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S IT TIBI TERRA GRAVIS : MAGICAL-RELIGIOUS PRACTICES AGAINST RESTLESS

DEAD IN THE ANCIENT WORLD1.

SILVIA ALFAYÉ

University of Oxford

When Van Helsing suggests that Dr. Seward decapitate Lucy’s corpse in the renowned book Dracula by B. Stoker, he asks:

“But why do it at all? The girl is dead. Why mutilate her poor body without need? And

if there is no necessity for a post-mortem and nothing to gain by it –no good for her, to

us, to science, to human knowledge- why do it? Without such it is monstrous”2.

These questions are raised by the unusual burials of ancient chronology with bodies interredin prone position (gs. 1 and 25), mutilated or decapitated cadavers (g. 2 and 6), skeletons withthe skull and other parts of the body pierced by nails (gs. 3, 19, 23, 28-29), nailed cinerary urns,corpses deliberately crushed under the weight of huge rocks (gs. 4-6, 13-15 and 27), and evengraves with a combination of these (gs. 5-6, 14 and 27). All these nds allow us to visualise, throughthe archaeological record, a different, twisted and disturbing aspect of the standard funerary ritual

practices in the Ancient world –and more specically in the Greek-Roman context, which is the

1 This article has been translated by Rosa Anía and Noel Murphy. This study has been carried out within the research project“Espacios de magia, superstición y poder en el Occidente del Imperio Romano”, nanced by DGICYT (HUM 241-29).2

B. STOKER , Dracula, Oxford, 1983, 165.



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chronological and cultural framework of this study. When faced with such unsettling funerary nds,numerous questions arise: both physical uncertainties – how and when were these practices carriedout-, and reections on their social-religious signicance, the identity of the executors and of theinterred. And, above all, one wonders about the reasons why a person or a group decide to performthis type of funerary practice of such a drastic nature which unquestionably, as I. Morris points out,

were carried out “because it seemed like a good idea at the time”3

. The main question arising fromthese anomalous nds is, therefore, their meaning and interpretation, and the purpose of this paper isnone other than to try to nd an explanation for these deviant burials.

By the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century, several scholars already

connected these singular burials to immobilising ritual practices aimed at physically and symbolicallyxing the restless dead to their tombs, and thus preventing them from returning and disturbing theliving, an exegesis which has been recently revitalized again by scholars such as D. Ogden or S.I.Johnston4. We must then wonder whether there was “necrophobia” or fear of the malign potentialityof the dead in the Ancient world which may account for carrying out such drastic funerary measures.Belief in the existence of the restless dead in the Graeco-Roman world may be inferred from ancient

phantom literature which collects stories about ghosts, apparitions and wandering dead, popular topicsfrom which our contemporary ghostly imagery derives, as studied by E. Jobbé-Duval, D. Felton, D.Ogden, and A. Straramaglia, amongst others5. The very existence of the festival of the Lemuria (Ov.,

Fast . 5. 419-492) also implies an acknowledgement of the presence of restless spirits amongst theliving, whose return to the world of the dead was facilitated through purication, appeasement andaversion rituals performed in May. The larvae or lemures, described by Porf., Schol . Ad. Hor. Epist .2. 2. 209, as lemores, umbras vagantes hominum ante diem mortuorum et ideo metuendas… umbras

terribiles biothanatorum, could cause accidents, plagues, bad harvests, miscarriages, death, diseaseand other misfortunes, so it is hardly surprising that the living wished to keep them away6.

3 I. MORRIS, Death-Ritual and Social Structure in Classical Antiquity, Cambridge 1992, 108.4 D. OGDEN, Greek and Roman necromancy, Princeton 2001. ID., Magic, witchcraft and ghosts in the Greek and Roman

world, Oxford 2002. S.I. JOHNSTON, Restless dead. Encounters between the Living and the Dead in Ancient Greece,Berkeley-Los Angeles-London 1999.5 E. JOBBÉ-DUVAL, Les morts malfaisants. Larves, lémures, d’après le droit et les croyances populaires des Romains,Chambéry 2000 (1924). D. FELTON, Haunted Greece and Rome. Ghost Stories from Classical Antiquity, Austin 2000. D.OGDEN, Greek and roman…, 2001. ID., Magic, witchcraft …, 2002, 146-178. A. STRAMAGLIA, Res inauditae, incredulae.

Storie di fantasma nel mondo greco-latino, Bari 1999. Cf. also K. HOPKINS, Death and Renewal , Cambridge 1985, 234-235. V. ZANGARA, Exeuntes de corpore. Discussioni sulle apparizioni dei morti in epoca agostiniana, Firenze 1990. G.A NDERSON, Fairytale in the Ancient World , London-New York 2000, 112 and followings.6 On Greco-Roman ghost terms – lemures, larvae, Manes, eidōlon, phantasma, phasma, umbra, imago, simulacrum, etc…-cf. D. Felton, Haunted Greece…, 2000, 22-37. On the Lemuria and the meaning of larva and lemur , cf . J.A. HILD, Larvae,

DAGR, III.2, Paris 1904, 950-953. ID., Lemures, in DAGR, III.2, 1904, 1100-1101. J.G. FRAZER , The Fasti of Ovid. Volume IV, London 1929, 36-54. M. SIMON, De statu mortuorum: an historical- theological dissertation concerning the state of thedead . London 1723, 3-13, 31 and following, for whom the lemures are “departed souls”, whereas the larvae could be “soulsof vicious, wicked people”, that is, those guilty of crimes, unburied corpses, those who had suffered violent or unfortunatedeaths who expiate their sins in life through a wandering existence after their death and are offensive to the gods and to men.On the harm that these wandering souls caused to the living, cf., amongst others E. JOBBÉ-DUVAL, Les morts malfaisants…,2000, 119-201. M. BARTELHEIM AND V. HEYD, Cult after burial: patterns of post-funeral treatment in the Bronze and Iron Agesof Central Europe, in: P. Biehl, F. Bertemes and H. Meller (eds.), The Archaeology of Cult and Religion, Budapest 2001,267-268. J.G. FRAZER , The fear of the dead in primitive religion, I, London-New York 2003 (1933-1936), 132-176. E. COUTO,Los espectros furiosos como causa de enfermedad en Mesopotamia, Historiae, 2, 2005, 27-53. J. SCURLOCK , Magico-Medical

Means of Treating Ghost-induced illness in Ancient Mesopotamia (Studies in Ancient Magic and Divination), Leiden 2006.

A.M.DI

NOLA

, La muerte derrotada. Antropología de la muerte y el duelo, Barcelona 2007, 23-28.



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1. DEATH AS A PROCESS

As R. Hertz, A. van Gennep, J. Maurin or L. Nilsson have studied, death is a process notan event. The funus is, above all, a rite of passage which is organised around rituals of separationfrom the world of the living and rituals of integration within the world of the dead, going through

an intermediate or liminal period (g. 7). The work of these and other anthropologists reveal thatthis period of transit between one state and another is extremely critical, both for the living, who areexposed to the contamination resulting from their contact with death, and for the dead, who, unableto access the beyond or reluctant to accept their new status, may want to rejoin a reality which theycan no longer be part of. They then become hostile and resentful and turn into restless dead, deadinsufciently dead, wandering souls, revenants, larvae o lemures, spirits who interfere in the world of the living and who cannot – or do not wish to- be part of the Otherworld that awaits them7. Accordingto R. Lizzi, the funeral rituals in the Ancient world would be dominated by the acknowledgement of that intermediate phase of passage from the status of the living to that of the dead, and by the ideaof the “living corpse” (lebender Leichnam, lebender Leiche), a belief which creates a feeling of ambivalence as the corpse is and is not the person which it once was 8.

The reasons why a dead person could be potentially dangerous and become restless vary

with each society, but research by J.G. Frazer, P. J. Ucko, T. Shay or S. I. Johnston shows that, inall cultures, the harmful potential of the deceased is due mainly to two factors: the behaviour of the individual during his life (modus vivendi), and the circumstances surrounding his death (modus

moriendi). The Ancient World was no exception to this9.

7 R. HERTZ, Contribución a un estudio sobre la representación colectiva de la muerte, in: Id., La muerte y la mano derecha,Madrid 1990, 13-102. A. VAN GENNEP, The rites of passage, London 1977, 160-162. L.M. DANFORTH AND A. TSIARAS, The

death rituals of rural Greece, Princeton, 1982, 35-70, gs. 1. J. MAURIN, Funus et rites de séparation, A.I.O.N., 6, 1984, 191-208. L. NILSSON, Embodied Rituals & Ritualized Bodies. Tracing Ritual Practices in Late Mesolithic Burials, Stockholm2003, 95-105, 343-367. C. FOWLER , The Archaeology of Personhood. An anthropological approach, London 2004, 79-100.A.M. DI NOLA, La muerte derrotada…, 2007, 23-33, 280-310.8 R. LIZZI, Il sesso e i morti, in: F. Hinard (ed.), La mort au quotidien dans le monde romain, Paris 1995, 58. Cf. also V.M. HOPE, Thetreatment of the corpse in Ancient Rome, in: V.M. Hope and E. Marshall, (eds.), Death and disease in the Ancient City, London- New York 2000, 126-127. A.M. DI NOLA, La negra señora. Antropología de la muerte y el luto, Barcelona 2006, 275-297.9 Cf. J.G. FRAZER , The fear of the dead…, I-III, 2003 (especially vol. III, 103-311). P.J. UCKO, Ethnography and archaeologicalinterpretation of funerary remains, World Archaeology, 1, 1969, 262-280. T. SHAY, Differentiated Treatment of Deviancy atDeath as Revealed in Anthropological and Archaeological material, Journal of Anthropological Archaeology, 4, 1985, 221-241. Also cf. B. BARTEL, A historical review of ethnological and archaeological analyses of mortuary practices, Journal of

Anthropological Archaeology, 1, 1982, 32-58. M.J. BECKER , An ethnographical and archaeological survey of unusual mortuary procedures as a reection on cultural diversity, La parola del passato, 41, 1986, 31-56. S.I. JOHNSTON, Restless dead…, 1999.

M. BARTELHEIM

AND

V. HEYD

, Cult after burial…, 2001, 267-274. A.M.DI

NOLA

, La negra señora…, 2006, 93-261.

Figure 7.- The death as a process: tripartite structure of a transitional period,

by L.M. DANFORTH and A. TSIARAS 1982.



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1.1. Categories of restless dead in the Greek-Roman world

Thanks to literary sources such as Virg., Aen., 6. 315-534, Sil. It., Pun., 13. 532-562, Lucian., Kataplous, 6-7, and Tert., De anim., 56-57, amongst others, we know of the existence of variouscategories and subtypes of restless dead in the ancient world, as well as of the places reserved for

them in the geography of the Afterlife10

. These categories, which are not closed but overlap eachother, have numerous connections with similar beliefs which have been attested to in cultures of widechronology and geographic scope, and are determined by the conduct of the individual during his/her life –private behaviour, individual attributes (unusual features, severe physical or mental diseases,foreign status), type of profession, etc.- and/or by the circumstances surrounding his/her death –as aresult of violence, disease, suicide, accident, combat, childbirth, etc.-.

1.1.1. The Unburied Dead: ataphoi, atelestoi, insepulti

In the Greek-Roman world, the main –although reversible- category of potential restless

dead was made up by the ataphoi , atelestoi or insepulti , deceased people who lacked a burial or who

had not received the appropriate funerary rituals. Due to this they were forced to roam erratically,trapped on this side of the river Styx between the world of the living and the Hades, awaiting to be

buried, or for the normal duration of an existence imposed by Fate to elapse, or for one hundred yearsto pass -centum errant annos (Virg. Aen., 6.329), a period considered as the maximum duration of ahuman life-, after which they were allowed access to the Otherworld11. These dead could appear tothe living to demand a suitable funeral, as narrated by Pliny the Younger, Ep. 7. 27. 4-11, and Lucian.,

Philops., 30-31, in their stories of haunted houses where the spirits of the unburied dead used toterrify successive dwellers overnight until their bones were exhumed and properly interred; then thedead could rest, and the house was freed from their supernatural presence12.

1.1.2. The Premature Dead: the aōroi

Another group of potentially dangerous dead was formed by theaōroi , those who had a prematuredeath, mors immatura, mors cruda. This category comprises stillborns, perinatal death and infants(gs. 8-9 and 26), but also all those who died at a young age, before due time (mors ante diem fatalem),including youths deceased before marriage (agamoi, innupti) and women who died in childbirth13.Ancient literary sources attest to the existence of a specic funerary ritual – the funus acerbum-

10 Cf., amongst others, F. CUMONT, After Life in Paganism, New Haven 1922, 64-69, 128-147. A.D. NOCK , Tertullian and theahori, in: Id., Essays on religion and the Ancient World. II , Oxford 1972, 712-719. J. BREMMER , The early greek concept of the soul , Princeton 1982, 70-124 (especially 83-108). A. NOVARA, Les imagines de l’Élysée virgilien, in: F. Hinard (ed.), La

mort, les morts et l’au-delà, Caen 1987, 321-349. S.I. JOHNSTON, Restless dead…, 1999, 127-199. E. JOBBÉ-DUVAL, Les mortsmalfaisants…, 2000, 37-107. D. OGDEN, Greek and Roman…, 2001, 225-230. ID., Magic, withcraft…, 2002, 146-178.11 On the hundred-year wait, cf. S. R EINACH,Awroi biawq anatoi, Archiv für Religionswissenschraft , 9, 1906, 315. J. VTERVRUGT-LENTZ, Mors immatura, Groningen 1960, 70-71, 75-76, 80. A.D. NOCK , Tertullian…, 1972, 712. I. R AWSON, Children and Childhood in Roman Italy, Oxford 2003, 358. Cf. also A.M. DI NOLA, La negra señora..., 2006, 160-164. On the insepulti, cf.E. JOBBÉ-DUVAL, Les morts malfaisants…, 2000, 60-68. J.G. FR AZER , The fear of the dead…, III, 2003, 260-283.12 On these and other ancient literary testimonies of “haunted houses” and ghostly apparitions of unburied or dead personswho did not receive a proper funeral, cf. A. STRAMAGLIA, Res inauditae…, 1999, 119-183. D. FELTON, Haunted Greece…,2000, 38-97. D. OGDEN, Magic, witchcraft…, 2002, 154-161.13 Cf. J. VTERVRUGT-LENTZ, Mors immatura, 1960. J. BREMMER , The early greek…, 1982, 96-99. J.P. NÉRAUDAU, La loi, lacoutume et le chagrin. Réexions sur la mort des enfants, in : F. Hinard (ed.), La mort, les morts…, 1987, 195-208. L.MONTANINI, Nascita e morte del bambino, in: N. Critini (coord.), Gli affani del vivere e del morire. Sciavi, soldati, donne,

bambini nella Roma Imperiale, Brescia 1991, 89-107. S.I. JOHNSTON, Restless dead…, 1999, 161-202. E. JOBBÉ-DUVAL,

Les morts malfaisants…, 2000, 68-73. S. MARTIN-K ILCHER , Mors immatura in the Roman World – a mirror of society and



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tradition, in: J. Pearce, M. Millett and M. Struck (eds.), Burial, society and context in the Roman World , Oxford 2000,63-77. N. BAILLS, Statut et place de l’enfant dans la société romaine, in: D. Gourevitch, A. Moirin and N. Rouquet (dirs.), Maternité et petite enfance dans l’Antiquité romaine, Bourges 2003, 85-89. I. R AWSON, Children and childhood…, 2003,336-363. V. DASEN (ED.), Naissance et petite enfance dans l’Antiquité, Fribourg 2004. M. CARROLL, Spirits of the Dead.

