LIFE FROM DEATH: MULTI‐SPECIES FERTILITY RITUALS WITHIN A ROMANO‐BRITISH RITUAL SHAFT IN SOUTHERN ENGLAND

Summary Romano‐British shaft deposits are an important part of the ritual make‐up of the province. However, understanding the meaning of these features is often difficult due to the lack of textual sources. This paper discusses a first century AD shaft from Surrey, England, using a multi‐proxy approach to investigate potential ritual significance. Its unique assemblage, containing one of the largest deposits of human and animal remains ever excavated from a single Romano‐British feature along with the first recorded instance of Romano‐British use of red ochre on bone (a dog baculum, or penis bone), allowed for a series of cosmological connections to fertility be identified.