Tag: Rome

How Syria and Rome came to Tyneside- the tombstone of Regina.

On By shadowsflyawayIn UncategorizedLeave a comment

The tombstone of the former slave Regina in the Arbeia museum, South Shields.© Carole Tyrrell

Earlier this month I went on a Roman Britain holiday in the North East of England. We stayed in South Shields which may be a little faded now but still offered enticing beach walks and a road of restaurants to explore.  But, in ancient times, when the Romans were in occupation, it was a large port and a major supply base with many people travelling through it from other parts of the Empire.  Some of them came from Syria and there is a connection between them and the headstone that I will write about in this post.

We visited two excavated Roman forts: Wallsend or Segedunum which is its Latin name and Arbeia which was surrounded by Victorian terraces.   Wallsend is so called as its at the Eastern end of Hadrian’s Wall. At the nearby Metro station all the official signs were in English and Latin which showed real attention to detail. It’s a large site with a 360 degree viewing platform.

The granaries and in the top left hand corner, the reconstructed West Gate.© Chris McKenna user name: Thryduulf. Shared under Wiki Creative Commons

The recreated West Gate, Arbeia. © Carole Tyrrell

Arbeia was a short walk from the hotel and has been partly excavated and partly recreated.  Replicas of the West Gate and the Commanding Officers house were waiting for us to explore.  I would hazard a guess that the Romans were glad of having underfloor heating! The Victorian streets all had a Roman flavour to their names: Vespasian Avenue, Caesar’s Walk and Claudius Court were among them.  More attention to detail which I liked. Some of the houses were built over the site until the local council realised what treasures might lie beneath and they were demolished. There is a small museum which contains finds from the site and information about Roman customs.  A selection of altars were on display which were used to pray and make offerings to their gods. They were rumoured to have been found in nearby back gardens. Perfect bird baths perhaps?

Roman altars on display, Arbeia museum.© Carole Tyrrell

But the pride of the museum in my opinion were the two beautiful headstones on display. They were dedicated to two people who were former slaves but were given their freedom. One, a young woman called Regina, was British and the other was a young man, Victor, who originally came from North Africa. Both of the headstones were apparently found in car parks so we are lucky that they have survived at all.

Regina became a free woman after her marriage to a Syrian man called Barates. She came from a tribe called the Catuvellaumi who came from what we now know as Hertfordshire.  Barates came from the trading city of Palmyra in Syria which is situated 215 miles north east of Damascus, the Syrian capital. It’s an ancient city and archaeological finds dating back to the Neolithic period have been found there. It became part of the Roman empire during the first century. Palmyra was an extremely wealthy city due to trading caravans and colonies along the Silk Road and throughout The Roman Empire. The Silk Road may also have been how the Black Death spread. In 1400, it was destroyed and became a minor settlement, its past glories forgotten. In 1932, under French rule, its inhabitants were moved into a new village and it became an excavation site. Islamic State destroyed large parts of the city until the Syrian Army recaptured it on 2 March 2017. In December 2024, after the fall of the Assad regime, the Syrian Free Army captured it.

Peristyl House, Palmyra Syria copyright Xvlun-commons-wiki

Palmyra, Syria Senate House copyright Maria Millella shared under Wiki Commons

There is a cemetery outside the Arbeia site as it was Roman custom to bury the dead outside city walls. The dead could be burned on a wooden funeral pyre and some of their remains collected to be buried in a pot which was known as cremation. They could also be buried and laid out in a grave or rectangular pit which was known as inhumation. In addition, they could have a wooden coffin or cloth shroud and have some of their personal possessions buried with them.

It was the Romans who introduced the practice of having an inscribed headstone.  The inscriptions reveal all sorts of information about a person such as name, age, nationality and familial relationships. They make the deceased into real people again!

Both Regina and Victor’s tombstones resemble other examples of Romao-British stones in shape and general design. But as one interpretation board said:

‘…in their carving there are strong parallels with other examples found at Palmyra which led to a fusion of styles.’