Roman Funerary Commemoration in Western Europe, Oxford 2006, 168-175.

Figure 8.- The infant grave nº 40 in the

Gallo-Roman cemetery of “La Calade”,

in Cabasse (Var), shows a singular magic-

ritual layout of the nails, which were

intentionally placed around the grave-

goods and the child’s skull and transxing

several pottery objects. G. BÉRARD 1963.

Figure 9.- The 2-3 year-old infant buried

in the grave IB36 of the children’s

necropolis in Poggio Gramignano, in

Lugnano in Teverina (Italy), has a

stone placed in each hand and a hefty tegula on his feet. D. SOREN and

N. SOREN 1999, g. 251.

Figure 26.- An infant chalk burial in the Eastern roman

cemetery of London. B. BARBER and D. BOWSHER 2000



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destined to these aōroi, and the archaeologicalregister also reveals the celebration of special ritual practices linked to child burials

– as happens in the Roman necropolis of “LaCalade” (Cabasse, Var) (g. 9), Sucidava

(Rumania), Auvergne, Argentomagus (Saint-Marcel, Indres), Colonia Patricia Corduba (Córdoba), Poggio Gramignano (Lugnano inTeverina) (g. 10), amongst other examples-,which have been unanimously interpreted asrituals destined to appeasing and/or repellingthese premature dead14. The harmful potentialof these animas immaturas et innuptas et proconditione aetatis puras et inocuas, as dened

by Tert. De anim., 56. 8, can also be noted ina monumental inscription from Puteoli, dated

to the rst half of the 1st century B.C., where itis ordered that these dead have priority when

buried, which, according to I. Rawson, impliesa special fear of the contamination from thesedead and the physical and religious harm thatthey may cause to the community if their burialwas not carried out promptly and with dueattention15. In this sense, Anthropology offersvarious examples which show a general belief in the malign potential of the premature deadand the need to perform special funerary ritualsin order to neutralise it16.

Figure 10.- Carving of a fossor or grave-

digger and a corpse wrapped in a shroud

in the Christian catacomb of Commodilla,

in Rome. M. CARROLL 2006, g. 76.

1.1.3. The Bad Dead: the biaiothanatoi.

A different category of potentially restless dead was that of the biaiothanatoi , those who hadsuffered a “bad death”, a violent death. This category comprises those who committed suicide, the

14 Cf., respectively, P. BOYANCÉ, Funus acerbum, Revue de Études Anciennes, 54, 1952, 275-289. G. BÉRARD, La nécropolegallo-romaine de la Calade, à Cabasse (Var). Deuxième campagne de fouilles, Gallia, 21, 1963, 297-306. N. HAMPARTUMIAN,Child-burials and Superstition in the Roman Cemetery of Sucidava (Dacia), in: M.B. de Boer and T.A. Edridge (eds.),

Hommages à Maarten J. Vermaseren. I , Leiden 1978, 473-477. C. MONDANEL AND D. MONDANEL, Sépultures et nécropoles gallo-romaines en Auvergne, s.l. 1988, 98-100. J. ALLAIN, I. FAUDUET AND M. TUFFREAU-LIBRE, La nécropole gallo-romaine duChamp de l’Image à Argentomagus (Saint-Marcel, Indre), Saint-Marcel 1992, 128-129. D. VAQUERIZO, Immaturi et innupti.Terracotas guradas en ambiente funerario de Corduba, Colonia Patricia, Barcelona 2004, 169-199. D. SOREN AND N. SOREN (EDS.), A Roman villa and a late Roman Infant Cemetery. Excavation at Poggio Gramignano, Lugnano in Teverina, Roma1999, 461-652. F. LAUBENHEIMER , La mort des touts petits dans l’Occident romain, in V. Dasen (ed.), Naissance et petite…,2004, 302-303. S. ALFAYÉ, Nails for the Dead: a polysemic account of an ancient funerary practice, in: R. Gordon, F. Marcoand H. Versnel (eds.), Magical practices in the Latin-Speaking Empire (Late Republic-Late Antiquity), Leiden, forthcoming.15 On the law from Puteoli, cf. NÉRAUDAU, La loi, la coutume…, 1987, 195-208. J.C. DUMONT, L’enlèvement du cadavre,in: F. Hinard (ed.), La mort au quotidien…, 1995, 181-187. I. R AWSON, The express route to Hades, in: P. McKechnie (ed.),Thinking like a lawyer , Leiden 2002, 271-288.16 Cf. J. SIMPSON, The Folklore of Infant Deaths: burials, ghosts and changelings, in: G. Avery and K. Reynolds (eds.), Representationsof Childhood Death, London 2000, 11-28. J.G. FRAZER , The fear of the dead…, vol. III, 2003, 175-199 (for women who died in

childbirth); and 235-260 (for children and young single people). A.M. DI NOLA, La negra señora…, 2006, 160-167, 241-245.



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executed, the murdered and the fallen in battle, and those who died by accident, of plague or terribledisease (morbus indignus)17. In Greek-Roman literature we know of references to the apparition of spirits of the murdered, who interfere in the world of the living to terrify their murderers or to demandtheir arrest. Thus, for example, Liv., Ab urb., 3. 58. 11, recounts that the spirit of murdered Virginiawas wandering from house to house until she managed to obtain justice. Suet., Nero, 34, tells that

Nero, terried by the apparitions of his mother Agripina -murdered in the year 59 AD by his order-, and probably also due to his own remorse, hired magicians to perform magic rituals to put an end to such anuncomfortable and disquieting presence, although he does not detail what the rituals consisted of. AlsoSuet., Calig., 59. 2-3, informs us that the spirit of this murdered emperor appeared around the horti

Lamiani until his sister disinterred the corpse, cremated it and performed the suitable funeral rites18.

As regards suicide victims, we know of the funerary regulations for various Roman cities – such as those by Horatius Balbus for the city of Sarsinia (CIL XI 6528), dated to the 1st century BC- which forbid their burial in the communal necropolis, a restriction which was particularly severe for those who chose to put an end to their own life by hanging themselves19.

We know that in the Greek world there were different ways of disposing of the remainsof criminals. In Athens, the bodies of those who were contaminated by certain crimes – such as

parricide- were deposited at crossroads and lapidated there, and they were then left unburied outsidethe limits of the community (Plato, Lg . 873b-c)-20. In that city, the bodies of criminals who diedin captivity or were executed could be given to their families or thrown into the infamous pit of

Barathron; in Sparta, prisoners of war and criminals convicted by the city were thrown into thecavern of Kaiadas. In the Roman world, from the Augustean period onwards, relatives could burythose who were executed, although their burial could also be arranged by the relevant authority21.

As regards soldiers fallen on the battleeld, it may be pointed out that in their death a series of unfortunate events come together, since it is a premature death (ante diem), a violent death, and also theylack a burial, which unquestionably turned them into potential wandering souls, as narrated by storiesabout armies of ghosts and apparitions of spectral ghters studied by A. Stramaglia and D. Ogden 22.

1.1.4. The Deviant Dead

Besides, in the Ancient world the persons who were distinguished in life by their social

deviancy –either due to their social origin or to the infamous nature of their profession -, werealso stigmatised on their death and received different funerary treatment from the standard, which

17 Cf., amongst others, A. GUNNELLA, Morti improvvise e violente nelle iscrizioni latine, in: F. Hinard, (ed.), La mort au

quotidien…, 1995, 9-23. S.I. JOHNSTON, Restless dead…, 1999, 127-160. E. JOBBÉ-DUVAL, Les morts malfaisants…, 2000,87-90. D. OGDEN, Greek and roman…, 2001, 233-236. ID., Magic, withcraft…, 2002, 149-151. J.G. FRAZER , The fear of the

dead…, vol. III, 2003, 103-175. A.M. DI NOLA, La negra señora…, 2006, 167-196.18 A. STRAMAGLIA, Res inauditae…, 1999, 176-179. D. FELTON, Haunted Greece…, 2000, 8-12. D. OGDEN, Greek and Roman…,2001, 233-236. ID., Magic, witchcraft…, 2002, 166. M. R EQUENA, Nerón y los manes de Agripina, Historiae, 3, 2006, 83-108.19 Cf. P. DESIDERI, Il trattamento del corpo dei suicidi, in: F. Hinard, (ed.), La mort au quotidien…, 1995, 189-204. E. JOBBÉ-DUVAL, Les morts malfaisants…, 2000, 82-87. V.M. HOPE, Contempt and respect…, 2000, 118-120.20 R. PARKER , Miasma: pollution and purication in Early Greek Religion, Oxford 1983, 30-31. S.I. JOHNSTON, Crossroads, ZPE , 88, 1991, 217-224.21 Cf. P. DUCREY, Le traitement des prisonniers de guerre dans la Grèce antique des origines à la conquête romaine, Paris 1999,201-215. L. M. LITTLE AND J.K. PAPADOPOULOS, A social outcast in Early Iron Age Athens, Hesperia, 76. 4, 1998, 393-394. F.P.R ETIEF AND L. CILLIERS, Health and healing, disease and death in the Graeco-Roman world , Bloemfontein 2005, 142-143.22 A. STRAMAGLIA, Res inauditae…, 1999, 339-435. D. OGDEN, Greek and roman…, 2001, 12-16. ID., Magic,

witchcraft…, 2002, 151-152.



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perpetuated their social marginalisation. Thus, there were a series of funerary taboos regardinggladiators and undertakers (g. 11), undoubtedly caused by their habitual contact with blood anddeath and by the contamination caused by it; and also, in the case of gladiators, by the violent contextof their demise23. For example, in the abovementioned inscription from Sarsinia, where Horatius

Balbus donates cemetery plots to the inhabitants of the city (CIL IX 6528), the auctorati (contract

gladiators) are denied burial. As V.M. Hope has analysed, the business of other professionals – suchas prostitutes, actors, pimps, magicians, etc. - also involved infamia, which implied legal and socialdisadvantages, amongst which could be included denial of a burial or their interment in differentzones from the rest of the community –at the outskirts of the communal cemetery, at the boundariesof the settlement, at the crossroads, etc.-, a marginal location of the graves which topographicallyvisualized after death the social segregation of these deviants during their lifes.

It is also possible that individuals with a physical malformation or mental disease equallydeserved a different funerary ritual and/or a segregated position of their graves given that they werealso socially stigmatised.24 Thus, denial of burial to these individuals prevented them from having fullaccess to the community of the dead, which paralleled in the Otherworld the position they had had in

life: always on the margins of society while alive, they continued outside it once they were dead.

For those who were buried following a funerary ritual different from the standard, their tombs went on to exhibit signs of their misfortune, ignominy and social exclusion, since their identity in life dened their otherworldly identity: a deviant burial for a deviant dead25. Therefore, itis hardly surprising that there was a fear that this type of dead person could reappear after their deathas vengeful larvae or lemures wishing to perturb the living.

Figure 11.- A 3rd century lead gurine from Athens identied as a “voodoo doll” showing

several magical practices of immobilisation: decapitation, hands tied behind the back,

twisted feet, and stomach and heart pierced by a nail. C. FARAONE 1999, g. 7.

23 On these professions and the resulting contamination due to their contact with death, cf. J. BODEL, Dealing with the dead:undertakers, executioners and potter’s elds in ancient Rome, in: V. Hope and E. Marshall (eds.), Death and disease…,2000. 128-151. H. LINDSAY, Death-pollution and funerals in the city of Rome, in: V. Hope and E. Marshall (eds.), Death

and disease…, 2000, 152-173.24 On the relationship between physical disability, mental disease and social marginalisation in the Ancient World, cf. R.GARLAND, The eye of the beholder. Deformity and disability in the Graeco-Roman world , London 1995. L.M. LITTLE AND

K.J. PAPADOPOULOS, A social outcast…, 1998, 375-404. T. MOLLESON, Archaeological Evidence for Attitudes to disability



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1.2. On the survival of the dead

These categories of restless dead demonstrate that, despite sceptical reections-such as thatof Lucr., De rer. nat. 3. 879-891, who denies that the spirit may survive death-, in the Ancient Worldthere does seem to be a popular belief that, somehow, the deceased continued their existence in the

Afterlife, miserable as it may have been, and not quite like the full existence enjoyed in life. As pointed out by V.M. Hope, “the extent to which people actually believed in ghosts, spirits and theexistence of an afterlife is unclear, but tales that told of the discontented dead reinforced the idea thatthe corpse should be treated with respect”26. Although the purpose of this article is not to dwell onscatological disquisitions, which have been extensively studied by researchers such as F. Cumont 27,I would like to point out that the idea of permanence of the deceased was linked to the perception of the tomb as the dwelling, the resting place of the essence of the dead – metaphorically called domus

aeterna (CIL II 6435), sedes quieta-, and, of course, also as his memoria and his memorial28. The belief in the permanence of the spirit of the dead in the tomb is perceived in the practices of magicaloperations developed around the burial and the corpse: depositing tabellae dexionum and magicaldolls inside tombs and in cemeteries, manipulation of the remains for magical purposes, necromancy,

etc. Furthermore, we know that a specic type of dead were considered particularly suitable for magical manipulation: those who had died recently, especially if their death had been violent or

premature, as stated by Lucan., Phar., 6. 712, when describing how a magician uses a man, whosethroat had been recently cut and was not yet used to darkness, as an involuntary assistant 29.

