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Shifting Burial Rites – Shifting Identities?
Late Antique Burial Practices on the Rhine Frontier
Abstract Numerous Late Antique burials are known from the urban and rural sites along the Rhine border and throughout its hinterland. The Palatinate offers an especially vast range of archaeological material. Until now, however, this extensive material has mostly been the subject of chronological studies or has, on rare occasions, been discussed with regards to the ethnic identity of those buried. The actual burial rites and grave contents, as well as further aspects of the cult of the dead, have most often not been considered. The extensive material sources certainly allow for deep insights into Late Antique burial practices in a border region of the Roman Empire, which was exposed to various cultural influences and whose emerging ‘border society’ became a model for the burial customs of the early Middle Ages. This paper gives a brief overview of selected burial grounds from towns and villae along the Upper and Lower Rhine. Due to the absence of structures above ground, it focuses on the grave goods and their possible functions within burial rites.
Keywords Burial Rites, Late Antiquity, Germania, Ethnic Identities, Christianisation
