A Context for Roman Priestly Regalia: Depositional Practices and Spatial Distribution of Assemblages from Roman Britain (original) (raw)

The recent discovery of a deposit containing votive and ritual objects dating to the Roman period in Bury St. Edmunds, Suffolk offers a chance to discuss depositional practices. Deposits of objects used for religious rituals are known in Britain, but their consideration in the archaeological literature has often been affected by different biases. Greater attention has been given to specific objects, particularly the ‘priestly regalia’, while their study has focused mainly on their iconography rather than their performative aspect. Moreover, the peculiar aspect of some of these objects, particularly the headdresses, has favoured speculations on their possible connection with religious practices predating the Roman conquest, symbolizing a local, cultural resistance to the introduction of official Roman religious practices. This particular element has been stressed in the literature, often overshadowing the discussion of other objects present in the same deposits and consequently missing the opportunity to include this evidence from Britain in the more general discussion about provincial ritual practices. This paper offers a new perspective on deposits of ritual materials. Analysing their spatial distribution together with that of other types of religious evidence (inscriptions and temple sites) aims to identify their function as deposits while an overall analysis of their contents allows a discussion about the personalities, professional and non-, involved in their performance. The goal is to demonstrate that ritual practices, traditionally considered the prerogative of specific cultural groups and stressed in the dichotomy Roman/native, appear to overlap in the reality of the religious experience and involve different people bearing different cultural identities.

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