Likewise, numerous funerary epigrams show various utterances that imply a belief that theexistence of the dead person, somehow, continues in the tomb. That survival of the spirit of the deceasedafter death and the consideration of the tomb as a place of permanence of their essence, mean that, in acertain way, the dead could continue to feel and, therefore, notice the weight of the earth, a thought thatimmediately provokes a sensation of discomfort amongst the living in the face of the possibility thattheir dead could feel oppressed or crushed by the earth deposited on top of them. The expression sit tibiterra levis becomes thus an act of pietas, and although it is documented for the rst time by Euripides,

in the Past, Archaeological Review from Cambridg e, 15. 2, 1999, 69-77. J. HUBERT (ED.), Madness, disability and social

exclusion. The archaeology and anthropology of “difference”, London- New York 2000. M. PARKER PEARSON, The

archaeology of death and burial , Stroud 2003, 67-71. Cf. several archaeological examples of deviant burials of physicallydisabled individuals in the 8th-11th century Britain in D.M. HADLEY AND J. BUCKBERRY, Caring for the dead in Late Anglo-Saxon England, in: Pastoral care in Late Anglo-Saxon England. Anglo Saxon Studies 6 , Woodbridge 2005, 145-146.25 Cf. V.M. HOPE, Contempt and respect …, 2000, 116-120. M. BALTER , “Deviant” burials reveal death on the fringe inAncient societies, Science Magazine, 310. 28, 2005, 613.26 V.M. HOPE, Contempt and respect …, 2000, 106 y 122.27 F. CUMONT, After Life…, 1922. ID., Recherches sur le symbolisme funéraire des Romans, Paris 1942. X.F.M.G. WOLTERS, Notes on antique folklore. On the basis of Pliny´s N atural History. L. XXVIII. 22-29, Amsterdam 1935, 35-36. R. LATTIMORE,

Themes in Greek and Latin Epitaphs, Illinois 1942. J.M.C. TOYNBEE, Death and burial in the Roman World, Baltimore 1996,33-39. J. BREMMER , The early greek …, 1983, 70-124. E. JOBBÉ-DUVAL, Les morts malfaisants…, 2000, 21-35.28 F. CUMONT, Recherches…, 1942, 351 y ss. (esp. 373ss). On the euphemistic designations of death and its metaphoric uses,cf. J. URÍA VARELA, Tabú y eufemismo en latín. Amsterdam 1997, 203-333. Cf. also H. LAVAGNE, Le tombeau, mémoire dumort, in: F. Hinard (ed.), La mort, les morts et l’au-delà dans le monde romain, Caen 1987, 159-165. G. SANDERS, Lapides

Memores. Païens et chrétiens face à la mort : le témoignage de l’épigraphie funéraire latine, Bologna 1991.29 On the magic use of the dead, cf. J. VTERVRUGT-LENTZ, Mors immatura, 1960, 43-80. M. LE GLAY, La magia et la mort, in:F. Hinard (ed.), La mort, les morts…, 1985, 245-248. R. GARLAND, The Greek Way of Death, New York 1985, 77-88. A.M.TUPET, Rites magiques dans l’Antiquité romaine, ANRW , II, 16.3, Berlin-New York 1986, 2657-2668. C. FARAONE, Bindingand burying the forces of evil: the defensive use of “voodoo dolls” in Ancient Greece, Classical Antiquity, 10.2, 1991, 165-221. D. OGDEN, Binding Spells: Curse tablets and Voodoo dolls in the Greek and Roman Worlds, in: V. Flint et alii, Witchcraft and magic in Europe. Volume 2. Ancient Greece and Rome, London 1999, 15-23, 127-138. ID., Greek and Roman…, 2001(especially 225, n. 21). E. JOBBÉ-DUVAL, Les morts malfaisants…, 2000, 109-118. V.M. HOPE, Contempt and respect…, 2000,

120-122. F. GRAF, Malediction, in: VVAA, Thesaurus Cultus et Rituum Antiquorum. III , Los Angeles 2005, 269, g. 105.



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Alc., 463-464, its use is generalised in the High Empire period30. The inverse idea is also documentedin funerary epigraphs, where it is used as a curse from the dead aimed at deterring possible tombsviolators. Thus, in a Greek inscription in the city of Rome (CE 2170) it is desired that those who loot atomb nec superis comprobetur nec inferi recipiant et sit ei terra gravis (CIL VI.2, 7579)31.

2. MAGICAL-RITUAL PRACTICES AGAINST RESTLESS DEAD

Given that, except in the case of the insepulti or ataphoi, the burial in itself did not grantenough protection against the return of the spirit, the living could perform various magical-ritual

practices aimed at preventing potentially dangerous dead people from becoming restless dead 32. Inorder to neutralise the malign potential of the larvae and to seek protection against the disastrousconsequences of their presence in this world –such as madness, disease and death-, it was necessaryto create a prophylactic barrier through certain appeasement and aversion rituals, which would

protect the community from the return of a vindictive soul and which would, at the same time, grantrest and repose to the restless spirit, thus easing its integration into the Afterlife33.

We know of some of these practices thanks to ancient literary sources. Thus, for example, wehave already mentioned the festival of the Lemuria (Ov., Fast. 5. 419-492), celebrated in May in the

private sphere. But, above all, it is the X Declamatio Maior written by Pseudo-Quintilian in the 4thcentury AD, and titled De sepulchrum incantatum, the most comprehensive literary source availableon funerary magico-ritual practices performed against the restless dead 34. In this text is describedthe ghost-banning performed by a sorcerer on the cremated remains of an unmarried youth, who haddied of illness and who appeared to his mother every night to comfort her in her loss, talk to her andhug her. When the husband –and the father of the youth- becomes aware of these nightly visits hedecides to hire a magician so that he ensures, through the performance of an inverse necromancy -revocator animorum ( DM 10.16 and 19)- with which a “second death” is caused, that the young manis conned forever to the land of shadows. In the practices used by the Pseudo-Quintilian wizardwe can perceive a gradation in the violence exerted upon the remains of the dead depending on thereluctance of the ghost to leave this world ( DM 10.15). The magician starts off with the recitation of magical formulae (barbarum murmur , horridum carmen) ( DM 10.2, 7, 15 and 19) around the grave(circumdantur ), and when he veries that his ars contra naturam is not enough to neutralise the deadman, he goes on to the closure of the tomb with chains (catenae) ( DM 10.8 and 16), stones (lapis)( DM 10.8 and 15) and ferro magico, and nailing mucrones on the tomb and on the remains of the

30 Cf., for instance, Martial’s Ep. 5.34 dedicated to puella Erotion: “(…) Mollia non rigidus caespes tegat ossa nec illi,

terra, gravis fueris: non fuit illa tibi”. On the biography and the symbolic implications of the formula sit tibi terra levis,cf., amongst others, G. HARTKE, ´Sit tibi terra levis’ formulae quae fuerint fata, Bonn 1901. J.P. JACOBSEN, Les Manes.

Tome I. Les morts et la vie humaine , Paris 1924, 86-88. R. LATTIMORE, Themes…, 1942, 65-74. A.-M. VÉRILHAC, ΠΑΙΔΕΣ ΑΩΡΟΙM. Poésie funéraire. Tome Premier. Textes, Athens 1978, 68-70, 252-256. M. MASSANO, Epigraa metrica latina di

etá republicana, Bari 1992, 190-194.31 A. BRELICH, Aspetti della morte nelle iscrizioni sepolcrali, Budapest 1937, 12-13. Cf. also R. LATTIMORE, Themes…, 1942, 66.32 Cf. E. JOBBÉ-DUVAL, Les morts malfaisants…, 2000, 165-201.33 On the ambivalence of these practices, cf. J.C. LAWSON, Modern Greek Folklore and Ancient Greek Religion. A study in

survivals, Cambridge 1910, 410-412, 504-506. A.M. DI NOLA, La muerte derrotada…, 2007, 280-286.34 On this work, cf. R. ELLIS (TRAD.), The Tenth Declamation of (Pseudo) Quintilian. Oxford 1911. L. HÅKANSON (ED.),

Declamationes XIX Maiores Quintiliano Falso Ascriptae, Stuttgart 1982, 199-219. H. WAGENVOORT, Sepulcrum incantatum, Mnemosyne, 55, 1927, 425-448. A. STRAMAGLIA, Res inauditae…, 1999, 293-299, 308-323. C. SCHNEIDER , Quelquesréexions sur la date de publication des Grandes déclamations pseudo-quintiliennes, Latomus, 59, 2000, 614-632. D. OGDEN,Greek and roman…, 2001, 6-7, 178-180. ID., Magic, witchcraft…, 2002, 164-166. C. SCHNEIDER AND C. URLACHER , Rationnelet irrationnel dans le “Sepulcrum incantatum” du Pseudo-Quintilien. Les enjeux d’une dialectique, in: O. Bianchi and O.

Thévenaz (eds.), Mirabilia. Conceptions et représentations de l’extraordinaire dans le monde antique, Bern 2004, 99-113.



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dead ( DM 10.8, 16 and 19) until he nally manages to denitively conne the ghost of the young man( DM 10.15)35. As D. Ogden points out, “the means by which the ghost is bound into its grave is not

entirely clear: there is one reference to the use of stones, another to the use of bars, numerous ones to

the use of iron bands or chains, apparently knotted, and one reference, apparently, to swords being

driven down into the grave, no doubt to pin the ghost down into it (compare the pinning of voodoo

dolls and curse tablets)”36

. Although the Pseudo-Quintilian magician uses his skills a posteriori, once the restless dead

has appeared to his relatives, it is possible that some of the measures used by him may have beenused as a prevention at the time of the burial to avoid undesired “returns”. In any event, as pointedout by D. Ogden, all these magical actions aimed at pinning both physically and symbolically theremains of the dead in his grave –either the ashes or the corpse-, show interesting similarities to the

practices of immobilisation documented by “voodoo dolls” (g. 11), tabellae dexionum and ancientmagic papyri with which them are also intended to tie, reduce and constrain the victim following the

principle of similia similibus37.

The information reported by Pseudo-Quintilian is complemented by the data supplied byother literary sources, and it becomes the literary correlative – and the framework for interpretation-of the unusual practices of immobilization of the corpse attested to in the archaeological record –andmentioned at the beginning of this article (gs. 1-6). Due to this, I believe it is interesting to studythem altogether, with the help of anthropological parallels, which when used with due caution, mayhelp us to understand the symbolical, social and emotional dimensions of these ancient magic-ritual

practices aimed at neutralising the restless dead .

2.1. Sit tibi terra… ¡gravis!

As the Pseudo-Quintilian’s text asserts ( DM 10.8, 10, 15-16 and 18), amongst the methodsused by the magician to denitively pin the ghost of the young man to his sepulchre the placingof big stones over his grave is included, aimed at creating an impassable physical barrier betweenhim and the world of the living, impeding thus his escape from the tomb (g. 12). This ritual of

35 This brings to mind the medieval Jewish formula for conning the dead collected by J. TRACHTENBERG, Jewish magical

and superstition. A study in folk religion, Cleveland- New York- Philadelphia 1961, 66: “Your body must lie in its grave

until Resurrection, your soul must rest in that place where it belongs. I command this upon you with a curse and with an

act, now and forever ”. On this formula, cf. also E. GOUREVITCH, Corps et âme face à la morte, in: D. Tollet (ed.), La mort et

ses représentations dans le monde judaïsme, Paris 2000, 75.36 D. OGDEN, Magic, witchcraft…, 2002, 164-166.37

Cf. C. FARAONE

, Binding and burying…, 1991, 165-221. D. OGDEN

, Binding spells…, 1999, 71-79.

Figure 12.- A modern caricature of ancient rituals of immobilization:

a man weights down his mother-in-law’s tomb to avoid her unwished

return to the world of the living. A. Forges, Historias de aquí , Barcelona 1980.



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immobilisation of the corpse must not be confused with the external marking of the tomb or withthe desire to “armour” the tomb in order to protect it from violators, since, as E.W. Black points out,“the whole procedure looks not so much like protecting the dead as conning the dead to their proper resting-place until the time came for the journey from the grave into the other-world”38. Actually, the

placing of stones over the corpse is widely documented in Medieval and Modern European ghostly

literature as an efcient method of prevention/neutralisation of revenants39

.

Besides, this practice –which is but the practical materialisation of the curse sit tibi terra

gravis 40- is extensively documented in the archaeological record (gs. 4-6,13-15 and 27), althoughto date it has not been systematically studied as regards ancient necropolis.

38 E. W. BLACK , Romano-British burial customs and religious beliefs in South-East England, Archaeological Journal , 143,1986, 227.39 Cf. P. BARBER , Vampires, burial and death. Folkore and Reality, New Haven-London 1988, 78-79, n. 72. N. CACIOLA,Wraiths, Revenants and Ritual in Medieval Culture, Past and Present , 152, 1996, 20.40 Thus suggested by J.G. FRAZER , On certain burial customs as illustrative of the primitive theory of the soul, Journal of

the Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland , 15, 1886, 65, who provides various anthropological examples.According to J. MACDONALD, Pagan religions and burial practices in Roman Britain, in: R. Reece (ed.), Burial in the Roman

world , Oxford 1977, 36, “one of the reasons for Roman care in burial was fear of ghosts: a man without the minimum

covering of earth at burial could haunt”, an idea which we also nd in the Pseudo-Quintilian’s text DM 10.7.

Figure 4.- Grave nº 3 of the ancient inhumation

cemetery in Aguilar de Anguita (Guadalajara),

which was discovered and excavated by E.

AGUILERA YGAMBOA. The skeleton had his/her

head weighted-down by a huge rock. Photo

from the “Archivo fotográco Juan Cabré”,Instituto de Patrimonio Histórico Español

(I.P.H.E.), nº inv. 3932.

Figure 6.- Inhumation tomb of the 7th century

Merovingian necropolis in Audun-le-Tiche

(Moselle) showing several practices of

immobilisation of the corpse. The head of

the skeleton was placed in an anatomically

incorrect position, a huge block was placed onhis/her knees and smaller stones were collocated

over his/her feet. A. SIMMER 1988, 145-147.



193

Figure 5.- The 25-45 years-old woman of the grave B459 of the cemetery of the East of

Londinium was buried face down, with two stones over her lumbar region and another block

on the top of the grave. B. BARBER and D. BOWSHER 2000, g. 114.

