History Forum / General / Archaeology / January 2007

_Normandy grave hints at 300-year defiance of the_
   _Roman Empire_

   A macabre 1,700-year-old mass grave of people and
   horses, discovered in Normandy, poses perplexing
   new questions about the Roman conquest of France.
   Was there a small part of ancient Gaul which refused,
   Asterix-like, to surrender for 300 years?

   The grave site, from the 3rd century, which was
   discovered by French state archaeologists at Evreux,
   appears to contain ritual arrangements of human and
   horse remains. In one, a human skull is clasped
   between two horse's skulls, like the two halves of a
   giant shell.

   In Gaullish times, 300 years earlier, graves containing
   both horses and people were common. No such grave
   has ever been found from the Roman period, and even
   in the previous era, the remains were kept carefully
   apart.

   In the recently discovered grave, about 50 miles west
   of Paris, the bones appear to have been intentionally
   mixed. The skeletons of 40 people and 100 horses
   have been found so far.

   Was this a local - or maybe more widespread - survival
   of the Gaullish cult of Epona, the goddess of horses
   and warriors? Sylvie Pluton is leader of the dig for the
   |Institut National de Recherches Arcéologique
   Préventives (Inrap). She is also an expert on the Gallo-
   Roman period.

   "With the Romans, you usually know what to
   expect," she said. "They were very organised. Their
   graves were very orderly. Not here. The bodies point in
   all directions ... Above all, there is extraordinary
   mingling of humans and horses. We could be looking
   at a cultural survival, previously unknown, such as a
   worship of the goddess Epona."

   Roman graves often contained offerings of food, but
   Romans did not eat horse flesh. Nor can this have
   been a warriors' grave. Many of the human skeletons
   are those of children or women or old men.

   Some Gaullish practices and beliefs did survive deep
   into Roman times, but there have been no previous
   finds as striking. One of the visitors to the site was
   Professor Christian Goudineau of the Collège de
   France, the foremost expert on the period. He said:
   "Personally, I am reluctant to believe in some kind of
   cultural survival, such as a cult of the goddess Epona.
   Why would it survive for so long? And here, on the
   edge of what we know was a large Roman town?

   "Perhaps these were slaves and horses which died in
   an epidemic and were just thrown here in a hurry and
   became mixed up," he added.

   The problem, as Professor Goudineau himself pointed
   out, is that some of the remains seem to have been
   carefully arranged. Further digging on the site in the
   next two months, before it is covered by a new
   bungalow, may help to unlock the mystery.

The Independent 27 jan
http://news.independent.co.uk/europe/article2190045.ece

Photos:
http://tinyurl.com/3d9tj7
http://tinyurl.com/29qk7g
http://tinyurl.com/2zldxq