Adventure through time> Earth and time
Step 3
alt_route Gallo-Roman Museum
The Museum explores the traces left by the Gallo-Romans who inform us about the beliefs and funeral rites during Antiquity. The collections house the decorations of monuments, everyday objects and other discoveries during archaeological excavations carried out in Sisteron and in a neighboring village: Bevons.
In particular, you will see an exceptional funeral complex from a mausoleum dating from the 1st / 2nd century AD.
https://www.sisteron-buech.fr/fr/patrimoine-culturel/musee-gallo-romain
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Death and funeral rites during Antiquity
Roman beliefs
The Greeks like the Romans believed that after death, souls descended to Hell, to be judged there for their lives. This is why the families deposited a coin in the graves, the “obol”, for the soul of the deceased to give to the ferryman Charon. If the soul cannot pay, it wanders the Styx, the river of oblivion, and returns to haunt the living in ghost form.
Ceremonies
The feast of the dead called Féralia was celebrated at the end of February and lasted 10 days. The Romans brought on this occasion offerings such as flowers, fruits and seeds of salt, currency of exchange and a means of payment of the time. It is the ration of salt attributed to the soldier who gave the word salary,
Funerals
At the end of the Republic, the rite most practiced in Rome and Italy was cremation known as “cremation”. The funeral then took place in five stages: the farewell ceremony, the toilet, the exhibition of the deceased, the funeral procession and finally the cremation. Children under 7 are placed in the ground.
Mourning was generally worn for a year with a few exceptions: 6 months for children under 6, 8 months for birth parents and 10 months for a husband.
Funeral monuments
The groupings of tombs, or necropolises, that we know today did not exist among the Romans. The Roman law of the Twelve Tables promulgated around 451 BC. JC prohibited the burying or cremation of the dead in cities for health and religious reasons. The graves were located outside the cities. The quality and size of these reflected the social level of the deceased.