Both Regina and Victor died young. She was 30 and he was 20. But Regina enjoyed the lifestyle and status that she had as a free woman and her elegant headstone reflects this in the symbols used on it. She wears the fashionable provincial dress of the day and sits in a Roman style high backed chair facing the viewer.  It’s sad that her face is has been damaged but I would imagine that it would have been carved to resemble fashionable Roman women of the time and not a portrait of her.

Roman society was very traditional and women had very limited roles. A memorial like Regina’s would have emphasised her domestic duties. She holds a distaff and spindle for spinning wool and there is a basket of spun balls of wool beside her chair and these would have been included to demonstrate that she was an industrious, dutiful wife. She is opening a treasure box with her other hand. There is a herringbone pattern on her necklace which has been seen on other depictions of Roman women and reflect the conventions of the time.  Regina’s headstone is unusual in that, although the inscription is in Latin, it also has a line of Arabic beneath it. It has been suggested that it was carved by a Syrian which may indicate a small community in the area or a someone just passing through. It’s written in Palmyrene text in Arabic which is similar to ancient Hebrew.

Closer view of Regina holding her distaff and spindle and the balls of wool beside her. copyright Carole Tyrrell

Closer view of Regina’s epitaph in Latin and below in Palmyrene text. Copyright Carole Tyrrell

The Latin inscription reads:-

‘D(IS) M(ANIBUS) REGINA LIBERTA ET CONIUGE

BARATES PALYMENUS NATIONE

CATULLAUANA AN(NORUM) XXXX’

Which can be translated as:

‘To the spirits of the departed (and) of Regina,

Freedwoman and wife of Barates of Palmyra

Catuvellauni by birth died aged 30.’

The line of Palmyrene text below the Latin reads:

‘RYGN’BT HRY BR ‘T’ HBL’

Which translates as:

‘Regina, freedwoman of Barates, alas‘

It’s a real shame that Regina’s head is missing but if a sculpture is going to be damaged, it’s generally the head that goes first. It’s interesting to think that a port in the North East of England attracted so many people from other lands and how Barates and Regina actually met. A beautiful tribute to a much loved wife.

Part 2 – Victor’s headstone

©Text and photos Carole Tyrrell with grateful thanks to Tyne & Wear County Council.

References and further reading:

Palmyra – Wikipedia

Arbeia, South Shields Roman Fort – Experience life on the edge of the Roman Empire

Women in ancient Rome – Wikipedia

Lion mask – Wikipedia

By a candle’s flickering flame  – a visit to Brompton catacombs July 2017

On By shadowsflyawayIn Cemetery excursions4 Comments

The Western catacomb which runs along the western wall of Brompton Cemetery which faces out onto the railway.
©Carole Tyrrell

Shadows move on the coffins and walls. Above you the glass orbs set into the high ceiling admit a little light into the depths but you prefer the intimate illumination of the flame.  It reflects on the brass fittings and the patterns of the nails on the coffin on the shelf beside you. Your loved one now rests eternally in Brompton catacombs as you sit by the head of the coffin in its space or lochulus.  Family news, world events: you talk to them as if they were alive with your voice the only sound in the silence. Then you open the book that you have brought with you at the bookmarked page, and then read the next chapter of what was their favourite novel.  It’s almost like having your own private mausoleum.

Finally, almost reluctantly, you close the book, after having marked next week’s chapter and pick up the candleholder.  As you walk towards the cast iron entrance gates, your footsteps echo behind you and the candle finally goes out as you open them.   The sun outside temporarily blinds you as you pull the gate closed and then lock it with your own key. The symbols of eternity and mortality on them remind you of the other world behind.  Then you ascend the flight of steps and return into Brompton Cemetery and the noisy world again.   You have been ‘communing with the dead’ as our guide, Nick, explained.

