"you might consider how or if Romans and/or Britons might have commemorated such places"
this is certainly an area I'd be interested in hearing more about but I have little to offer on the topic and would welcome some more voices on this thread, or in the pub.
The one I always have in mind is Ribemont sur Ancre, big bone and weapon pits, dismembered corpses etc Maybe there are some corollaries between Iron Age Gauls and Iron Age Brits dealing with battlefield memorials. My recollection (and it is time fogged) was that the site was first noted by a Brit classicist in a support trench during the Battle of the Somme. His observations led to discovery and excavation of a quality Roman settlement, baths, theatre and a cracking temple.
The odd thing about the Temple was the closed/circular side which didn't fit the standard model. When the team went through the Roman level they found the much earlier bone and weapon deposits. So Romans observing the form and significance of a much earlier battlefield memorial.
I haven't looked at Ribemont for quite a while so any updates/observations appreciated, even if it's off topic (new thread maybe?)
www.youtube.com/watch?v=dteDquWoIQ4
http://www.ina.fr/video/RCC9503221373
http://www.ina.fr/video/AM00001255446
http://www.culture.gouv.fr/fr/arcnat/aer...u3-pg9.htm
http://theses.univ-lyon2.fr/documents/ge...oteftn1441
I can't imagine battlefield memorials have only entered human culture in the last few hundred years.
Cadoux, Jean-Louis, ‘L’ossuaire gaulois de Ribemont-sur-Ancre’, in Gallia, 42, 1984, pp. 53-78 ;
link update:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jbgTdrNA3gE
this is certainly an area I'd be interested in hearing more about but I have little to offer on the topic and would welcome some more voices on this thread, or in the pub.
The one I always have in mind is Ribemont sur Ancre, big bone and weapon pits, dismembered corpses etc Maybe there are some corollaries between Iron Age Gauls and Iron Age Brits dealing with battlefield memorials. My recollection (and it is time fogged) was that the site was first noted by a Brit classicist in a support trench during the Battle of the Somme. His observations led to discovery and excavation of a quality Roman settlement, baths, theatre and a cracking temple.
The odd thing about the Temple was the closed/circular side which didn't fit the standard model. When the team went through the Roman level they found the much earlier bone and weapon deposits. So Romans observing the form and significance of a much earlier battlefield memorial.
I haven't looked at Ribemont for quite a while so any updates/observations appreciated, even if it's off topic (new thread maybe?)
www.youtube.com/watch?v=dteDquWoIQ4
http://www.ina.fr/video/RCC9503221373
http://www.ina.fr/video/AM00001255446
http://www.culture.gouv.fr/fr/arcnat/aer...u3-pg9.htm
http://theses.univ-lyon2.fr/documents/ge...oteftn1441
I can't imagine battlefield memorials have only entered human culture in the last few hundred years.
Cadoux, Jean-Louis, ‘L’ossuaire gaulois de Ribemont-sur-Ancre’, in Gallia, 42, 1984, pp. 53-78 ;
link update:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jbgTdrNA3gE