A Mass Grave outside the Walls

Abstract

This chapter focuses on the Roman frontier province of Scythia Minor during the fourth–sixth centuries CE, in an attempt to get a glimpse of how life on the frontier might have worked. In the fourth century, Ibida, a major urban center in the northern part of Scythia Minor, was the largest settlement after the capital Tomis. A non-specific mortuary assemblage, known as feature M141, was identified in 2008 when scattered human remains were discovered during the archaeological investigation of the foundation of the walled enclosure’s tenth tower. The way these human remains were processed and treated in a mortuary context fundamentally differs from the other two burial assemblages found at the site. There is compelling evidence that the remains of these individuals were subjected to a violent, irreverent, and unceremonious treatment, instead of the prescribed funerary ceremony and interment common in Scythia Minor during the late Roman Empire.