torpedo jar;
ossuary;
human skeletal remains
- Museum number
- 91952
- Description
-
Cylindrical torpedo jar; pale yellow 5Y 8/2; pointed base; built in two or more sections with base added; lined with asphalt, with single small accidental vertical splash on the upper exterior; single small circular hole, measuring 1.5 cm across, drilled through the vessel wall 3 cm below the top; top broken off in antiquity and break carefully smoothed prior to re-use as an ossuary; originally contained human bones.
- Production date
- 3rdC-7thC
- Dimensions
-
Diameter: 3 centimetres (stump of base)
-
Diameter: 21.50 centimetres (top, maximum)
-
Diameter: 20.70 centimetres (top, minimum)
-
Height: 76.50 centimetres (incomplete)
- Curator's comments
-
Report on the human remains by Dr Theya Molleson
The bones from the Torpedo jar are generally fragmented but do not appear to have been broken up deliberately as often happens with cremations before the bones are placed in an urn. For example the shafts of many of the long bones are fairly complete, up to 190mms, although none has attached epiphyses. A single individual appears to be represented.
Very few of the cranial bones survive. The few fragments are deeply corroded or etched on the internal surface. In some pieces the diploe is channelled and tunnelled presumably by insects. Attack by insect maggots could account for much of the superficial erosion of the bones of both the head and post-cranially. The edges of the ribs have been removed, especially the lower border. Some are also penetrated and channelled. Some ribs have a diagenetic crystalline deposit on the ventral ends, possibly where the ribs were in contact with some artifact. Brushite and gypsum will both form within bone in a space consuming way. The inner surfaces of the ilium and ischium are more eroded than the outer suggesting that insects were attracted to this surface.
The long bone ends (epiphyses) have mostly broken off. The epiphyseal surfaces in general have been preferentially attacked by insects, which can get to the fat or marrow-rich material within the trabeculae of the ends of the bones (eg MTI).
The widespread evidence for superficial damage to the bones of this skeleton suggest that it was not buried beyond the reach of scavengers but left exposed on the surface. The evidence is that the most recent stage of soft tissue removal was by the maggots of insects. The general loss of epiphyses, most of the vertebrae and even the left forearm could be due to carnivore damage by dogs. Any puncture marks are ambivalent: on either side (10.5mm apart) of the proximal end of MTV, on the lateral side (38.7mm apart) of the fibula and on the lateral and medial side.
No tooth marks were observed. This might exclude dog as a scavenger but anyway might not show on human bone where the surface is so modified. The lack of cracking along the length of the long bone shaft indicates that the bones, although exposed, were sheltered from periodic wetting and drying. Some of the bones, radius, right ilium, and a few of the ribs have a dark soil stain in patches.
-
During the course of the 19th and 20th centuries, large numbers of such jars have been reported from half a dozen different locations on the Bushehr (Bushire) peninsula, in all cases apparently having been adapted to serve as ossuaries in which the partially exposed bones of individuals were interred. The original jars are a form of transport amphora and reflect maritime trade along the Persian Gulf in the Sasanian period. Their extensive recycled funerary use not only illustrates the size and density of the Sasanian population on the Bushehr peninsula (which was independently suggested by unpublished surface survey by Andrew Williamson) but also the size of the local Zoroastrian population. Equivalent archaeological evidence for Zoroastrian burial practices is rare from Iran at this period and effectively limited to excavated finds from the sites of Shahr-i Qumis (in north-east Iran) and Merv (Turkmenistan).
- Location
- On display (G1/wp70/sh6)
- Exhibition history
-
Exhibited:
2003- BM, Enlightenment gallery
- Condition
- Incomplete; old root marks on the exterior
- Acquisition date
- 1823
- Acquisition notes
- Found marked 91952, and presumed to correspond to 1823-6-14,1, for which see xerox of letter from donor in "Letters on Antiquities" volume and where recorded as presented by Mr James Ashley Maude.
- Department
- Middle East
- BM/Big number
- 91952
- Registration number
- 1823,0614.1