Figure 13. Grave with the skeleton of an adult whose head was crushed by three big stones, in

the Roman necropolis of Baelo Claudia, in Bolonia (Cádiz). P. Paris et alii 1926, 90-91, g. 57.



194

Thus, amongst other examples, I would like to mention the skeleton of an adult whose head

was crushed by three big stones (g. 13) found in Baelo Claudia (Cádiz). Its location in an area of thenecropolis where other skeletons with physical signs of execution were found led G. Bonsor to identifythis corpse as that of a criminal, although this exegesis is questioned by P. Paris41. Another example of deliberate crushing appears in tomb 6 of the “Necrópolis Ballesta” in Ampurias (Gerona) –used from

41 P. PARIS, G. BONSOR , A. LAUMONIER , R. R ICARD AND C. MERGELINA, Fouilles de Belo (Bolonia, province de Cadix), 1917-

1921. Tome II. La nécropole, Paris 1926, 90-91.

Figure 14.- The bizarre arrangement of thechalk burial B7333 in the Eastern cemetery

of Londinium: a great number of rough

stones were collocated on the grave of a

decapitated woman, who had her skull

deliberately collocated over the pelvic

cavity. On her cofn, in the place where the

head should have been, a ceramic recipient

containing a key was deliberately placed,

and the casket and the pottery were covered

by a large amount of stones. B. BARBER

and D. BOWSHER 2000, 134-135.

Figure 15.- Tomb of the ancient cemetery of

Pithekoussai (Ischia) showing larges stones

placed on the head, stomach and feet of

the skeleton. G. BUCHNER and D. R IDGWAY

1993, g. 64.



195

the 1st century BC to the 2nd century AD-, wherethe skeleton had a great square block xed withmortar on its chest42. And also in Hispania, inthe grave A19 of the 4th century AD cemeteryof “Bodegones de los Murcianos”, in Emerita

Augusta (Badajoz), a medium-size pebblewas placed on the knees and legs of the childinterred there. However, I would like to pointout that J. Márquez does not interpret the

presence of the stone in this tomb as a magicalmeasure to prevent him from haunting theliving, but as a way to keep the infant corpsein a supine position: “los individuos menoresde tres meses no tienen aún tono muscular enel cuello para poder mantener las piernas ylos brazos estirados, y la posición natural es

la fetal, así en algunos casos como la A19 se fuerza la posición de las piernas colocandocantos rodados sobre las rodillas”43.

In the Roman grave 104 of the necropolisof Pithekoussai (Ischia), a pile of stones 75 cmhigh was placed over the legs of the corpse butthe rest of the body was not covered with anyform of protection; and in the grave 129 of thesame cemetery –dating from the 5th centuryBC-, two large stones were arranged over the chest and the femur of the young woman

buried there. According to G. Buchner and D.Ridgway, in both cases the intention was to

Figure 27.- Tomb 120 of the 7th century

Merovingian necropolis of Audun-le-Tiche.

The 3-4 year-old child buried in this grave

has his skull pierced by a nail and his femurs

weighted-down by a large stone slab. This

infant was buried reusing the tomb of an

adult whose legs were also immobilisedwith a stone. A. SIMMER 1998, 142.

magically immobilise the dead by placing stones over their corpses, thus preventing them returning anddisturbing the living. These researchers suggest that this explanation could also be applied to the roughstones placed on cofns in tombs of interment in the 8 th and 7th centuries BC in the same cemetery44. Asimilar exegesis is provided by M. Petit as regards the large stones placed on some cofns in the Romancemetery in Lutecia (Paris)45. Also J. Davies and R. Hachlili suggest that the arrangement of a stoneof 25x14 cm on the stomach of the young man buried in the necropolis of Ramot (Jerusalem) could beone of the protective measures “to keep the dead in place” documented in Hellenistic Jewish studies,

amongst which are the engraving of keys and locks on tombs, the tying of cofns to pin down hostile powers, and the intentional placing of nails on the graves. However, these researchers do not deny thatthe crushing of the corpse of Ramot may have had Jewish punitive or penitential purposes46.

42 M. ALMAGRO BASCH, Las necrópolis de Ampurias. II , Madrid 1955, 22, 90. The skeleton, whose head was pointing south,was accompanied by a conical lid deposited next to the skull.43 J. MÁRQUEZ, Enterramientos infantiles. Restos arqueológicos exhumados en un solar de la zona conocida como los bodegones murcianos, Mérida Excavaciones Arqueológicas. Memoria 6 , 2000, 64-65, 69, lám. 4.44 BUCHNER AND D. R IDGWAY, Pithekoussai. I. La necropolis: tombe 1-723 scavate dal 1952 al 1961, Roma 1993, 123, 140-141. The individual of tomb 104 was buried along with an unguentary, a lamp and a brass nail.45 M. PETIT, Les nécropoles de Lutèce, in: VVAA, Lutèce : Paris de César à Clovis, Paris 1984, 348.46 J. DAVIES, Death, burial and rebirth in the Religions of Antiquity, New York 1999, 82-83. R. HACHLILI, Jewish funerary

customs, practices and rites in the Second Temple Period , Leiden-Boston 2005, 486. In a tomb of the medieval Jewish



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The British Isles also provide numerous examples of connement of corpses with piles of stones47. For example, in the Roman cemetery in East London, mainly used during the 3 rd and 4th centuries AD, a great number of rough stones were arranged on the grave of the decapitated body B733,amongst which a key was deliberately placed, an object which, according to B. Barber and D. Bowsher,symbolically strengthens the objective of conning the dead (gs. 2 and 14). In the same necropolis,

two large stones were thrown onto the back of the corpse interred in prone position B459 (g. 5); andthe individual who was buried face down in the Roman cemetery of Arlington Avenue (Dorchester)appeared weighted down by a pile of stones48. In tombs VI, X, XVII and XVIII of the Gallic-Romannecropolis of “Gratte Dos” (Côte-d’Or), stones were placed on the knees, head, stomach and limbs of the buried bodies; such practices are seen by R. Ratel as rituals of immobilisation of the skeletons49.

Figure 2.- Chalk burial B7333 in the Eastern cemetery of Londinium. The woman

buried in this grave was probably decapitated and she had her skull intentionallyplaced over her pelvic cavity. B. Barber and D. Bowsher 2000, g. 109.

A similar layout is documented in numerous burials of the abovementioned necropolis of Pithekoussai, presenting a large stone on the head, stomach and feet of the skeleton (g. 15). However,the fact that the number of tombs with stones placed in this form is so high makes us wonder whether their placing was due to a form of covering the graves typical of this area, or whether it was indeeda magical-ritual practice of a preventive nature intended at pinning the dead, which for reasons notclaried yet would be extraordinarily generalised and well documented in that cemetery50. In this

cemetery of Teruel a similar practice was also detected, since the skeleton had a large stone on the abdomen, although anexplanation for this nding has not been provided; cf. F. CANTERA, Cementerios hebreos en España, Sefarad , 13, 1953,366. Regarding the funerary magic practices intended at symbolically conning the dead identied by R. Hachlili in theHellenistic Jewish context, I would not like to omit that in some Polish Jewish tombs of the Modern Age padlocks and lockswere included in the tomb with an identical purpose, as studied by P. FIJALKOWSKI, Les cérémonies d’enterrément des juifsde Pologne, in: D. Mollet, La mort et ses représentations…, 2000, 342.47 Cf. E. W. BLACK , Romano-British burial…, 1986, 225-227.48 Cf. B. BARBER AND D. BOWSHER , The Eastern Cemetery of Roman London. Excavations 1983-1990 , London 2000, 99,134-135, 230, 317, 320, g. 109 (tomb B733); and 87, 323-324, g. 114 (tomb B459). Regarding the burial in ArlingtonAvenue, cf. R. PHILPOTT, Burial practices in Roman Britain. A survey of grave treatment and furnishing. A.D. 32-410,Oxford 1991, 72, 77.49 R. R ATEL, La nécropole gallo-romaine de « Gratte Dos », Commune de Meuilley, Côte-d’Or, Revue Archéologique

del’Est et du Centre-Est , 28, 1977, 92-93, 96.50

G. BUCHNER Y D. R IDGWAY, Pithekoussai…, 1993, 123, 140-141.



197

sense, it may not be incidental that most of these burials correspond to infants or young teenagers,whose deaths may be classed as immaturae and who were accompanied by abundant grave goods, soit is not preposterous to think that the stones were deliberately placed to magically constrain a typeof potentially dangerous dead person in their tomb, the aōroi. In fact, although of later chronologyand different cultural context, I would like to point out that A. Simmer and R. Perrot link the burials

of women and children of the Merovingian necropolis in Audun-le-Tiche and Roanne (Loire) – 6th

to7th centuries AD - whose limbs and/or heads are crushed by great stones (gs. 6 and 27), to a ritualof immobilisation of the dead51. Likewise, regarding the 2-3 year-old infant buried in the children’scemetery of the 5th century AD in Poggio Gramignano (Lugnano in Teverina) a stone was placedin each hand and a hefty tegula on the feet (g. 9), a ritual which, according to D. Soren and N.Soren, may have been caused by the fear of his ghost being used in necromantic practices or else

by the wish to prevent him from rising after dying. To these explanations –which do not necessarilyexclude each other-, another one could be added since, in my opinion, we must not rule out thatthis crushing, performed only on the eldest of all the children buried there, may have been done tomagically contribute to stopping the epidemics of malaria that swept this rural community, since inthat cemetery other evidence of magical practices connected with buried infants has been found – all

of them died because of this disease- and such rituals were aimed at appeasing them or repelling their potential pernicious inuence over the living52.

We may wonder who placed the stones and when on the corpse or the grave in theaforementioned instances. In some cases, the placing of the rough stones seems to have been doneat the time of the burial, so it may have been the relatives or the undertakers (g. 10) –perhaps atthe specic orders of the family- who carried out the immobilisation of the cadaver. However, inother cases, as narrated by the Pseudo-Quintilian’s text, the constraint of the deceased with stonesmay have been done a posteriori, after the dead had shown their presence in the sphere of the living.

Nonetheless, as pointed out by H. Williams, it seems that although the placing of stones correspondsto a wish to physically constrict the dead in their graves, the inclusion of grave goods in many of these tombs and their location in communal necropolis show that these individuals maintained therespect and support of the community, so that these “weighted-down burials”, which materialise theformula sit tibi terra gravis, may be part of socially accepted strategies of disposing of the dead53.

2.2. Magic iron bindings

Besides the placing of stones on the grave, Pseudo-Quintilian repeatedly narrates in his X Declamatio maior that the magician used various bindings of magic iron -like catenae or mucrones-,to prevent the restless soul of the youngster from escaping his grave ( DM 10.8, 16 and 19). The use of

ferro magico to conne this restless dead is not surprising since we know that in the Graeco-Roman

world it was believed that iron was a metal which repelled and could x down supernatural powers54

.

51 A. SIMMER , Le prélèvement des crânes dans l’Est de la France à l’époque mérovingienne, Archéologie Medievale, 12, 1982,43-44. ID., Le cimetiere merovingien d’Audun-le-Tiche (Moselle), Paris 1988, 145-147. R. PERROT, Note anthropologiquesur l’histoire medievale du departement de la Loire: la nécropole merovingienne de Roanne, Revue Archéologique de l’Est

et du Centre-Est , 25, 1974, 20.52 D. SOREN Y N. SOREN (EDS.), A Roman Villa…, 1999, 508, 518, 526-527, 631, g. 251, tomb IB 36.53 H. WILLIAMS, The emotive force of early medieval mortuary practices, Archaeological Review from Cambridge, 22.1, 2007,117-119, also provide an early medieval example - tomb 154 of the cemetery of West Heslerton (England)-, correspondingto the burial of a girl upon whom large blocks of stone were placed. Cf. other medieval (10th-11th century) instances of deliberate weighting-down of corpses in D.M. HADLEY AND J. BUCKBERRY, Caring for the dead…, 2005, 139-140, 145 -146.54 On the magical power of iron cf., amongst others, J. NEWTON, Iron in Antiquity, London 1926, 91-98. E. MASSONEAU, La

magie dans l’Antiquité romaine, Paris 1934, 115-116. F. LAUGHTON, Cato’s Charms for Dislocations,

The Classical Review,



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2.2.1. Catenae

The use of chains as a magical element for binding (degere) supernatural powers in the

ancient world is documented by numerous literary and iconographic sources55. An example is provided by a hexametric Greek inscription of the 1st century BC which describes how, following

the indications of the oracle of Apolo Clario, the inhabitants of Syedra pinned with “the iron chainsof Hermes” a statue of Ares, in the hope of thus putting an end to attacks from the pirates, whose protecting deity was Ares. According to C. Faraone, “the binding of Ares’ image is expected to persuade Ares and the pirates to be restrained in similar fashion”56.

However, in the funerary archaeological record the presence of chains intended at magicallyconstraining the dead has not been detected so far, since the burials of eight adults with chains foundin the Hellenistic Greek cemetery of Akanthos were identied as slaves, war prisoners or convicts57.And although it may be tempting to connect with the magical practices of the Pseudo-Quintilianwizard the cinerary urn surrounded by chains (g. 16) which was found at the beginning of the 20 th century in the Celtiberian-Roman cemetery of Luzaga (Guadalajara), its dubious chronology makes

us cautious regarding its interpretation58.

Figure 16.- Cinerary urn surrounded by a

chain which was found in the Celtiberian-

Roman necropolis of Luzaga (Guadalajara)

by E. Aguilera y Gamboa. Photo “Archivo

Fotográco J. Cabré”, I.P.H.E., nº inv. 1243.

