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Grave of Roman cross-dressing eunuch priest uncovered in dig

By David Derbyshire, Science Correspondent

(Filed: 22/05/2002)

The grave of a castrated priest who dressed in women's clothing and

jewellery in fourth century Yorkshire has been unearthed by

archaeologists.

Peter Wilson, senior archaeologist at English Heritage, with the skull

and face mask of the priest

Buried in a matching jet necklace and bracelet, the young, slightly

built man is thought to have been a eunuch follower of the fertility

goddess Cybele.

He is one of the few Roman eunuchs ever discovered in Britain and

highlights how even the northernmost reaches of the empire were

relatively cosmopolitan 1,700 years ago.

The finds come from the bustling Roman town of Cataractonium which

lies close to present-day Catterick. Part of the town lies under a

racecourse while some of it was destroyed when the A1 dual carriageway

was built in the 1950s.

Although excavations began in 1958 and carried on until 1998, the

significance of many of the finds had been fully appreciated only

recently.

The skeleton was buried at a grave at Bainesse, a farm close to

Catterick and once an outlying settlement of the Roman town. The man

appeared to have died in his youth, although the cause of death is not

apparent.

The jet necklace and bracelet, a shale armlet and a bronze expanding

anklet contained about 600 stones. When the remains were first

discovered in the 1980s, archaeologists assumed that the skeleton was

of a woman but subsequent tests revealed it to be that of a male.

The findings are described in the two-volume Cataractonium: A Roman

Town and its Hinterland, edited by Dr Pete Wilson, a senior

archaeologist at English Heritage.

"He is the only man wearing this array of jewellery who has ever been

found from a late Roman cemetery in Britain," said Dr Wilson in York

yesterday.

"In life he would have been regarded as a transvestite and was

probably a gallus, one of the followers of the goddess Cybele who

castrated themselves in her honour." Cybele was imported from Anatolia

in the 3rd century BC and became a Roman state deity.

The Roman town developed from a military fort on Dere Street, an

important route for legions heading north. Archaeologists have

discovered shops, leather workshops, elaborate baths and evidence of

an influx of foreigners who left behind continental-style brooches.

Two of the finest finds include a statue of the smith god Vulcan, and

an enamelled flask that once contained perfume. A pottery mask,

probably used for religious theatre, was also discovered.

Dr Wilson, who pulled together 40 years of research for the books,

said: "This portrait of a constantly changing community would never

have emerged but for the 20th century road construction which finally

destroyed the remains of its buildings."

This piece of news was also reported in 'The Times', with some further detail, as follows:-

‘Howling eunuchs gave their all in Yorkshire’

(Extract from ‘The Times’ [London]: 22nd May 2001])

‘The army town of Catterick was once home to a cult of castrated, cross-dressing Roman priests who worshipped an exotic goddess by howling in the streets on an annual ‘Day of Blood’.

A 4th-century male skeleton unearthed close to the Yorkshire town, once a thriving Roman fort called ‘Cataractonium’, has been identified by archaeologists as a ‘gallus’, one of the transvestit

Paolo wrote: Thu May 23, 2002 4:03 pm e followers of the goddess Cybele who castrated themselves in her honour.

The skeleton, of a slightly built adult aged between 20 and 25, is adorned with an elaborate array of female jewellery, which led the researchers who discovered it in 1981 to assume it was that of a young woman. New analysis of the bones, however, has shown conclusively that the remains are of a man, and an investigation of the jewellery suggests that he was a eunuch priest in the cult of Cybele, a goddess from Asia Minor who became popular in the Roman Empire from the 3rd century B.C..

He was buried in a small cemetery at Bainesse, a farm just outside Catterick that was once a satellite settlement of the garrison town. His alternative lifestyle is revealed for the first time in ‘Cataractonium: A Roman Town & its Hinterland’, a two-volume examination of Catterick’s Roman past published today by English Heritage scientists.

The Catterick eunuch wore a necklace of 600 beads made from jet, a black stone that was thought to have magical powers, along with a 32-link jet bracelet on his left wrist, a shale armlet on his upper left arm and a twisted anklet made from copper wire on his left foot.

All the items would generally be regarded as female jewellery, said

Paolo wrote: Thu May 23, 2002 4:03 pm Pete Wilson, a senior archaeologist at English Heritage

who led the research team and edited the book. The jewellery marked the man out firmly as a transvestite, almost certainly from the cult of Cybele.

“This is a chap with a lot of female jewellery, and the most likely explanation is that he was a priest of Cybele,” Dr. Wilson said. “Followers of the cult, known as ‘galli’, dressed in women’s clothes and castrated themselves in honour of the goddess during a festival in April called the Day of Blood.”

On the Day of Blood, priests of Cybele would run through the streets howling, then take part in the castration ceremony: volunteers became eunuchs with the help of ornamental clamps, one of which was found in the Thames near London Bridge and is in the British Museum. The ceremony was designed to follow the example of Atys, the lover of Cybele, who castrated himself out of remorse for infidelity.

Once inducted into the cult through castration, followers would dress and live as women, wearing elaborate jewellery, brightly coloured female robes, with turbans and tiaras over women’s hairstyles.

Inscriptions and statues show that the cult was well established in northern England at the time that the Bainesse body was buried, in about AD275; there is an altar dedicated to Cybele at Corbridge on Hadrian’s Wall. A pottery dramatic mask found at Catterick may also have been used in cult ceremonies.

There is no firm evidence that the Bainesse body was a eunuch, but researchers believe that is the most likely explanation for his dress. He was also buried with two small pebbles in his mouth, which may have been an allusion to his castrated status.

The discovery shows the cosmopolitan decadence of the later Roman Empire had reached even its remotest outposts.

“You might expect to find an exotic cult like this to be thriving in a large town like London, but for it to have reached as far into the provinces as Catterick is pretty remarkable,” Dr. Wilson said.

Catterick grew from a military fort in AD80 to a bustling 4th century town.’

(Submitted by Pueros. Eunuch archive readers might be interested to know that a whole chapter relating to the priests of Cybele will be included in Pueros’ forthcoming work entitled ‘Nero’, of which the already posted ‘Castratrix of Ancient Rome’ is a stand-alone preview.)