The Gallo-Roman cremation cemeteries of the Grand Duchy of
Luxembourg - intial findings of current research
Michel Polfer1 and Jos Thiel2
1
Seminaire d'Etudes Anciennes,
Centre Universitaire de Luxembourg,
162 A, avenue de la Faïencerie,
L-1511 Luxembourg,
tel.:( 00352)-81.11.77,
fax:(00352)-81.12.07.
2
11, rue Principale,
L-8365 Hagen,
Luxembourg.
Michel Polfer
michel_polfer@compuserve.com
Jos Thiel
thiel@cetrel.lu
The paper will present the first results of a research project which aims
at:
the elaboration of a complete corpus of all individual Gallo-Roman
graves and cemetaries, including funerary monuments and inscriptions
the analysis of the structures and objects (typology, chronology
etc.) as well as the study of the religious, cultural and social
attitudes and their evolution during the Roman period.
The geographic area for the study is the modern Grand
Duchy of
Luxembourg, a major part of the ancient civitas treverorum. The
project covers the period from the second half of the 1st century
AD to the 5th century AD.
The Grand Duchy of Luxembourg
The paper is divided into three main parts:
a short history of Gallo-Roman funerary archaeology in Luxembourg
a short presentation of some of the first results of the study
related to:
the geographic distribution of the sites
the relationship between rural settlements, cemetaries and
funerary monuments
the internal organisation of rural cemeteries
depositional practice and social differentiation in rural
cemetaries
cremation types and the relationship between cremation and
inhumation
a presentation (through maps and a database) of the current
state of the corpus (which currently has records of 300 different archaeological
sites)