2.2.2. Mucrones.

The prophylactic iron belt created by the Pseudo-Quintilian magician iscomplemented with the nailing of mucrones on the tomb and on the remains of thedeceased ( DM 10.8 and 16). There arediscrepancies about the exact identicationof what type(s) of sharp objects made of ferro

magico were used to pierce the grave and thedead. Thus, R. Ellis translates as “iron barsand clamps”, “solid fastening and chains of iron”, “enclosing bars”, and “iron spikes”59.To M. Cary and A.D. Nock those mucrones could be spears or staples equally used “to xthe emerging ghost or render it powerless”,whereas D. Ogden identies in the text “areference to swords being driven down into

52.2, 1938, 52-53, n. 1. R. MERRIFIELD, The Archaeology of Ritual and Magic, London 1987, 162-175. G. VELTRI, TheRabbis and Pliny the Elder: Jewish and Graeco-Roman Attitudes toward Magic and Empirical Knowledge, Poetics Today,19, 1, 1998, 74-75, 79-81. D. OGDEN, Greek and Roman…, 2001, 180.55 C. FARAONE, Binding and burying…, 1991, 197-198, n. 1. ID., Talisman and Trojan horses. Guardian statues in Ancient

Greek Myth and Ritual , New York-Oxford 1992, 136-140. S.I. JOHNSTON, Restless dead…, 1999, 59-60, 157-158. N. ICARD-GIANOLIO, Statues enchaînées, in: VVAA, Thesaurus Cultorum et Rituus Antiquorum, II, Los Angeles 2004, 468-471.56 C. FARAONE, Binding and burying…, 1991, 168-170.57 Cf. L.M. LITTLE Y J.K. PAPADOPOULOS, A social outcast …, 1998, 394.58 Vid. J. F. BLÁNQUEZ AND B. R ODRÍGUEZ, El arqueólogo Juan Cabré (1882-1947). La fotografía como técnica documental,

Madrid 2004, negative nº 1243 of the Photographic Archive of Juan Cabré, deposited at the Instituto de PatrimonioHistórico Español (Madrid).59 R. ELLIS, The Tenth Declamation…, 1911. K. HOPKINS, Death and Renewal , 1985, 235, n. 43; and D. FELTON, Haunted

Greece…, 2000, 5, 9, also translate “iron bars”.



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the grave, no doubt to pin the ghost down into it (compare the pinning of voodoo dolls and cursetablets)”60. In this sense, we have various funerary nds which provide evidence of the spearing of corpses in a funerary context, although most of them are dated to the Protohistoric period or to EarlyMedieval times. Thus, in the cemetery of the Second Iron Age of “Garton Station” (North Yorkshire),four corpses – accompanied by valuable grave goods- were speared when they had been deposited

in their tombs, act which according to I. Stead corresponds to a ritual killing aimed at preventingthese dead from returning to the world of the living61. Another example comes from the Merovingiannecropolis of Audun-le-Tiche (Moselle), dating from the 7th century AD, where the two teenagers

buried in tombs T145 and T178 were speared in their respective graves62. And in Dalstorp (Sweden),a woman was buried in the 10 th century AD with four spearheads and ten knives. According to T.Artelius, the inclusion of these objects in the funerary grave goods is part of a magical ritual intendedat xing a revenant , since in Scandinavian folklore it is believed that the inclusion of spears andknives in the grave prevents the dead from appearing63. Although none of these particular examplesare part of the Roman world, they are all rites of immobilisation of the spirit in the tomb aimed at

preventing them from disturbing the living and, for this reason, they could serve as an archaeologicalcorrelation to the Pseudo-Quintilian’s text.

2.3.- Nails for the dead

But, in my opinion we must also

consider the possibility that the sharp toolsused by the literary magician to x thedead could have been nails, objects whichin the ancient world had an unquestionableand extremely rich symbolic valence, as Ianalysed in a recent work 64. Actually, fromthe examination of the archaeological recordof several necropolis of the Occidental part of the Roman Empire, mostly dating from the 1st to 3rd centuries AD, it may be concluded thatthe use of the nail within the funerary contexttranscends its use as an element of assemblyfor cofns or stretchers and served as anamulet and/or magic obstacle. Although thisis not the purpose of this article, I would liketo point out that in those ancient cemeteriesthe existence of standardised funerary grave

goods is documented where the nail isincluded, frequently linked to coins (gs. 17-18)65. And also the deliberate inclusion of nails

60 M. CARY AND A.D. NOCK , Magical spears, The Classical Quaterly, 21.3/4, 1927, 27. D. OGDEN, Magic, witchcraft…,2002, 164-166. 61 I. STEAD, Garton Station, Current Anthropology, 103, 1987, 234-237.62 A. SIMMER , Le cimetiere merovingien..., 1988, 147.63 T. ARTELIUS, The revenant by the lake. Spear symbolism in Scandinavian Late Viking Age burial ritual, in: T. Artelius andD. Svanberg, Dealing with the Dead. Archaeological Perspectives on Prehistoric Scandinavian Burial Ritual , Ödeshög2005, 261-276.64

S. ALFAYÉ, Nails for the Dead…, forthcoming.

Figure 17.- Grave furniture of the tomb 7 in

Via Nomentana1119 (Rome): an olletta with

a lamp, two nails and a republican coininside. CECI 2001, g. 5.



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in cremation tombs is attested to, either inside objects of the grave goods or lamps or small vessels,or even thrust into the urn itself, where the size of the nail leaves no doubt as regards its deliberateinclusion (gs.17-18).

Moreover, we can detect in the ancient funerary record that, as happens in the abovementioned

Gallic-Roman necropolis of Argentomagus and “La Calade”, the singular distributions of nails are particularly linked to child burials (g. 8), that is, to premature death, an association which I denitelydo not believe to be accidental66. Likewise, a singular –and not accidental– layout of nails can benoted, both in tombs of inhumation and of cremation. For example, the archaeological record showsthe existence of nails placed outside the graves in various areas of the Roman Empire, which has beeninterpreted as a magical-ritual action of prophylactic nature. That is how it has been construed by M.

Petit the presence of big iron nails on the graves of Lutecia; J. Remesal and P. Sillières regarding thenails placed with the tip pointing out between the stones surrounding the graves of the necropolisof Baelo Claudia; and A.M. Giuntella those found outside Late Antiquity graves of Sardinia67.Also R. Hachlili and A.E. Killebrew defend a magical use –as amulets- of the nails deliberately

placed outside some tombs of Hellenistic Jewish necropolis, basing their interpretation on “a later Rabbinical source which speaks of throwing iron between or inside the tombs against spirits”. In thissense, I would like to point out that J. Trachtenberg includes amongst the Jewish magical practices

Figure 18.- Nails as intentional grave-goods in the Roman cemetery of Pithekoussai: the funerary

furniture of the tomb 109 -a lamp and a pottery vessel with a nail inside-, and of the tomb 110

-one ceramic vessel, two nails, a lamp and two coins. BUCHNER and R IDGWAY, 1993, pl. CXI.

65 F. CECI, L’interpretazione di monete e chiodi in contesti funerari: esempi dal suburbio romano, in: VVAA, Römischer

Bestattungsbrauch und Beigabensitten/ Culti dei morti e costumi funerari romani, Wiesbaden 2001, 87-97. S. ALFAYÉ, Nails for the Dead…, forthcoming.66

J. ALLAIN

ET AL.

, La nécropole gallo-romain…, 1992, 128-129. F. LAUBENHEIMER

, La mort des touts petits…, 2004, 302-303.



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regarding the preparation of the body of the deceased, the custom of putting metal on the corpse as ameans of magically protecting it68.

All this data allows us to suggest that there was a magical use of nails within the funerarycontext as a practice of defensive nature intended at creating a prophylactic barrier, that would

protect the deceased from the supernatural threats that may await them in the Afterlife –serving thenails as protecting amulets, as proposed by P. Testini, C. D’Angela and D. Nuzzo for those found inLate-Antiquity tombs69. And, at the same time, the nails were used as magic obstacles that preventedthe dead from returning to disturb the living, symbolically xing them to the tomb, as maintained byJ. Annequin, P. Wernet or S. Perea, amongst other scholars70.

2.4.- Nailing of corpses

Taken to an extreme, and perhaps reserved only for reluctant ghosts, this preventive practice

of defensive magic which consisted of placing nails in the tombs could explain the nding of ancientcadavers with the skull and/or other parts of the body pierced by nails (gs. 3, 19, 23 and 28-29), whose

67 M. PETIT, Les nécropoles…, 1984, 348. J. R EMESAL, La necrópolis sureste de Baelo, Madrid 1979, 41. P. SILLIÈRES, Baelo

Claudia, une cité romaine de Bétique, Madrid 1995, 98. A.M. GIUNTELLA, Sepolture e rito: consuetudini e innovazioni, in:

VVAA, Le sepolture in Sardegna dal VI al VII secolo, Oristano 1990, 221, n. 10.68 Cf. R. HACHLILI ANDA.E. K ILLEBREW, Jericho. The Jewish Cemetery of the Second Temple Period , Jerusalem 1999, 139-140,169. R. HACHLILI, Jewish funerary…, 2005, 494, 511-512. J. TRACHTENBERG, Jewish magical…, 1961, 174-180. Regarding theTalmudic texts mentioned by Hachlili and Killebrew, see also G. VELTRI, The Rabbis and Pliny…, 1998, 80-81.69 Cf. P. TESTINI, Archeologia cristiana, Bari 1980, 149. C. D’A NGELA, Contesti tombali tardoantichi e altomedievali, La parola del passato, 50, 1995, 322-323. D. NUZZO, Amulet and grave in late Antiquity: some examples from Romancemeteries, in: J. Pearce, M. Millett and M. Struck (eds.), Burial, society…, 2000, 253.70 Cf. S. ALFAYÉ, Nails for the dead…, forthcoming. J. A NNEQUIN, Recherches sur l’action magique et ses representations

(Ier et IIIème siècles après J.C.), Paris 1973, 21. P. WERNET, Les crânes cloués de la Butte Saint-Michel à Strasbourg,Cahiers Alsaciens d’Archéologie, d’Art et d’Historie, 14, 1970, 5-26. S. PEREA, El sello de Dios (2): ceremonias de la

muerte. Nuevos estudios sobre magia y creencias populares greco-romanas, Madrid 2002, 282-283. Cf. also P. GALLIOU AND M. JONES, The Bretons, Oxford-Cambridge, 1991, 113-114. D. DUNGWORTH, Mystifying Roman Nails: clavus annalis,dexiones and minkisi, in: VVAA, Trac 97 , Oxford 1998, 153, 156. J. ORTALLI, Il culto funerario della Cispadana romana.

Rappresentazione e interiorità, in: VVAA, Römischer Bestattungsbrauch und Beigabensitten… 2001, 236-237.

Figure 19.- Supposed “nailed burial” from an ancient inhumation cemetery in Luzaga excavated

by E.AGUILERA Y GAMBOA. Photo “Archivo Fotográco J. Cabré”, I.P.H.E., nº inv. 4068.



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Figure 23.- Skull pierced by a nail found in

the roman cemetery of Alcantarilla, a villageclose to Italica (Sevilla). F. OLÓRIZ, 1883.

Figure 28.- The distribution of the nails

found in two supposed “nailed burials”

of the Jewish medieval cemetery in Deza

(Soria), by B. TARACENA 1933.

Figure 29.- Alleged “nailed burial”

discovered by Marqués de Cerralbo in the

inhumation necropolis in Aguilar de Anguita

(grave nº 4) Photo “Archivo Fotográco J.

Cabré”, I.P.H.E., nº inv. 3955.

Figure 3.- Skull pierced by three nails found

in a tomb under Casa Reali, in Veroli (Italy).L. QUILICI and S. QUILICI 1998, g. 67.



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detailed study is dealt with in another work 71.These “nailed burials” inevitably evoke thePseudo-Quintilian’s scene where the magicianin corpus et in membra descendisse mucrones.In this sense, I would like to point out the

parallel between the crescendo in the magiccrafts used by the literary magician to subduethe spirit, which ends up with the nailing of thetomb and the remains, and that attested to inother ancient magic rituals of immobilisation – such as the dexio tablets or the “voodoo dolls”(g. 11)-, in which a sequence of rhetoricalexpressivity can be detected where the mostaggressive action, the nailing, constitutes theclimax of the magical process72.

These nds of nailed corpses withinthe funerary context must not be mixed upwith the discoveries of skulls pierced by nailsfound in structures and settlements from the5th to the 1st centuries BC in Gallia, Germania,

Britannia and Iberia (gs. 20-21). Theseskulls of enemies or of executed people werenailed on walls, gates of settlements, cultic

Figure 20.- Skull pierced by nail discovered

close to the walls of the Iberian settlement

of Puig Castellar, in Santa Coloma de

Gramenet (Barcelona). H. OBERMAIER 1928.

Figure 21.- The enemies’ nailed skulls exhibited on the gate of the oppidum of “La Cloche”,

in Les Pennes-Mirabeau (Bouches-du-Rhône). L. Chabot 1982, g. 12.

71 S. ALFAYÉ, Dreadful burials: corpses and skulls pierced by nails in the Ancient World, in: R. Fisher and S. Morris (eds.), Monsters and the Monstruous. Myths and Metaphors of the Enduring Evil , Oxford, forthcoming.72 Cf., amongst others, F. GRAF, Magic in the Ancient World , Cambridge -London 1997, 134-137.



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areas and domestic contexts, as exemplied by the nailed skulls from Puig Castellar (Santa Colomade Gramenet, Barcelona) (g. 20), Ullastret (Gerona), Entremont (Aix-en-Provence) or “La Cloche”(Les Pennes-Mirabeau, Bouches-du-Rhône) (g. 21). They were displayed as war trophies, turningthem also into unquestionable exemplifying symbols, both deterrent and apotropaic73.

In favour of the interpretation of the nailing of corpses in the Ancient world as a magic ritualof immobilisation to prevent the dead from disturbing the living, I would like to recall that variousancient literary sources mention the nailing as an efcient form of ghost-banning . Thus, for example,C. Faraone identies the nailing of Oedipus’ feet as a preventive ritual “designed to cripple a ghostin its efforts to gain revenge”74. Besides, Paus., 9. 38. 5, tells us that the inhabitants of Orchomenos,following the directions of the Delphic oracle, neutralised the malign ghost of Actaeon, who had

been devastating their crops, by erecting a statue of him in bronze and xing it to a rock with iron75.

