Magical practices? A non-normative Roman imperial cremation at Sagalassos

Many thousands of burials have been excavated from across the Roman world, documenting a variety of funerary practices and rites. Individual burials, however, sometimes stand out for their atypical characteristics. The authors report the discovery of a cremation burial from ancient Sagalassos that differs from contemporaneous funerary deposits. In this specific context, the cremated human remains were not retrieved but buried in situ, surrounded by a scattering of intentionally bent nails, and carefully sealed beneath a raft of tiles and a layer of lime. For each of these practices, textual and archaeological parallels can be found elsewhere in the ancient Mediterranean world, collectively suggesting that magical beliefs were at work.

Automated summary

Many thousands of burials have been excavated from across the Roman world, documenting a variety of funerary practices and rites. However, the authors report the discovery of a cremation burial from ancient Sagalassos that differs from contemporaneous funerary deposits. In this specific context, the cremated human remains were not retrieved but buried in situ, surrounded by intentionally bent nails, and carefully sealed beneath a raft of tiles and a layer of lime. Textual and archaeological parallels suggest that magical beliefs were at work.