Basic info

Collection

Archaeology

Object name

Gypsum burial

Object category

Roman

Description

Gypsum cast of at least two individuals. Once thought to contain the impressions of two people: a mother and a child between her legs, However, it is possible that the burial actually represents three individuals: two adults on their sides facing each other with the child between them. The cloth which wrapped the bodies has left various impressions within the gypsum. The burial is described in Eboracum as: Large coffin, of stone, found in July 1851, at a depth of 3ft under a house at the corner of Price's Lane and Bishopgate Street, containing the skeleton of a woman with the skeleton of a child between her legs. The bodies had been covered in gypsum, forming a cast... with fragments of cloth still adherin gto it. No grave good are preserved from this coffin, but a hole above the left shoulder of the woman's skeleton shows whence some were removed." Also in Eboracum, the impressions of the cloth left in the gypsum cloth are described: "Broadly four differeent cloths can be distinguished: -Fine cloth, warp about 100-120 perinch, weft about 52-56 per inch. some selvages can be seen; they do not appear to have any special arrangement, but the cloth is too fine to see exactly how the warps are grouped. -Medium cloth, warp about 80, weft about 40 threads per inch. Minute fragments of this cloth survive along the left side on the body. Variations of fineness occur within this category. -Coarse tabby, warp about 70-80, weft 28 thread per inch. -Red ribbed cloth, which occurs only as narrow strips. Where measureable it appears to be about 3.3ins and 4 ins wide. The edge is always very neat and presumable represents a selvage, so that the cloth has probably been woven as a strip about 3.5-4ins wide. It is charchterised by regular transverse ribs, presumably made by thick weft threads, 26 per inch. The lengthwise threads (presumably the warp) are extremely fine and so closely packed that they cover the weft; it is almost impossible to count them, but there appear to be ropughly 140 per inch. The cloth seems to be aplain weave rep, but it is not possible to be certain of this; the description written when fragments could still be seen (one or two minute fragments still exist in situ) is worth noting: 'the garments... appeared to have been ornamented with crimson or purple strips, of a texture something like velvet or plush'. It certainly seems too have been red, for a pinky-mauve stain survives on the gypsum in places. When considering the relative positions of the cloths, their size and form, there are three difficulties: over considerable areas the gypsum has not taken a sufficiently clear impression to show which clothis represented; the cloths inplaces are deeply creased and folded; the gypsum cast only records the cloths on the upper half of the body with which it actually came in contact. The red strips always occur over the fine tabby cloth. They follow the folds in this cloth and lie parallel to one of the systems of the threads in it. Almost certainly the red strips were sewn on to the fine linen. On the left shoulder of the woman the appear to be laid at right angles to each other. The fine linen, with the applied strips, stretches over the faceand upper part of the body of the woman, but cannot be traced below the region of the waist. On the right side there is a selvage edge, and below this an area of the coarse cloth is exposed, proabably accidentally. The lower part of the woman's body is covered with the middle weight of plain cloth; unfortunately its junction with fine and coarse cloths is not recorded by the gypsum. The baby's body was wrapped separately, but in the same cloths as were used for the woman. The baby's head is wrapped in two layers of fine cloth with a selvage at its upper edge. The body is wrapped in fine linen bearing two parallel red strips 5.2ins apart. The upper of these two strips stops abruptly at the head as if the cloth were turned under at the neck.

Production date start

71

Production date end

410

Period

Roman