However, the archaeological visualisation of these practices is controversial. Due to the factthat most of the possible “nailed burials” were discovered towards the end of the 19th century and the

beginning of the 20th, the information about them is extremely scarce and, besides, it is impossible to

carry out anthropological analysis on the remains, which has provoked doubts on the level of credibilitythat ought to be given to the original descriptions of these ndings, often very brief 76. These problemshave led researchers such as G. Halsall and B. Effros to categorically deny the existence of tombswith corpses pierced by nails in the Merovingian sphere, and J.M. Guijo to follow suit as regards the

presumed documented cases in the Hispanic Jewish world77 (g. 28). It is certainly possible that the

73 Cf. L. CHABOT, L’oppidum de la Cloche aux Penner.Mirabeu (Bouches-du-Rhône), Revue Archéologique de Narbonnaise,16, 1982, 49-51, gs. 10-12. J. SANMARTÍ, Elèments de type celtique du nord-est de la Péninsule Ibérique, Aquitania, 12, 1994,344-346. E. MAHIEU, L’anthropologie à Entremont, Documents d’Archéologie Méridionale, 21, 1998, 62-66. M.C. R OVIRA I HORTALÀ, L’exhibició d’armes i cranis enclavats en els hàbitats ibers septentrionals, Cypsel a, 12, 1998, 167-182. EAD., Lasarmas-trofeo en la cultura ibérica, Gladius, 19, 1999, 12-32. J. WAHL, Anthropologische Untersuchung der menschlichen

Skelettreste aus den Grabungen bei Mengen, in: VVAA, Archäologie im Umland der Heuneburg , Stuttgart 1999, 63-67, gs. 45-47. S. ALFAYÉ, Rituales de aniquilación del enemigo en la “estela de Binéfar” (Huesca), in J. Alvar y L. Hernández (eds.), Actasdel XXVII Congreso Internacional Girea-Arys IX. Jerarquías religiosas y control social en el mundo antiguo, Valladolid 2003,63-74. A. HERMARY, Grecs et Barbares cloueurs de têtes: compléments au témoignage de Poseidonios, Revue Archéologique de

Narbonnaise, 2003, 525-530. C. STERCKX, Les mutilations des ennemis chez les celtes préchrétiens, Paris 2005.74 C. FARAONE, Binding and burying…, 1991, 182, n. 62, y 194, n. 103.75 On this text, cf. C. FARAONE, Binding and buying…, 1991, 168-179, 187, 197-198, n. 111. ID., Talismans and trojan horses…, 1992, 83, 136-140. S.I. JOHNSTON, Restless Dead…, 1999, 59-62, 157-158. EAD., Delphi and the Dead, in: S.I. Johnston andP. T. Struck (ed.), Mantikê. Studies on divination, Leiden-Boston 2005, 303. D. FELTON, Haunted Greece…, 2000, 27.76 Cf., amongst others, A. DE LA PASTORA, Antigüedades prehistóricas del partido de Molina de Aragón, Boletín de la Real

Academia de la Historia, 3, 1883, 154-159. H. GÉRIN-R ICARD, Las pyramides de Provence, Bulletin Archéologique du Comitédes Travaux Historiques et Scientiques, 1902, 49-50. C. JULLIAN, H. GAIDOZ AND T. VOLKOV, Cadavres percés de clous, Revue de

Études Anciennes, 4, 1902, 300-301. C. JULLIAN AND J. DÉCHELETTE, Cadavres percés de clous, Revue des Études Anciennes, 8.1,1906, 65-66. A NONYMOUS, Cadavres percées de clous, Revue de Études Anciennes, 17, 1915, 217. M. MENÉNDEZ PIDAL, Historia

de los heterodoxos españoles. I , Madrid 1933, 134-140. B. TARACENA, Cadáveres atravesados por clavos en el cementerio judíode Deza, Investigación y Progreso, 7.3, 1933, 65-71. E. Salin, La civilisation mérovingienne. D’après les sépultures, les texteset le laboratoire. Deuxième partie. Les sépultures, Paris 1952, 354-355. S. ALFAYÉ, Dreadful burials…, forthcoming.77 G. HALSALL, Settlement and Social Organization: the Merovingian Region of Metz , Cambridge 1995, 160.162. B. EFFROS, Merovingian mortuary archaeology and the making of the Early Middle Ages, Berkeley-Los Angeles-London 2003, 82-84, 168-171. J.M. GUIJO, Inhumaciones de grupos marginales en Sevilla. La minoría hebrea, in: www.legadosefardi.net/enterramientos.pdf , 2003, 12, n. 20, considers that the ceremony of placing nails on the skeletons or piercing them is agment of the imagination rather than a veried fact, and he explains the presence of nails in tombs as part of the cofns. Amore moderate opinion is given by E. PÉREZ HERRERO, Apuntes para el estudio de las necrópolis judías de época medieval,Sefarad , 38, 1978, 347-348, who considers that the nailing of corpses in the Jewish cemetery of Deza (Soria) is a provenfact due to the repetition of the nails in certain places and to their vertical position (g. 28 of this paper), discarding the possibility that they might have slipped inside the cofn, although he admits that “de ninguna de las necrópolis de Teruel yCórdoba se puede decir con seguridad cientíca que tuvieran enterramientos con clavos atravesando los cadáveres, ya que

no han sido estudiadas y publicadas con cierto rigor cientíco, sino breves notas que no nos ilustran lo suciente”.



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wishful thinking of some archaeologists led them to provide sensationalist interpretations of thesends and identify them as “nailed burials” (gs. 19 and 29), instead of proposing a more logicalexplanation for the bizarre and unusual position of the nails around the skeletons and/or on them. AsF. Blaizot and his team point out in a recent study of the cemetery of Sainte-Barbe, in Strasbourg,the problematic presence of nails on skeletons might be due to the decomposition and collapse of the

wooden cofns and to an unusual rigor mortis, which could have caused macabre positions of thecorpses in an enclosed space78. The disappearance of organic elements from the grave goods –suchas leather sandals ( sandapilae)-, may have also led the scholars into error, for they might have leftnails on or about the corpse79. Such seems to be the case of one tomb in the necropolis of Aguilar deAnguita (Guadalajara) – of uncertain date between the 1st century BC and the 4th century AD-, wherethe feet of the buried individual are covered with nails (g. 22), which, according to its discoverer E. Aguilera y Gamboa, “sin duda alguna se clavaron sobre la carne del muerto” 80. However, thedistribution of the nails on the feet seems to be in fact due to the tacks or hobnails (clavi caligae) of some decomposed sandals; therefore, at least in this case, it does not appear to be a corpse pierced

by nails81. This is one of the inhumation graves on Celtiberian territory identied as “nailed burials” by the Marqués de Cerralbo, and where the corpses not only had nails going through the skull, “sino

78 F. BLAIZOT ET ALII , L’ensemble funéraire de l’Antiquité Tardive et du Haut Moyen Âge de Sainte-Barbe à Strasbourg (Bas-Rhin), Revue Archéologique de l’Est , 53, 2004, 93-96, 146, gs. 6-8.79 On the footwear with hobnails in the Roman funerary record, cf. G. CLARKE, The roman cemetery of Lankhills

(Winchester), Wichester 1979, 178-181, 322-325, 370-371, 406-408, g. 65. B. BARBER AND D. BOWSHER , The Easterncemetery…, 2000, 137-138, 354, g. 99, tab. 132.80 On this graveyard, cf. E. AGUILERA Y GAMBOA, Páginas de la Historia Patria. Tomo III. Aguilar de Anguita, Madrid 1911,unedited manuscript. J. CABRÉ, Catálogo monumental de la provincia de Soria. Volumen III , unpublished manuscript 1917,97-98. Although the graphic and manuscript documentation claims that these tombs belong to the necropolis of “El Altillo”,they actually come from the cemetery area of “Los Pradales” or “Los Esqueletos”, as evidenced by M. BARRIL AND SALVE,Reexcavando Aguilar de Anguita a través de los documentos escritos y los materiales depositados en el M.A.N., Kalathos,17, 1998, 47-90. See the photographs of these graves taken in the years 1910-1912 by J. Cabré in J.F. BLÁNQUEZ Y B.R ODRÍGUEZ, El arqueólogo Juan Cabré…, 2004, negatives nº 3927-3955.81 Vid. these images in J.F. BLÁNQUEZ Y B. R ODRÍGUEZ, El arqueólogo Juan Cabré…, 2004, negatives 3931 y 3934 from the“Archivo fotográco de Juan Cabré” of the I.P.H.E.82 J. CABRÉ, Catálogo monumental…, 1917, 97.83 Cf., for example, F. OLÓRIZ, Estudio de una calavera antigua, perforada por un clavo, encontrada en Itálica, Boletín de la Real

Academia de la Historia, 3, 1883, 257-306. L. QUILICI AND S. QUILICI, Richerche di topograa per la forma urbana di Veroli, in:

Figure 22.- Skeleton with the feet covered

with nails found in an inhumation grave in

the Roman necropolis of Aguilar de Anguita

(Guadalajara). Photo “Archivo Fotográco

J. Cabré”, I.P.H.E., nº inv. 3931.

también alrededor de toda la cabeza, por elcuerpo y a veces en los brazos y sobre todoen las extremidades de los pies”82 (gs. 19 and29). It is therefore possible that some of theinstances identied as corpses pierced by nailsmight be archaeological illusions but, althoughcaution is necessary, it would be hypercriticaland too simplifying to deny the existence of “nailed burials” dating from ancient and early-medieval times, which is unquestionable in thecase of the corpses whose skulls are pierced byone or several large sized nails, such as thosefound in Italica (Sevilla) (g. 23) and Veroli(Italy) (g. 3) and, amongst other examples83.

In view of such macabre nds,historiography has been offering different



206

interpretations, which vary substantially depending on whether we think that the nailing of the corpsewas done ante mortem or post mortem, although explanations also differ depending on the identitywe may attribute to the buried individual.

2.4.1. Nailing ante mortem

The most reasonable explanation for the nailed corpses assumes that the nailing was doneante mortem on criminals, martyrs or enemies, and that they were buried with the tools that causedor accelerated their death. We may wonder whether this method of torture or capital punishment wasconnected to some specic crime. Although the revision of ancient Roman sources does not attest tonailing as a punitive measure84, in my opinion it is possible that it was indeed used as a Roman capital

punishment included within what J.-P. Callu calls “le jardin des supplices au Bas Empire”85. Suchsupposition is based on the nding, at the end of the 19th century, of skeletons whose skulls were

pierced by nails (g. 23) and stuffed with liquid lead in the Late-Antiquity cemetery of the town of Alcantarilla (Sevilla), near Italica86. Thanks to article 9.24.2 of Codex Theodosiaunus, written in the4th century A.D., we know that pouring liquid lead into the mouth of the convicted criminal was a

method of capital punishment destined to those who induced virgins to commit sinful acts. Bearingthis in mind, I believe it is plausible that the presence of the nail and the molten lead in the skulls fromAlcantarilla is not a coincidence, and that we could therefore be faced with the burial of individualswho were executed using two forms of torture –the nailing and the pouring of lead-, a hypothesis thatseems to conrm the topographic concentration of these burials within that Roman necropolis, in anarea which was possibly destined for criminals.

A variant of the punitive interpretation of the nailing is offered by researchers such as M.A.

Boldetti or J.A. Martigny who, under the inuence of an apologetic and hagiographic tradition,identied the nailed skulls as belonging to Christian martyrs87. Thus, in the 17th century, the nailedskull found in the Roman catacomb of Santa Agnes was attributed to a martyr; and the 18 nailed skullsdiscovered in 1847 in the German city of Cologne were identied as the remains of members of theTheban Legion, executed by the emperor Diocletian in the 3 rd century AD88. The martyrial explanationmatches the late-Antiquity date of a great deal of these burials, and also the descriptions of torture or

Passio clavorum provided by the martyrial acts and in the lives of saints. However, that informationmust be assessed with caution since, although on historical basis, they are literary works intended atemphasising the Roman crudelitas through the contrast between the brutal violence of the imperialtorturers and the pious opposition of Christians. In spite of this, it does not seem unreasonable to

Ead. (dir.), Città e monumento nell’Italia Antica. Atlante Temático di Topograa Antica 7 , Roma 1998, 194-195, 208-210, g.67. H. OBERMAIER , Leichennagelung in Altspanien, in : W. Koppers (dir.), Festschrift Publication d’hommage offerte au P.W.

Schmidt , Wien 1928, 943-949. A. BLANCHET AND R. LANTIER , Crânes percées de clous, Bulletin Archéologique du Comité desTravaux Historiques et Scientiques, 1943-1945, 391-395. P. WERNET, Les crânes cloués…, 1970, 5-26. F. FACCHINI, E. RASTELLI AND M.G. BELCASTRO, Peri mortem cranial injuries from a medieval grave in Saint Peter’s Cathedral, Bologna, Italy, International

Journal of Osteoarchaeology, article on line in advance of print, 2007. S. ALFAYÉ, Dreadful burials…, forthcoming.84 Cf. J.A. BUENO, Prácticas funerarias, tormento y penalidad romana, Anuario de la Facultad de Derecho de la Universidad

de Alcalá, 2004, 6-28.85 J.P. CALLU, Le jardin des supplices au Bas Empire, in: VVAA, Du châtiment dans la cité. Supplices corporels et peine de

mort dans le monde antique, Rome 1984, 313-359.86 A. GALI, Historia de Itálica. Municipio y colonia romana, Sevilla, 1892, 151-153. F. OLÓRIZ, Estudio de una calaveraantigua…, 1897, 260-277.87 M.A. BOLDETTI, Osservazioni sopra i cimiteri de’Santi Martiri, ed Antichi Crsitiani de Roma. I, Roma 1720, 319-326. J.A.MARTIGNY, Dictionnaire des antiquités chrétiennes, Paris 1877, 531-533.88 J. A. MARTIGNY, Dictionnaire…, 1877, 533. A NÓNIMO, Miscellanea Anthropologica, Anthropological Review, 1.2,

1863, 335-336.



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assume that some may have been tortured or executed by the nailing of the skull or other

parts of their body, and it is certainly reected by Christian imagery, where the nail is anattribute of martyrs such as Santa Engracia of

Zaragoza (g. 24), whose head was allegedlynailed by order of Dacian89. Yet, it does notseem reasonable to extend this martyrialexplanation to all the nailed burials.

2.4.2.- Nailing post mortem

The hypotheses seen so far assume

that the nailing was done on a living body, but we must also ponder the possibility thatthe nailing was done post mortem. Based

on anthropological parallels, from the 19thcentury various researchers -such as E. Jobbé-Duval- maintained that the fear of the restless

dead , of the larvae, was the cause of the ritualtransxion of the corpses. The nailing couldhave been a magical practice intended atxing that “living corpse” to its tomb, sincethrough this “second death” it could no longer

Figure 24.- Modern painting depicting

the martyr Santa Engracia, in the

Basilica de Santa Engracia (Zaragoza).

