York\'s Headless Corpses: Caracalla to blame?

[Robert Vermaat]

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0, ... 49,00.html

[Nathan Ross]

Some interesting new information there - thanks Robert

Interesting too to recall that just over one year ago, some very similar theories were being proposed on this very board!

York skeletons thread

:lol:

- Nathan

[Arthes]

Greetings
just reading through the older posts it occured to me, that there were 49 adult and 7 children.......7x7=49.
Now, I would be very interested to find out if there were 7 adults buried at one time or 7 from each particular 'home' area.....?
regards
Arthes

[Susanne]

Interesting article.

[Viventius]

Those in the UK might be interested to hear that there will be a Timewatch programme on this on BBC2, 21st April.

Also there is a report by the York Archaeological Trust about further excavations in the area at:

Romans lose their heads: An unusual cemetery at The Mount, York
Principal Author: Kurt Hunter-Mann
http://www.yorkarchaeology.co.uk/driffield6/index.php

btw, a possible sword guard was found - would be interested to hear what people think!

There will be a much larger report, incorporating the burials from the Timewatch programme/Times report, later on. Suffice to say, it's a very odd set of burials indeed, and trying to hang it on one particular historical incident is rather perilous.

[Robert Vermaat]

Those in the UK might be interested to hear that there will be a Timewatch programme on this on BBC2, 21st April.

Not just those in the UK!

[Uwe Bahr]

Avete omnes,

these are very informative articles and the theories about the political background of the executions are interesting. What disturbs me so far a little is that if the victims had been executed by Roman military, why had it been performed in such an amateurful way? Obviously one victim received 13 hits until the head was chopped, others had been only little better of.

The 'Sword hilt guard' looks not typical and it is not the material (bone), but the form of the guard that reminds me more to later may-be medieval objects. But the find connection is obviously clearly Roman and the authors of the article let the question open if it is really a sword hilt guard, but we can never know ...

Greets - Uwe

[Viventius]

Thanks for the comments on the possibly sword guard; it does look odd :?

The big hint about the burials not being to do with the Caracalla business is the burials intercutting each other. That is: decapitated burials cut into other, earlier, decapitated burials ... The location of the earlier burials presumably were forgotten, so that the later ones were dug into them. But 6 Driffield Terrace was the subject of an archaeological excavation after the initial discoveries (a couple of doors down the road), so the programme has been made largely without taking this aspect into consideration.

I tend to favour the gladiator theory at present, but more work needs to be done on many aspects yet.

[Mithras]

Thanks for the comments on the possibly sword guard; it does look odd :?

The big hint about the burials not being to do with the Caracalla business is the burials intercutting each other. That is: decapitated burials cut into other, earlier, decapitated burials ... The location of the earlier burials presumably were forgotten, so that the later ones were dug into them. But 6 Driffield Terrace was the subject of an archaeological excavation after the initial discoveries (a couple of doors down the road), so the programme has been made largely without taking this aspect into consideration.

I tend to favour the gladiator theory at present, but more work needs to be done on many aspects yet.

bummer
Severus is my favourite emperor, I love this dynasty, this period, this connection to York, the reconquest of Britannia after the fiasco of Albinus leaving us without any troops.

It'd be nice to see some 'on-the-ground-evidence' of Caracalla's immediate culling of his father's favourites. Is the theory irredeemably bad? (you are in the best position to tell us after all )

[Primitivus]

Interesting too to recall that just over one year ago, some very similar theories were being proposed on this very board!

Thanks for directing us newbies to the previous discussion. Very interesting discovery.

[Viventius]

Just a reminder - the BBC2 programme on the York decapitations is on tomorrow (21st April) at 9pm. A feature article and preview is now up on the Timewatch website:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/programmes/timewatch/

Some of us from Comitatus may well recognise the top of the head of one of the diggers in the short video ...

Mithras - the current word is that the Caracalla theory doesn't fly. But the experts could change their minds again, so you might be able to cherish the idea anyway! The proper publication should be on the Web later this year.

[Robert Vermaat]

I watched it last night and liked it very much. It sounded convincing enough, at least. They had a nice brutish-looking fella playing Caracalla. Any idea who he was?

[Graham Sumner]

Robert wrote:

They had a nice brutish-looking fella playing Caracalla.

Except that Caracalla is one of the most instantly recognizable emperors and the actor concerned looked nothing like him! Where was the blond wig? The South Shields gateway however was especially impressive in the night sequence.

I thought the Romans were still cremating their dead at this period? Severus himself was burnt on a funeral pyre at York as the programme itself highlighted. Any archaeologists out there know for certain when inhumation started to become popular and take over as the main form of burial?

Graham.

[Primitivus]

They had a nice brutish-looking fella playing Caracalla.

Except that Caracalla is one of the most instantly recognizable emperors and the actor concerned looked nothing like him!

Well, if they missed the mark with the physical appearance, it sounds like they struck it in terms of his character.

[Mithras]

Robert wrote:

They had a nice brutish-looking fella playing Caracalla.

Except that Caracalla is one of the most instantly recognizable emperors and the actor concerned looked nothing like him! Where was the blond wig? The South Shields gateway however was especially impressive in the night sequence.

Hmm, yes. I thought Anthony Birley would have made a better Severus than the actor they had!

And for some reason, everytime I see a bust of Caracalla, I see the British comedian Rory McGrath. ONly he's too nice to be a mass murderer!