Bartlow Hills
About
Seven earthen mounds rose in two rows beside a Roman road around 100 CE, a burial ground for Romanized British aristocrats who kept an Iron Age habit of mound-building well into the imperial period. The tallest cone reached 15 meters, the largest Roman barrow north of the Alps. Excavators pulled Samian ware, glass unguent bottles, and an iron lamp still holding its half-burned wick from oak chests sealed inside.
What happened here
The dead are outside the walls because the law requires it, so the approach to every town is lined with them. Tombs face the road in rows, grand ones in front and simpler markers behind, all of them addressed to the passer-by. Burial clubs let ordinary people and slaves pay a monthly subscription for a place in a communal vault and a decent funeral; the alternative is a pit. Families come out on anniversaries and at the February festival, eat at the graveside, and pour wine into a pipe set into the ground. Undertakers, stonecutters and letter-cutters work nearby and compete on price. Ground is bought by the foot, and the frontage on the road costs the most.
Sources
Nearby
Roman Maps shows the empire frozen at 11 August 117 CE, the day Trajan died — its moment of greatest territorial extent. Explore the full map →