89 L. R EAU, Iconographie de l’art chrétien, 3 vols., Paris 1955-1959.90 E. JOBBÉ-DUVAL, Les morts malfaisants…, 2000, 179-181. M. AMAND, Folklore et archéologie belgo-romaine,

Latomus, 28, 1969, 201.91 A. CALMET, Treatise on vampires and revenants. The Phantom World , Brighton 1993 (1850), 48-52. J.C. LAWSON, Modern

Greek Folklore…, 1910, 361-384. P. BARBER , Vampires, burial and death…, 1988, 52-53, 61-73, 71-73, 79. A. TSALIKI,Vamp Beyond Legend: Necrophobia, a Bioarchaeological approach, in: M. L. Verghetta and L. Capasso (eds.), Proceedings

of the XIII European Meeting of the Paleopathology Association, Terano 2001, 295-300. Cf. other examples in J.G. FRAZER ,The fear of the dead…, 2003, vol. I, 75-87, and vol. III, 176, 189-190. B.A. MCCLELLAND, Slayers and their vampires: a

cultural history of killing the dead, Michigan 2006.

return to the world of the living90. Besides the aforementioned literary sources regarding Oedipusand Actaeon, research carried out by A. Calmet, J.C.Lawson, P. Barber and A. Tsaliki on Greece andthe Balkans offer numerous anthropological parallels which attest that the corpses of those dead whocould become revenants –or who had already given signs of it- were decapitated and pierced by stakesand nails with the purpose of eradicating their malignant nature; and in the popular imagination it iswell known that the only way of killing a vampire is by driving a stake through his heart 91.

In my opinion, the theory of “the nailing of restless dead ” could be supported by the factthat some of these deviant burials are accompanied by grave goods: the deceased were buriedwith grave-goods following the standard funerary customs of the time, but their malign behaviour and their reluctance to abandon the world of the living forced the performance of these drasticmagical measures. As the Pseudo-Quintilian’s text narrates, the nailing may have been ordered

by the relatives who wanted to prevent or avoid the unsettling apparitions and also to help in this

manner their loved ones to rest in peace, facilitating –or, rather, forcing- their integration into theworld of the dead. However, as shown by Paus., 9. 38. 5, regarding the conduct of the inhabitants of Orchomenos, it is equally possible that the entire community demanded such magic actions for safety



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and public health reasons. As analysed by N. Caciola regarding the medieval world and A. Calmetregarding Oriental Europe in the Modern Age, under the inuence of a situation of collective panic,and stirred by a generalised fear of the spread of the plague, serial “ghostly” murders or other criticalsituations, the terried members of a group may have decided to carry out extreme measures againstthe supernatural agents who caused all those situations92. I consider that we should not underestimate

the traumatic effect of deaths en masse amongst the members of a community in the Ancient World.Actually, as J-C. Scmidtt and N. Caciola have already pointed out, all these practices of funeraryimmobilisation –nailing, weighting-down, decapitation, mutilation- must also be understood as a

problem of Social History, since the monstrosity of those measures is socially sanctioned as much asthey are used to eliminate the danger and the social tension that some individuals represent for thecommunity, even after they are dead93.

3.- OTHER POSSIBLE MEASURES AGAINST THE RESTLESS DEAD ATTESTED TO THE ARCHAEOLOGICAL RECORD

Although Pseudo-Quintilian does not mention them, the archaeological record documentsother unusual and deviant funerary rituals which, once again, revolve around the idea of immobilising

the deceased, and may equally correspond to magical practices aimed at xing the restless dead .

3.1.- Burial in decubito prono

One of the possible preventive magical practices carried out in the Roman world against

the potential restless dead was burying them face down (gs. 1, 5 and 25), a minority position

in ancient necropolis for which various explanations have been given94. Thus, it is possible that

occasionally the prono position of corpses buried in tombs irregularly dug and without a cofn,

grave-goods or signs of funeral preparations, may be due to a lack of care in the interment and

may not be due to ritual motives. Such could be the case of tombs or mass graves linked to

mortality crises caused by epidemics, or of burials linked to executions or to war or massacre

92 N. CACIOLA, Wraiths, revenants…,1996, 15-34. A. CALMET, Treatise on vampires…, 1993.93 J.-C. SCMIDTT, Les revenants. Les vivants et les morts dans la société médiévale, Paris 1994, 252. N. CACIOLA, Wraiths,revenants…, 1996.94 Cf. a summary in R. PHILPOTT, Burial practices…, 1991, 71-76. M. POLO Y E. GARCÍA PRÓSPER , Ritual, violencia y enfermedad.Los enterramientos en decúbito prono de la necrópolis fundacional de Valentia, Saguntum, 34, 2002, pp. 144-145, g. 13.

Figure 1.- Prono burial 2936 in the Roman

necropolis of Calle del Quart, in Valencia

(Spain). M. POLO and E. GARCÍA PRÓSPER

2002, g. 7.

Figure 25.- A general view of the prono

inhumation area of the Roman necropolis

in the Calle del Quart, in Valentia. M. POLO

y E. GARCÍA PRÓSPER 2002.



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zones, where those buried in a prone position are usually also beheaded95. However, other face-

down inhumations not only show elements of normalised funerary rituals –tomb, shroud, grave

goods-, but also they are located inside the necropolis, so it seems reasonable to presume that their

unusual position is deliberate and that it may respond to socio-religious reasons that justify the

alteration of the norm. Examination of the prone interments recently found allows us to conclude

that a signicant number of those buried in a decubito prono position are situated in the peripheralzones of the necropolis – for instance, the Southern area of the Early-Empire cemetery in Calle del

Quart, in Valencia (gs. 1 and 25), or the Eastern corner of the Late necropolis (4 th – 5th centuries

A.D.) of Lankhills (Winchester, England)96. These zones were possibly reserved for marginal

people, either stigmatised persons due to their social background or to their jobs, people who

died as a result of a plague, mental or physical disease, or executed people. In this sense, it is

remarkable that a great number of the individuals buried face down show signs of coercion such as

fractures peri mortem, hands tied behind their back, severe injuries caused by sharp weapons, or

even decapitation ante mortem, which leads us to believe that they may have been criminals who

were given a proper burial after their execution –possibly by their families, who were allowed

to retrieve the bodies of criminals from the time of Augustus onwards-, but who were buried

face down as a visual metaphor of their marginalisation, both during their lifetime and in death.Thus, the corpse becomes a powerful tool in the hands of the living, and its position in the tomb

perpetuates in the Afterlife the social segregation of that individual97.

But also, in various Roman necropolis in Greece, Turkey and Hungary, in Romano-Britishcemeteries of the 4th century A.D. such as Cirencester, Kempston and Derby Racecourse, or inHispanic necropolis such as the one in Calle del Quart in Valencia (g. 25), the paleopathologic studiesreveal a certain connection between face-down burials and infectious diseases –such as tuberculosisor leprosy-, respiratory diseases –such as pneumoconiosis or anthrax-, and others such as rabies and

porphyria98. These facts allow us to interpret the equation prone burials/ infectious disease as a socialreection of the fear of this kind of pathologies which caused a more or less sudden and unpleasantdeath (morbus indignus), and which, possibly, required the performance of special magic funeraryrituals in order to appease those who died tortured by a terrible and unmerited disease (CIL II/7, 287)and, in this way, also preventing the disease from spreading99. In that sense, although there are no face-down burials, I believe it is interesting to recall the magic rituals linked to infants who had died as aresult of a malaria epidemic in Poggio Gramignano, who were buried in an ancient villa, alongsidewhom 13 puppies which had been sacriced ad hoc were found, as well as vessels buried face down

95 Cf. an example of prone burials in an ancient mass grave caused by epidemics in P. BLANCHARD ET ALII , A mass gravefrom the catacomb of Saints Peter and Marcellinus in Rome, second-third century AD, Antiquity, 314, 2007, 989-998(especially 993-994, g. 4). On examples of ancient and early medieval cemeteries of executed persons, cf. T. MOLLESON,The archaeology and anthropology of death: what the bones tell us, in: S.C. Humpreys and H. King (eds.), Mortality and

immortality: the anthropology and archaeology of death, London 1981, 27-28. R. WHIMSTER , Burial Practices in Iron Age Britain. A discussion and gazetteer of the evidence. C. 700 B.C.–A.D. 43, Oxford 1981, 420-426. G. HAYMAN Y A. R EYNOLDS,A Saxon and Saxo-Norman Execution Cemetery at 42-54 London Road, Staines, The Archaeological Journal , 162, 2005,215-255. J.L. BUCKBERRY AND D.M. HADLEY, An Anglo-Saxon Execution cemetery at Walkington Wold, Yorkshire, Oxford

Journal of Archaeology, 26.3, 2007, 309-329 (without prone inhumation burials).96 M. POLO Y E. GARCÍA PRÓSPER , Ritual, violencia y enfermedad…, 2002, 137-148. Cf. E. GARCÍA PRÓSPER , P. GUÉRIN,M. MARTÍ Y M. R AMÍREZ, La necrópolis romana de la Calle Quart. Resultados recientes, XXV Congreso Nacional de

Arqueología, Valencia 1999, 298-299. G. CLARKE, The roman cemetery…, 1979.97 V.M. HOPE, Contempt and respect …, 2000, 120, 122, 126-127.98 Cf. A. TSALIKI, Vamp beyond legend…, 2001, 295-300. M. POLO Y E. GARCÍA PRÓSPER , Ritual, violencia y enfermedad…,2002, 144-145.99 There are several examples in 17th century England where the victims of a plague were buried face down to appease thedevil, who was considered responsible for the disease, and to prevent it from spreading; cf. S.M. HIRST, An Anglo-Saxon

inhumation cemetery at Sewerby, East Yorkshire, York 1985, 36-37.



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and the remains of ravens and toads, amongst other peculiarities (g. 9), which seem to be connectedwith a wish to appease the dead and the supernatural powers related to the disease100.

Amongst the individuals buried in prone position, persons who suffered mental disease or

serious physical disabilities –such as blindness, deafness or spina bida- have also been found, as is

the case in the Roman necropolis of Poundsbury (England), and although to T. Molleson “physicaldeformity does not qualify for prone burial, (…) mental disturbance may have been one of thereasons for prone burial in Roman and Early Medieval society” 101.

All of this allows us to consider the existence of peripheral areas in Roman necropolis destinedfor individuals who died violently –possibly executed criminals-, for the ill persons, physically andmentally disabled people, and perhaps also undesirable people who had infamous occupations

–prostitutes, pimps, gladiators, undertakers themselves,…-, who may have been buried in simplegraves, with plain grave-goods and face down. This act constitutes a reection of the social exclusionof these individuals, and it is a deliberate act, denigrating and even punitive, reserved for those whowere unpopular, different or had attacked the community102. But it is also possible that this position

also involved a magical feature and it was intended at preventing the spirit of those “outsiders” –whohad all the more reasons to feel resentful against the group due to their social marginalisation – fromreturning and disturbing the living, since, if they wished to leave their tombs they could only digfurther down and sink lower in their tombs, as explained by numerous anthropological parallels103.

I would not like to leave unmentioned the fact that some researchers consider that in lateAntiquity Christian prone burials, and particularly from the early Middle Ages - for example in the7th and 8th centuries AD Merovingian Normandy-, the prone position may be a penitential sign, sincePippin the Short –died 768 AD- was buried face down as a penance for his father’s sins104.

3.2.- The post mortem mutilation of corpses

The post mortem mutilation of corpses, where decapitation –to be referred to later on- should beincluded, may also be interpreted as a magic action intended at preventing the spirit of the dead, by meansof its immobilisation, from taking revenge from the Otherworld, since there are numerous anthropological parallels which document its funerary use with this purpose105. Mutilation of corpses in the Ancient worldhas been linked by several scholars to the idea of the Greek maschalismos, a selective amputation exerted

100 D. SOREN AND N. SOREN, A Roman villa…, 1999, 619-652.101 R. PHILPOTT, Burial practices…, 1991, 72, 74-75. T. MOLLESON, Archaeological Evidence…, 1999, 69-77. Cf. an exampleof an unusual funerary ritual linked to an individual suffering from a permanent neurological decit in L.M. LITTLE AND J.K. PAPADOPOULOS, A social outcast …, 1998, 395-398. On Early Medieval deviant burials -but not prone burials- of

disabled individuals who suffered spina bida, tuberculosis, poliomyelitis or physical severe injuries, cf. M. HADLEY AND J. BUCKBERRY, Caring for the Dead…, 2005, 145-146. On funerary segregation of the lepers in the Ancient and MedievalWorld, cf. V. MARIOTTI ET ALII , “Probably Early Presence of Leprosy in Europe in a Celtic Skeleton of the 4th-3rd centuryBC (Casalecchio di Reno, Bologna, Italy), International Journal of Osteoarchaeology, 15, 2005, 322. On mental diseases, physical disabilities and social exclusion in the Ancient World, cf. footnote 25 in this paper.102 As V.M. HOPE states, Contempt and respect…, 2000, 112, “death itself did not always mark the end of the spectacle. (…) For some, violent death was not the end of indignity; display of the corpse and post-mortem insults could form part of a punishment.”103 Cf. S. M. HIRST, An Anglo-Saxon…, 1985, 36-37.104 E. SALIN, La civilisation merovingienne…, 1952, 220-222. Cf. other Medieval funerary practices with a penitentialmeaning in C. DANIELL, When penance continued in the grave, British Archaeology, 19, 1996, 7. J. HOLLOWAY, Creatingidentities of death: charcoal burial in early medieval England, Archaeological Review from Cambridge, 22.1, 2007, 6-23.105 On the mutilation of the corpse as a magical practice intended at preventing the dead from returning to disturb the

living, cf., amongst others, E. JOBBÉ-DUVAL, Les morts malfaisants…, 2000, 182-193. J.G. FRAZER , The fear of the

dead…, vol. II, 2003, 63-96.



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on the defeated or the murdered person which, apart from having an unquestionably vexing nature, preventsthe dead from returning from the tomb and taking revenge on the living106. The idea of immobilisation – both physical and symbolical- of the individual by means of their mutilation is also present in the ancient“voodoo dolls” who were beheaded and/or whose limbs were amputated or twisted 107 (g. 11).

