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Int rodu ct ionIn this paper I wish to re-interpret the nature and ' purpose' of Romano -Celtic temples in first century AD Britain, in the light of fairly widespread indications of elite mortuary use in and around them, and th eir related association with ritua l pits/wells. Such an associatio n is suggestive o f connecti ons to a mythical Underworid: the realm of the dead (the ancestors) and co nc omitantly with th e memory of the pas t. Thi s persuades me to controvert an a-temporal, functionalist classification o f th e phenomenon of R omano-Celtic temples (Rodwe ll 1980 lists twelve ' types') in favo ur o f an historical/genea logical (Dean 1994; Foucault 199 1; Nietzsche 1996Nietzsche [1887 :57-5 8) approach to their interpretation, re lating them to native memories of an 'heroic' past, before the Roman C onquest.The key site, whic h has been the stimulus for my re-interpretation of Romano-Celti c templ es in the earl y Roma n period, is the mortuary encl os ure at Folly Lane, excavated by Rosa lind N ib lett (Denison 1994 :5; N iblett 1992. This encl osure is situated on a hill to the north o f Verulamium overlooking the c ity. In the immed iate post-Ro man Conquest peri od it was the locus of a comple x multi-stage fun erary rit ual ll1vo lving the laying out, cremati o n and deposition of an important individual o f the native eli te (these rites are simil ar to th ose observed at the recently excavated, first century mortuary enc losures at Stanway outside C olchester (Cru llun y 1997 23-27». Some fifty years after the Roman Conq uest (i n the F la vian period), a Romano-Celtic temp le was built within the encl os ure at Foll y Lane, di rec tl y on top of the area where the body was cremated, seemingly as an act of co mmemoration . Though it is tempting to suggest that such a temple is in fact a mauso leum whic h have been miscJass ified , the evide nce of archaeology (see below) suggests that religious and mortuary use of R o manoCeltic temples was not mutual ly excl usive and that it is our classificatory system itself which is at fault.

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