Inhumations

A form of disposing of the dead through burial, also known as an ‘interment’. There are several different terms used to describe the particular manner in which the body has been placed within the grave and these include, crouched, extended, flexed and contracted. The body may be contained in a wooden, metal or stone coffin and may be accompanied by grave goods. Inhumation has been used as a form of burial in many periods of history. There are many inhumations in Buckinghamshire, from all dates. Possible late Saxon inhumations are found around St Mary's in Aylesbury from when the churchyard was probably a lot bigger. Roman child inhumations are sometimes found isolated in villas or other settlements such as at Yewden Villa. Many inhumations are found in inhumation cemeteries.

Roman cemeteries

A Roman cemetery is an area of either privately or communally owned ground set aside for the burial, celebration and remembrance of the dead. The burials may be cremations or inhumations and they are usually deposited below ground although upstanding tombs in the form of barrows or mausolea may occasionally occur. Under Roman law it was illegal to bury or burn the dead, except infants, within a town so throughout the Roman occupation of Britain, cemeteries were set up outside the settlement to which they belonged. The known examples were usually situated outside a settlement and alongside an approach road. Location by a road may be purely a matter of convenience but some have related it to the desire to have the dead remembered and venerated by passers-by.

It is possible to date excavated Romano-British cemeteries on the basis of the burial rite and associated grave goods. There are few certain examples of Roman inhumation in Britain before the later 2nd century, the rite became common during the 3rd century and almost entirely supplanted cremation towards the end of that century.The main cemetery at Chichester was in use from c.AD 70 until the 3rd century for cremations, with inhumation burials carrying on into the 4th century. Others had a far more restricted lifespan eg. Lankhills, Winchester, where all of the burials were of 4th century date and at Chester where the earliest known inhumation cemetery was in use during the second half of the 2nd century and closed c.AD 200.

A few Roman cemeteries occur in Buckinghamshire, though no large settlements are known. An inhumation cemetery was found at Blind Lane, Bourne End and a few cremations at the Gate House, Wing.

Anglo-Saxon inhumation cemeteries

An Anglo-Saxon inhumation cemetery consists of one to several hundred inhumation burials. The burials were normally placed in sub-rectangular graves; occasionally a coffin or wooden chamber enclosed the body. As well as the skeletal remains, each burial may also be accompanied by a number of grave-goods.

Most inhumation cemeteries have been discovered when quarrying or other ground cuttings have disturbed burials and revealed distinctive Anglo-Saxon artefacts. Anglo-Saxon inhumation are generally dated to the Early Anglo-Saxon period, from the fifth to the seventh centuries AD. Inhumation burials are also known from barrows.

The known distribution of inhumation cemeteries is concentrated in the South and East of England. Inhumation appears to have been the principal burial rite in Kent, Sussex, Hampshire and the Isle of Wight, Wiltshire, Derbyshire, much of Yorkshire and Northumberland. Both inhumation and cremation were used from an early period in Oxfordshire, Bedfordshire, Buckinghamshire, Northamptonshire, Warwickshire and the West Midlands.

A Saxon inhumation burial under a barrow was excavated at Taplow in the nineteenth century. Saxon inhumations were inserted into the Bronze Age barrow at Bledlow Cop, and other inhumations were found associated with an earlier barrow at Castle Hill House in High Wycombe. Inhumations were found in Turweston in the nineteenth century. Late Saxon (Christian) inhumations are also known. Late Saxon and medieval inhumations have been found all around the area of St Mary's church, such as in Kingsbury, suggesting the churchyard was much bigger in the eleventh century.

Medieval inhumations

Medieval inhumations are usually found in churchyards attached to any parish church, such as at All Saints church, Great Kimble. They are not often excavated unless they were found outside a churchyard, such as at the crossroads in Chearsley where the gallows used to stand, or the churchyard has since gone out of use, for instance at Taplow Court. Other medieval inhumation cemeteries can be found attached to medieval hospitals, such as at St Margaret's in High Wycombe.

Medieval inhumations do not usually contain any grave goods, unlike earlier pagan burials. In the Christian burial rite grave goods were not allowed. Christian burials are also orientated east-west. Some Anglo-Saxon and Roman burials can also have this Christian burial rite.