Brompton Cemetery isn’t holding an Open Day in 2017 due to the ongoing restoration project but, instead, on 15 July they held catacomb tours. These are not usually open and I haven’t visited these for some time so eagerly took up the opportunity. It was a drizzly day so it was good to be under cover. The catacombs have the most magnificent cast iron doors featuring snakes, downturned torches, an ouroboros and a winged hourglass – all symbols of mortality and eternity. You know that you are entering the realm of the dead once you step inside.

I have visited several catacombs located in large London cemeteries and what has always remained with me is the special and unique atmosphere that each one has: Kensal Green, Highgate, Brompton and the Valhalla that is West Norwood. One of Nunhead’s catacombs has now become the Anglican chapel crypt and is only open on certain days.

Catacombs never became popular in England and most of the coffin spaces available were destined to only have dust as an occupant. These are known as loculi or loculus in the singular. Even Highgate was unable to sell all theirs in the Egyptian Avenue and I would have thought that they would have been snapped up. However, there is reputed to be a cemetery in Cheshunt which is doing a roaring trade in selling them as they have an Italian and Greek community who view catacombs differently.

There is another set of catacombs under Brompton’s western colonnades with an identical set of doors on the other side of the circle but these have remained unused.  The other Western catacombs on the boundary side were never used and when reopened were crammed floor to ceiling with spoil which took a year to remove.

We were visiting the Eastern colonnade crypt and a flight of steps led to the iron doors.  As Nick said imagine six pallbearers carrying a coffin on their shoulders down them on a wet day.  The coffin would have been triple lined: wood, lead, wood so a heavy load indeed.  Brompton, unlike other catacombs, such as West Norwood or Kensal Green, didn’t have a chapel above the catacombs with a handy hydraulic catafalque to transport the coffin down into the darkness.

Nick indicated an interment in the first chamber behind the doors. This was sealed in with a plaque and epitaph dedicated to Captain Alexander Louis Ricardo of the Grenadier Guards.  For me, it was a reminder of the still unsolved Victorian Charles Bravo murder.  Captain Ricardo was Florence Bravo’s first husband who died young from alcoholism in Cologne. I noticed ferns growing from a family vault beneath him and wondered about damp as a perennial problem.

Lit candles had been placed on the coffin shelves to light our way which added to the ambience.  Victorians were fascinated with the idea of an afterlife and seances and mediums were big business. Sir William Crookes of the notorious Katie King case is also buried in Brompton.   Nick added the Victorians were a heady mix of hardheadiness and sentimentality.

 

The glass inserts that allowed some light into the catacomb have long gone and been bricked up.  Brompton’s original owners, The Westminster and West London Cemetery Company initially offered 4000 loculi for sale but of these only 700 were sold. So if you have a hankering for going underground they still have at least 3300 spaces available. Nick informed us that the last request for a catacomb space was in 1926.

 

English catacombs were based on the ones in Rome. Cremation was illegal until well into the 19th century so it was either under or over ground burial until then. Catacombs at Brompton were also called upon as a temporary mortuary when necessary. A visitor noticed that one coffin was just under the roof above four other coffins stacked on shelves and asked how the cemetery workers got it up there. Nick indicated the pulley blocks that they could have used to lift it up and manoeuvre it into place. Quite a feat.

 

Nick indicated the plumber’s diaper mark on the exposed side of one coffin which indicated that he had sealed it properly and there would be no leakages.  He also pointed out the wreaths, somewhat desiccated by now, that mourners often left by the coffins, and there was a small elegant urn containing ashes placed on a shelf next to one.

 

Our visit lasted 30 minutes and we filed out towards the light of the outside world again leaving Brompton’s catacomb’s incumbents to eternally sleep on.

 

The attractive colonnades of Brompton are above the catacombs and have plaques on their walls. These were to enable friends or other relatives without keys to pay their respects to the deceased at the plaque.  These are reputed to be affixed directly above the departed’s place within the chamber.

 

A word of caution for anyone considering visiting a catacomb for the first time: if you feel uncomfortable about seeing coffins, and a lot of people do, then don’t visit or think carefully about it first.

Please note:  Photography is not permitted in the Brompton catacombs.

©Photos and text Carole Tyrrell