The Unknown Warrior by Richard Osgood

wide by 1m long and surviving to 0.54m deep) held an almost complete beaker, a near-complete glass funnel, fortress wares and charred bones ( ibid. : 129). Pit VS368 (1.5sq m and 1.14m deep) had a complete south-east Dorset Ware pedestalled bowl or urn, a south Gaulish decorated samian vessel and an incomplete bronze lamp ( ibid. : 133).
    The cremation and its associated artefacts in Pit VS362 (some 3m by 2m wide and 0.5m deep) were perhaps the greatest indicators of a military funeral. The burnt bones in this deposit were accompanied by at least two flagons, one of which is of a fabric associated with army supply, three stamped samian vessels, fragments from four glass vessels, two gaming counters (one black, one white), a coin of Nero, and a small bronze figure of the goddess Victory ( ibid. : 133). We must not assume that this was necessarily even the cremated body of a man, let alone a soldier; Cool (2005: 34) refers to the burning of two Roman adult women on a pyre at Brougham, Cumbria – these with the bodies of horses and with military equipment accompanying them.
    For the purposes of our study, however, the information derived from excavations of the buried skeletons of soldiers is far more useful.
    THE FALLEN
    The remains of Roman soldiers (and possible Roman soldiers) have come from a number of varied contexts, their demise being equally disparate. Those who died after retirement could be afforded the pleasantries of a formal funeral, of the ceremonies associated with cremation or burial and the subsequent monuments of memorial. Those who were killed in battles in which the Roman army was defeated and did not hold the field afterwards were not so fortunate. Examples of burials of the martial dead are found throughout the Empire and include such unusual cases as the ‘inhumation’ of a body at Lugdunum (Lyon) in France – assumed to be hurried. The artefacts found with this man were deemed important as they included ‘one of the first spathae [long swords] which can be associated with an infantryman … This discovery, which can perhaps be linked with the battle there in AD 197 (the soldier’s purse contained twelve silver denarii , the latest being struck under Septimius Severus in AD 194), also gives us accurate information on the new method of hanging the spatha ’ (Feugère, 2002: 115–16). In addition to the sword and coins, artefacts such as a brooch and sword chape were found, as were belt fittings composed of letters spelling out ‘Utere Felix’ or ‘use luckily’ – perhaps somewhat ironic given the fate of its owner.
    In AD 79 during the same eruption of Vesuvius that buried Pompeii, the city of Herculaneum was covered by lava and mud. Excavations of the city in the 1980s revealed not only buildings and artefacts, but also the skeletal remains of many of the inhabitants. Some of the most poignant of these were found in the seafront chambers (Gore, 1984: 570) and were of individuals trying desperately to escape. The human remains included those of an individual who was armed. This man – said to be around 37 years of age at death – was found face down with a dagger and a short sword ( gladius ), which was attached to the remains of a military-style belt (Guzzo, 2003: 74). He was accompanied in death by a series of carpentry tools, an adze and three chisels, that may have been in a bag on his back (Gore, 1984: 572–3). The pathology showed three missing front teeth and a lump in the femur, interpreted as resulting from a possible stab wound. So who was this man? De la Bédoyère (2001: 203–4) is in no doubt that if the body had been found in Britain, it would have been immediately taken as being the remains of a legionary. As there was no fort nearby, he suggested that the man was ‘probably a soldier, but going about his business in a wealthy civilian settlement either in a private capacity or because he had an official post in