Ritual Burials on the Upchurch Marshes

RITUAL BURIALS ON THE UPCHURCH MARSHES By I. NOEL HUME CONTINUED work on the Upchurch Marshes has resulted in the discovery of further evidence relating to the group of " puppy-burials " reported in Archceologia Cantiana in 1951 (pp. 170-1) and 1955 (pp. 198-9). In 1950, three Romano-British oU*3 were found buried within an area of twenty-five feet, each containing the inhumated bones of a single puppy along with a quantity of charcoal. It was then thought that the vessels (PI. I, Nos. 1, 3 and 5) may have represented foundation deposits beneath structures, aU traces of which had been eroded by the sea. More recent discoveries have shown that this assumption was incorrect. A fourth pot containing puppy bones and charcoal was found by Mr. Michael Webb in February, 1953, and in October, 1955, three others were found by the writer. All seven pots were found within the same small area and six of them were almost certainly products of a single kiln. The example illustrated in Plate I (No. 6) is clearly a waster, having a wide crack through the base which had occurred during firing. In February, 1956, fragments of yet another olla of the same type were found crushed in the mud within the area enclosed by the previous finds (Fig. 1, No. 1). Although, in this instance, neither bones nor charcoal were present, it is reasonable to assume that the sherds represent the remains of an eighth " puppy-burial." The similarity between seven of the pots and the presence of the waster suggests that they were obtained from a local kiln, probably on a single occasion. Although it will be noticed that the vessels vary considerably in size, this factor would appear to be of no significance, for the largest pot proved to contain the bones of the smaUest puppy. The three oUse recovered in October, 1955 (PI. I, Nos. 2, 4 and 6) have provided the most useful evidence, for not only were the contents more intact than in the previous finds, but the pots having been found on a single occasion, it was possible to determine their relationship one to another. They were buried on the north south line at intervals of three feet seven inches, and at a depth of approximately five feet seven inches below the existing land surface. The fragments of the eighth pot were found at the same depth at a point eight feet south of the three complete vessels and nine feet six inches to the east. The five similar oUse illustrated in Plate I were all found in an area of organio matter consisting largely of sedge which had either grown or been deposited in a roughly rectangular hollow in the alluvial clay. It is extremely 160 PLATE I Ollae containing puppy-burials from the Upchurch Marshes Numbered in text from top left to bottom right. [face p. 160 RITUAL BURIALS ON THE UPCHURCH MARSHES likely that Mr. Webb's example also came from this hollow. But unfortunately there is no record of the type of ground in which it lay. The cavetto-rimmed olla (PI. I, No. 3), however, did not come from this organic deposit, but lay at a point shghtly outside it to the south. On the existing evidence it seems probable that most of the " puppyburials " were interred in rows within the hollow. It is not impossible, also, that there were originally others which have since been found by clay-diggers or which have been carried away by erosion. J