Besides, thanks to several anthropological studies we know that the dismemberment of thedead, the act of cutting the tendons and to tear the limbs, is a form of conrming the genuine death of the cadaver and of preventing it from “rising” and returning to the world of the living108. In this sense,within the mutilations intended at stopping the dead from returning to this world, we could includethe removal of the kneecaps, a peculiar practice that can be archaeologically documented by threeLate-Antiquity interments found in different parts of the city of Córdoba (feminine tomb 56 of CalleAmbrosio Morales, feminine grave 7 of Avenida de Ollerías, and a grave found in the “Corte G delRAF-TAV 1991”). According to A. Ventura, this selective mutilation could have been performed bythe relatives during the burial “probablemente para evitar así, con magia simpática, que su “espíritu”

pudiera nuevamente levantarse”109. However, from the anthropological studies carried out by M.D.Garralda and T. Cabellos on the remains of the two women buried in Córdoba -in Avda. de Ollerías

and Calle A. Morales-, it can be concluded that none of the analysed skeletal remains show signs of cuts that may indicate a deliberate manipulation of the corpse or a particular quartering ritual110.

On regarding the absence of feet in eleven inhumation burials from another 4th century ADCordovan necropolis, A. Molina and I. Sánchez suggest its interpretation as a possible magic-ritual

practice. Unfortunately we lack paleopathologic studies which allow us to determine if the lossof the feet was fortuitous - due to “accidental” circumstances which disturbed the graves and theremains- , or if the non existence of the lower extremities of the skeletons was in fact an intentionalamputation, which could be linked to immobilizing magic-religious activities or to judicial punitivemeasures. Therefore, considering the problems of conservation of some of these burials and the lack of an osteological study, I think that we should evaluate with caution the attribution of a magic-ritualexplanation to the absence of feet in these skeletons111.

3.3.- Decapitation

Archaeological evidence of decapitation in funerary contexts may take three forms: the head

may be placed in an anatomically incorrect position, usually between the legs or on the feet (gs. 2,

106 On the various meanings of the machalismos, cf. J.E. LENDON, Homeric vengeance and the outbreak of Greek Wars, in:H. van Wees (ed.), War and violence in Ancient Greece, London 2000, 1-30. D. OGDEN, Magic, witchcraft…, 2002, 162.107 Cf. C. FARAONE, Binding and burying …, 1991, 172-180, 189-205, gs. 3, 6-7.108 Cf., for example, J. ORTEGA, Consideraciones sobre el descuartizamiento ritual, Verdolay, 3, 21-32.109 A. VENTURA, Magia en la Córdoba romana, Anales de Arqueología Cordobesa, 7, 1996, 150. ID., Magia y superstición:tabellae dexionum, in: D. Vaquerizo (coord.), Funus Cordobensium. Costumbres funerarias en la Córdoba romana,Córdoba 2001, 194-195. On the three alleged cases of magic-ritual removing the kneecaps from corpses found in Córdoba,cf. J.M. BERMUDEZ ET ALII , Avance de los resultados de la excavación de urgencia en la calle Ambrosio de Morales 4,recayente a la calleja de Munda (Córdoba), Antiquitas, 2, 1991, 58-59. F. PENCO ET ALII , Resultados del estudio de lanecrópolis romana excavada durante las dos fases de intervención arqueológica de urgencia desarrolladas en Avenida de lasOllerías nº 14 de Córdoba, Antiquitas, 4, 1993, 49, 53. D. VAQUERIZO (COORD.), Funus Cordobensium…, 2001, 169-171.110 M.D. GARRALDA Y T. CABELLOS, Bioantropología de la población de la C.P. Corduba: primeros resultados, in: D.Vaquerizo (ed.), Espacios y usos funerarios en el Occidente romano, Córdoba 2002, 377-378, pl. 2.111 A. MOLINA AND I. SÁNCHEZ, Una aportación a las necrópolis tardorromanas de Corduba: el sector funerario de la CalleLucano nº 7 y 9 de Córdoba, Anales de Arqueología Cordobesa, 13-14, 2002-2003, 377. On the explanation of the absenceof hands and feet in inhumations graves as a consequence of possible juridical amputation of body members, cf. J.L.

BUCKBERRY

AND

A.M. HADLEY

, An anglo-saxon execution…, 2007, 324-325.



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6 and 14); it may be correctly placed although separated from the torso; or the head may be missing.It is more complicated to ascertain whether the amputation of the head took place ante mortem or

post mortem, or even if it was a decapitation in the strictest sense, since the manipulation of thehead may have taken place when the body was already in the phase of decomposition. Contradictoryexplanations have been given for this practice which, undoubtedly, had different meanings and was

caused by different causes depending on the chronological period and the cultural atmosphere.

According to R. Philpott, the fact that the tombs of beheaded persons found in Roman Britain – which are notably more frequent from the 4 th century AD onwards-, mainly belong to infants andold women who were buried in cofns with rich grave-goods, makes him interpret the decapitationas a “benecial” magic ritual intended at liberating the spirit of the dead, which would be related totraditional beliefs of indigenous background. On the other hand, other scholars suggest that it may bea punitive act since this was the method used to execute criminals and martyrs112. And there are somescholars, like S. Chadwick and A. van Doorselaer, who interpret the decapitation of elderly womenas magic funerary rituals against witches113. For E. O’Brien it could be a magic practice aimed at

preventing the ghost of a potential larva from causing disturbance, citing a text from the 12th century

AD which describes how, in an English town, the souls of two foreigners struck by lightning near thevillage appeared to the inhabitants causing a serious epidemic, which stopped when the members of that community, after asking the bishop for permission, opened their graves, decapitated the corpses,

put their heads between their legs, removed their hearts and covered their cadavers with earth. O’Brienalso compiles other modern and medieval parallels: thus, for example, in the 19 th century Gotlandthe criminals were decapitated and were buried with their head between their legs to stop them fromappearing; and in 19th century Connecticut a person suffering from tuberculosis was beheaded when

buried to stop the disease from spreading114. In this sense, the hypothesis that the decapitation may have been a magical action used –as a precautionary measure or a posteriori- against larvae may be supported by the fact that several of the decapitated corpses also shown other forms of immobilisation.

3.4.- Burials with multiple immobilisation rituals

For example, the 25-45 year-old woman of tomb B459 of the Late-empire cemetery (3rd – 4th centuries AD) of the East of Londinium was buried face down, with two great stones over her lumbar region and another stone on top of the grave (g. 5), possibly with the purpose of preventing the

body or the spirit of the deceased from abandoning her nal resting place115. In the same cemetery thewoman of chalk burial B733 – who was probably decapitated-, had her skull deliberately placed over the pelvic cavity (gs. 2 and 14). And on her cofn, in the place where the head should have been, aceramic recipient containing an iron key was placed, and the casket and the ceramic urn were covered

by a large amount of stones whose size and number seem to indicate that they were meant “to conne

the burial in the ground in some physical way” (g. 14). This interpretation would be reinforced bythe symbol of the key, since according to B. Barber and D. Bowsher, it could be “a cult symbol of

112 On the different interpretations about the meaning of this practice in a funerary context, cf. G. CLARKE, The romancemetery…, 1979, 414-421. R. PHILPOTT, Burial practice…, 1991, 77-89. A. BOYLSTON, C.J. K NÜSEL AND C.A. R OBERTS,Investigation of a Romano-British Rural Ritual in Bedford, England, Journal of Archaeological Science, 27, 2000, 244-253.113 Cf. S. CHADWICK , Soldiers and settlers in Britain, Fourth to Fifth Century, Medieval Archaeology, 5, 1961, 8-9. A. VAN DOORSELAER , Les nécropolies d’epoque romaine en Gaule Septentrionale, Brugge 1967, 131-132.114 E. O’BRIEN, Post-Roman Britain to Anglo-Saxon England: Burial Practices Reviewed , Oxford 1999, 6-7, 54-55. Cf.other examples in R. PHILPOTT, Burial practices…, 1991, 84-87; and P. ARIÈS, Historia de la muerte en Occidente. Desde la

Edad Media hasta nuestros días, Barcelona 2005 (1975), 171-175.115

B. BARBER AND D. BOWSHER , The Eastern cemetery…, 2000, 87, 323, g. 114.



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Epona or another deity, but is perhaps more likely to be a symbolic act to ensure the deceased entered through the gates of the afterlife, or even –given the elaborate grave parking and apparent post-burial rearrangement of the corpse – to ensure that the spirit remained locked in the tomb”116.

In tomb X of the aforementioned Gallic-Roman necropolis of “Gratte Dos” an individual

was buried face down, and stones were placed over his limbs, knees and head, and a nail on the rightthigh, in what appears to be an unquestionable attempt at immobilising the corpse. Likewise, the person buried in tomb XVIII of the same cemetery had also a nail on the right knee and stones on topof him117. In the 7th century AD Merovingian necropolis of Audun-le-Tiche, the 3-4 year-old child

buried in tomb T120 had his skull pierced by a nail, and over his femurs a large stone slab of 70 x40 cm was placed (g. 27). This infant was buried re-using the tomb of an adult whose legs had also

been immobilised with a stone, which leads A. Simmer to wonder whether these two individuals mayhave belonged to the same family which was stigmatised by the community. In the same cemetery, onthe knees of the person buried in tomb T158, whose skull was found surrounded by 3 nails, numerousstones were also placed; and three large stones were placed on the speared adolescent of tomb T178,who was buried with abundant grave-goods and with three stones placed around the pelvic cavity.

Both cases are, according to A. Simmer, magic-ritual practices of immobilisation of corpses118 (g.6). All these funerary practices recall, due to their aggressiveness and accumulation, the magical acts

performed on “voodoo dolls” (g. 11), curse tablets and magic papyri to immobilise the subject of thespells, which also combine various acts of immobilisation –hands tied behind the back, decapitation,twisted feet, stomach pierced by a nail, etc.; except that, on this occasion, it seems that the subjectand the recipient of such magical practices could be the dead person buried there.

3.5.- Chalk-burials

Several scholars have suggested that some of the chalk burials may have been intended at

magically xing the spirit of the dead in their tomb. This type of burial is typical of 2nd to 4th centuryAD Britain, where the corpses have a white substance similar to chalk around their body –either surrounding and/or covering the entire corpse or only along the edges of the cofn or urn –made upof calcium carbonate (calcite), small amounts of quartz, magnetite and gestite (gs. 2 and 26). Thereis no consensus on the interpretation of these burials, since according to E. W. Black this doughy andwhitish mixture could be used to protect the living from the spirits of infants who had died prematurely(g. 26). Whereas, scholars like B. Barber and D. Boshwer suggest that the use of this funerary ritualcould simply be due to a fashion, whereas others –like R. Philpott- argue that the choice of this typeof burial was linked to Christian scatology regarding the physical resurrection of the body, since by itwas intended for better preservation of the corpse, a problematic exegesis since in various cemeteriesit has not been established that this practice was exclusive to Christian groups119.

3.6.- Other practices

Finally I would not like to disregard other practices against the restless dead attested to byMedieval and Modern anthropology and literature, which perhaps may have also been performed inthe Greek-Roman period: burying the corpse in an aquatic context or outside the community borders;

116 B. BARBER AND D. BOWSHER , The Eastern cemetery…, 2000, 99, 134-135, 230, 317, 320, g. 109.117 R. R ATEL, La nécropole gallo-romaine…, 1977, 90, 96.118 A. SIMMER , Le cimetière merovingien…, 1988, 58, 145-147.119 Cf. E. W. BLACK , Romano-British burial…, 1986, 227. R. PHILPOTT, Burial practices…, 1991, 93-95. B. BARBER Y D.

BOWSHER , The Eastern Cemetery…, 2000, 99, 101-104, 320-332.



boiling it in vinegar; cremating it and throwing the ashes into an aquatic context; blessing and/or giving absolution to the corpse; and other acts which involve a progressive combination of all these

practices in case of reluctant spirits120.

4.- DISCUSSION

Taking into consideration all of the abovementioned, I think that both the archaeologicalrecord and the ancient literary sources are eloquent enough by themselves to maintain that inthe Ancient world –at least in the Roman Empire- magico-religious practices were performed infunerary contexts revolving around the idea of immobilisation of the restless dead , and that they haveunquestionable parallels with other contemporary magical actions, such as curse tablets and “voodoodolls” (g. 11). Some of these practices served as precautionary measures in order to prevent the deadfrom becoming a larva and disturbing the living, whereas other actions –possibly the more drasticones- seem to have been performed just after the larvae or lemures showed their malignant nature.However, I do not claim by this that these practices were immutable or that they maintained the samemeaning in time and space throughout the Greek-Roman world. Actually, I believe that we should

rule out univocal explanations and favour polysemic approaches to this barely studied complexworld of magic-religious practices which have an unquestionable social dimension, and which areinvested with an emotional and affective impact that should not be underestimated or ignored121.

If, as pointed out by H. Williams, “mortuary practices can be regarded as multi-vocal symbolic performances by the living in response to, and interacting with, selective aspects of the deceased’sidentity, including age, gender, status, household and ethnicity”, and according to V.M. Hope, “thenormative rites were something to be adopted, adapted, elaborated, exaggerated or denied”, thedeviant burials studied in this article may be considered as the response of mourners unable tomanage the abject emotions caused by the death. Perhaps when the orchestrated transformation of the dead failed, the cadaver required distinctive, perhaps sometimes improvised, mortuary provisionsto deal with the situation122. Burials at the margins of a culture have much to say about the core valuesof the society that interred them: as much as the “normative” provision of grave goods, these unusual

burials dened socially-accepted strategies for grieving and commemorating the dead, and reectedthe emotions, fears, believes and anxieties of a group and its individuals.

At least, with this study of what S. I. Johnston denes as magical solutions to deadly

problems123 , I hope to have given a different – although undoubtedly disturbing- perspective on thetraditional and stereotypical image of the Greco-Roman funerary rites, which only serves to highlightits complexity and heterogeneity.

120 Cf. P. BARBER , Vampires. Death and burial..., 1988, 52-55, 71-73, 78-79, n. 72. N. CACIOLA, Wraiths, revenants…, 1996,15-23, 26-34. E. JOBBÉ-DUVAL, Les morts malfaisants, 2000, 179-193.121 As warned by V.M. HOPE, Contempt and respect…, 2000, 126, “yet, in speaking of the relationship between the livingand the dead in terms of power and control, there is perhaps a risk of losing sight of individuality and that every corpse wasunique. In fact individuality was the very key of this process: to honour the corpse or to abuse it was tied to the preservationor destruction of individual identity”.122 H. WILLIAMS, The emotive force…, 2007, 118-119. V.M. HOPE, Contempt and respect…, 2000, 108.123 S.I. JOHNSTON, Songs for the ghosts: magical solutions to deadly problems, in: D. Jordan, H. Montgomery y E. Thomassen

(eds.), The world of Ancient Magic. Bergen 1999, 83-102.

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