This is an in depth yet accessible study of human decapitation burials in Roman Britain. Dr Katie Tucker studied this subject for her doctorate and so is a leading expert in the area. Her findings go against conventional views of human decapitation burials of this period, which traditionally favour the view of a post-mortem removal of the head. Instead, Katie found the majority of the evidence did not support this theory and so concluded that most decapitations were likely to have been performed prior to death, potentially as a result of execution or human sacrifice.

In order to gain a full insight into the ways in which these burials were formed and the reasoning behind these practices, Katie compares the decapitation burials to the burials of the wider Romano-British cemetery population. In doing this, Katie is able to better understand the differences between decapitated individuals and the rest of the population in terms of burial practice, demographics and ante-mortem health status.

Decapitation burials are not only confined to the Roman period and so Katie also discusses the context of them in the Neolithic, Bronze Age, Iron Age, Early Medieval, Medieval and Post Medieval periods in order to assess whether there is continuity between periods.

• Cover
• Title Page
• Copyright
• Contents
• Introduction
• Chapter 1: The Study of Decapitation Burials
• Chapter 2: Evidence for Decapitation in British Prehistory
• Chapter 3: Decapitation in the Romano-British Period
• Chapter 4: Decapitations from Roman York – A Case Study
• Photo Gallery
• Chapter 5: Decapitations in Ancient European Literature, Art, Material Culture and Ethnography
• Chapter 6: Decapitation Burials from Elsewhere within the Roman Empire
• Chapter 7: Decapitation in the Early Medieval Period
• Chapter 8: Decapitation in the Medieval and Early Post-medieval Periods
• Chapter 9: Comparison between the Decapitated Individuals from the Iron Age, Romano-British and Early Medieval Periods
• Chapter 10: Interpretations of the Practice of Decapitation
• Conclusion
• Appendix 1: Materials and Methods Used in the Research
• Appendix 2: Identifying Decapitations – A Signature List
• Appendix 3: Skeletons Analysed as Part of the Research
• Appendix 4: Comparative Sites
• Glossary
• Acknowledgements
• Bibliography
• Notes