the bodies of two dogs. Although the bones had been disturbed by the foundations of a much later wall, Professor Fulford believes they were originally carefully laid out.
Their grave had been used as a cesspit, but their burial seems to coincide with its abandonment, and the change of use of the site.
The knife could have been dropped by accident, but if it was a ritual offering it was an extravagant one.
The clasp knife is believed to date from the second century AD, when the town was at the height of its wealth and power. It is made of elephant ivory, and may have been made in Germany. However, the subject is unique: human and animal figures cast in metal or carved in bone, ivory, amber and jet have been found across the Roman world, but nothing comparable to the Silchester knife.
It shows the two animals in naturalistic style, their fur shown in incised lines, with meticulous detail, including the milk glands of the female. The blunt-muzzled dogs do not look like any of the dogs commonly depicted in Roman sculptures and mosaics, which are usually either lap-dogs or tall hunting dogs.
Archaeologists have been poking around at Silchester for two centuries, without re solving its conundrum. Almost all major Roman towns in Britain evolved into modern towns and cities, but Silchester was abandoned and never built on again. Although the town was built on Iron Age foundations, and became important and wealthy in Roman times, the site now stands among green fields, miles from the nearest town.
The Reading team has evidence that when the town was abandoned, in the late fifth or early sixth centuries, as the Roman grip on England crumbled, the wells vital in a town without a river were sealed.
When Prof Fulford found the first dog burials, he believed he had found evidence of the deliberate "killing" and abandonment of the site, possibly by Anglo-Saxons. "The latest discoveries are forcing me to tear up all my theories. The answer now is I don't know why Silchester was abandoned, but it seems clear that these rituals had been carried out for centuries earlier. They seem to be associated with the end of a period of occupation of a plot."
Maev Kennedy, arts and heritage correspondent
Tuesday January 1, 2002
The Guardian
The discovery of a unique knife, carved with an image of two dogs mating, has deepened the mystery of a Roman site which seems to be a graveyard of dead dogs, ritually buried for reasons which archaeologists are struggling to understand.
The dogs of Silchester are beginning to haunt Michael Fulford, and his team from Reading University, who have been working for years at the Hampshire site, one of the most enigmatic Roman sites in Britain.
He has found half a dozen burials, probably spanning two centuries. Three are of two dogs buried together, one where the dog was buried with the body of an infant, and one extraordinary burial where the dog was carefully positioned standing up as if on guard, with the earth meticulously packed in around to support it upright in its grave. The implication is that these were buried as guardians, though it has not been possible to tell whether they died naturally or were killed.
"We are either dealing with something quite extraordinary, or something absolutely typi cal which may have happened at many other Roman sites but the evidence has been missed or misinterpreted," he said.
The beautifully carved knife, a luxury imported object, was found in a pit together with the bodies of two dogs. Although the bones had been disturbed by the foundations of a much later wall, Professor Fulford believes they were originally carefully laid out.
Their grave had been used as a cesspit, but their burial seems to coincide with its abandonment, and the change of use of the site.
The knife could have been dropped by accident, but if it was a ritual offering it was an extravagant one.
The clasp knife is believed to date from the second century AD, when the town was at the height of its wealth and power. It is made of elephant ivory, and may have been made in Germany. However, the subject is unique: human and animal figures cast in metal or carved in bone, ivory, amber and jet have been found across the Roman world, but nothing comparable to the Silchester knife.
It shows the two animals in naturalistic style, their fur shown in incised lines, with meticulous detail, including the milk glands of the female. The blunt-muzzled dogs do not look like any of the dogs commonly depicted in Roman sculptures and mosaics, which are usually either lap-dogs or tall hunting dogs.
Archaeologists have been poking around at Silchester for two centuries, without re solving its conundrum. Almost all major Roman towns in Britain evolved into modern towns and cities, but Silchester was abandoned and never built on again. Although the town was built on Iron Age foundations, and became important and wealthy in Roman times, the site now stands among green fields, miles from the nearest town.
The Reading team has evidence that when the town was abandoned, in the late fifth or early sixth centuries, as the Roman grip on England crumbled, the wells vital in a town without a river were sealed.
When Prof Fulford found the first dog burials, he believed he had found evidence of the deliberate "killing" and abandonment of the site, possibly by Anglo-Saxons. "The latest discoveries are forcing me to tear up all my theories. The answer now is I don't know why Silchester was abandoned, but it seems clear that these rituals had been carried out for centuries earlier. They seem to be associated with the end of a period of occupation of a plot."