Shackled slave skeleton from Roman Rutland

[Duncan Head]

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2021/jun/07/shackled-skeleton-identified-rare-evidence-roman-britain

[Jim Webster]

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2021/jun/07/shackled-skeleton-identified-rare-evidence-roman-britain

not reclaiming the shackles for their iron seems to indicate somebody was making a significant gesture!

Jim

[Imperial Dave]

wasteful not to retrieve the shackles....

[Erpingham]

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2021/jun/07/shackled-skeleton-identified-rare-evidence-roman-britain

not reclaiming the shackles for their iron seems to indicate somebody was making a significant gesture!

Jim

My thought too.  As suggested, this is a beyond death action of some sort, for which it was worth sacrificing some equipment.  To keep this person a slave in the afterlife, or to prevent the dead walking, I wonder?

[Jim Webster]

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2021/jun/07/shackled-skeleton-identified-rare-evidence-roman-britain

not reclaiming the shackles for their iron seems to indicate somebody was making a significant gesture!

Jim

My thought too.  As suggested, this is a beyond death action of some sort, for which it was worth sacrificing some equipment.  To keep this person a slave in the afterlife, or to prevent the dead walking, I wonder?

Even if it was just to drive home the insult, it was worth going that extra mile for! They really didn't like him rather than regard him merely as a disposable chattel

[Dangun]

The article's use of the word "burial" was a bit hard for me to follow.
Did they mean he was in a grave? In which case the shackles are weird.

[Denis Grey]

The article's use of the word "burial" was a bit hard for me to follow.
Did they mean he was in a grave? In which case the shackles are weird.

Left in a ditch and covered over apparently.

[Denis Grey]

I'm not sure the find adds a great deal to the evidential case for there having been slaves in Roman Britain, but the original article (https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/britannia/article/an-unusual-roman-fettered-burial-from-great-casterton-rutland/1C2ECF53B1B14CEB0790E170FD5AE442) repays reading.

[Duncan Head]

The article's use of the word "burial" was a bit hard for me to follow.
Did they mean he was in a grave? In which case the shackles are weird.

However, despite its informal location in a ditch, the degree of articulation of the Great Casterton burial, the lack of scavenging and its proximity to the town and its cemetery all argue against the body simply being left to rot in the open. It probably received a burial of sorts and met some minimum ritual requirements, even if these were very basic and undertaken for reasons of public order/hygiene rather than concern for the deceased's soul. Burial in an extramural ditch, perhaps beyond or near the edge of the Great Casterton cemetery, could perhaps be seen as a version of the cheap and expedient burial of the anonymous and poor within 'potters' fields' or puticuli.

[DBS]

What I find odd is the extraordinarily limited movement these shackles must have allowed.  Yes, they would have stopped him running away, but they must also have severely limited the work and movement that he could manage.  To my mind they make sense for a condemned prisoner who can be manhandled to their fate, but a slave labouring in the fields or similar...?  They are going to take for ever to get to the putative fields at a heel to toe shuffle, and without the ability to stand feet apart, will be limited in managing anything strenuous or requiring balance, such as bending over or lifting.  It would be a different matter if the shackles were linked by a couple of feet of chain.  What is the point of a slave if they are non-productive?

[Erpingham]

What I find odd is the extraordinarily limited movement these shackles must have allowed.  Yes, they would have stopped him running away, but they must also have severely limited the work and movement that he could manage.

There are tasks , of course, where a slave could be static at a "work station".  A potter, for example, or a tessera maker.  These shackles may only have been used e.g. when sleeping or transported on a cart, to prevent escapes - as the Britannia article says, these were quite up market, easy-to--remove shackles (the owner needed a key, not a blacksmith) so probably weren't intended for permanent wear.  But, because they were so removable, it does point to a determination to send the victim into the afterlife with them on, for whatever purpose. 

[DBS]

Indeed.  That is what is odd.  If the bloke drops dead at his potter's wheel, why not take off the shackles?  I must admit I am inclined to execution. 

Maybe they simply lost the key?
"Optio, where is the key to the shackles?"
"I thought you had it, Centurion..."
"Do you know what they are worth?  Oh, just get on with it."

[Erpingham]

Indeed.  That is what is odd.  If the bloke drops dead at his potter's wheel, why not take off the shackles?  I must admit I am inclined to execution. 

Maybe they simply lost the key?
"Optio, where is the key to the shackles?"
"I thought you had it, Centurion..."
"Do you know what they are worth?  Oh, just get on with it."

"Oh, just hack his feet off - we'll find it when we get back"?  It wouldn't be hard to remove them if you wanted.  Incidentally, did you notice they left his boots on?  Presumably, not worth much.  And I agree, we're more likely looking at a situation of punishment rather some slave dying by the side of the road.

[DBS]

All of which suggests some value (I mean in judicial terms) to the individual, if it is worth foregoing recovery of shackles to send a message or ensure an unhappy existence in Hades.  Dead slave, executed or otherwise?  Just get the shackles off him.  A slave is a slave is a slave, unless they have done something so heinous that they have been singled out for exemplary punishment - but surely exemplary punishment typical for slaves - eg crucifixion - would have left skeletal traces?  A citizen, even a very naughty one, might still be afforded the supposed dignity of decapitation (unknowable in this case), so perhaps leaving shackles on the body was another way of heaping on the odium within the letter of the law?

Oh well, we shall never know.