Roman graveyard (almost) found in Copenhagen
This shows how little I understand the original news story.
There’s surprising news today. Burials of around thirty Romans have been discovered. This would please an archaeologist anywhere, but the oddity is that they’ve been found in a suburb of Copenhagen, Denmark. My first reaction is that the translation is wrong, but the original text reads:
Arkæologer på hemmelig missionArkæologerne fra Kroppedal Museum har fundet en gammel romersk gravplads, men afslører ikke stedets geografiske placering, før de er færdige med udgravningerne.
With an online dictionary I get that as roughly:
Archaeologists on a clandestine missionArchaeologists from Kroppedal Museum have found an ancient Roman graveyard, but will not reveal its location before finishing the excavation.
It’s a shame to lose the pussycat, but the finds seem fascinating.
The finds include necklaces and pottery containing food. According to Rune Iversen, who is directing the dig, this is all about conspicuous consumption. These people were being buried with their jewelry and a feast, so that the living could show they were rich enough not to need the goods. Something which didn’t make the IHT translation, if I understand correctly, is that the bodies were buried with the head at the north and the face turned towards the east. If I got that right, then these would be Pagan burials, because with the advent of Christianity burials are orientated east-west.
That’s interesting because the burials are dated to around AD 300. In AD 313 Constantine announced the toleration of Christianity, which put the burials neatly into the period when Christianity is struggling to make itself dominant in Roman society. You could argue that you wouldn’t expect Romans in Denmark to be Christians, but I didn’t expect Romans in Denmark anyway. From reading the article it also looks like this isn’t the first Roman community to be found in Denmark, so that’s a whole new area of ignorance I’ve discovered.
If you visit the original article and want to see bigger versions of the photos, you’ll need to click on [Større billede]. There’s a nice photo of one of the pots they’ve found at the bottom of the page.
They get everywhere don’t they, those Romans. Although I admit I wouldn’t have guessed Denmark either. I hadn’t realised they had got that far north.
Nice translation
This is a common mistake by journalists, however. When they write “Roman”, what they really mean is “Roman Iron Age” – which is something a little bit different….See e.g. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roman_Iron_Age
In fact, archaeologists working in Scandinavia often (confusingly) refer to this period as simply “Roman”. And I would assume that this is how the story ended up in the Danish newspaper as being about the find of a “Roman graveyard”. That it was subsequently picked by IHT is hilarious!
That said, the goods that were found in the graves in Ishøj may well be “Roman” or at least “Roman” in style. However, judging by the photos and the article, this is not necessarily the case….
That makes it a lot less surprising. The finds of Roman artefacts in Scandinavia, along with the secrecy around the dig. made me wonder if it just might be possible that a minor Roman trading post had been found. I couldn’t work out why the graves were described as rare rather than unique.
I can’t help feeling slightly disappointed that neither pussycats nor Romans have been found. I’ll update the title.
A fairly large number of Roman artefacts has indeed been found in Scandinavia – but the interpretation of them and the sites (such as Himlingøje) that they have been found at is highly contested. A lot of this material can be found in Ulla Lund Hansen, Römischer Import im Norden (Copenhagen 1987), and Lars Jørgensen, Birger Storgaard and Lone Gebauer Thomsen, The Spoils of Victory: The North in the Shadow of the Roman Empire (Copenhagen 2003).
But, yeah, too bad about the pussycats….
I’ve now picked up an alert from AP on the topic, which explains how it got onto Fox News among others. I’ll have to remember to bookmark this for when I write my pseudoarchaeology book.
Incidentally, Fox does have an impressive page listing their archaeology stories.
Alun, could you contact me, please? It seems that your Leicester email has “permanent fatal errors”….
Interesting post – In my layman’s state I was pretty surprised at the prospect of a Roman enclave in Denmark, especially as the last time I was in Copenhagen there were no signs of even the most remote Roman heritage!
Troels Myrup’s explanation certainly makes sense – although it is a shame to lose all the pussycats as well
The comments of Mr Myrup is much appreciated here in the Portland (OR) area where a major newspaper also needs educating. The Danish newspaper “Politiken” gives a good explanation of the term “Roman Iron Age” as used by the Danes (because many items from the romans are found in the graves). The Romans themselves were NEVER in Denmark.
This discovering really surprised me. Many years ago surprised me the founding of a Roman military base in Ireland too.
Is a matter of fact that the Romans knew very well that the ‘Danish Territories’ existed in fact Livius in the ‘Germania’ spoke about the poulations of the ‘Dani’ .
Romans like amber very much and a lot of amber came from Danmark in those days.
Years ago I read a doctoral thesis were was written that roman boats and vessels circumnavigated Danmark.
In any case should be better to go deeply in this topic.
Are the Danish scholars sure that these graveyards are Roman?
Why the newspapers and media do not speak about this topic more and with more details?