Urn with face decoration, 2nd century AD, from Colchester, Roman Britain

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  Urn with swastikas, Anglo-Saxon, 4th-5th century AD, from Norfolk

 

Height: 30.000 cm

P&EE 1870 4-2 526

Prehistory and Europe

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Containers

Cremation urns

In many cultures bodies are not buried, but are burnt. This is called cremation. The ashes are then either scattered, or kept (and often later buried) in a container called a cremation urn. Some cultures believe that burning the body releases the spirit of the person, in other places it has been done for health reasons, or because it is simply the custom.

In early Roman Britain cremation was the custom, and this urn was made specially to keep someone's ashes in. The face was put on the side for a special meaning, which unfortunately we do not now know. The urn underneath is from 3-400 years later, from pagan Anglo-Saxon times. The swastika decoration may have a religious meaning.