Archaeologists working in the legionary cemetery of Legio—base of the Sixth Ironclad Legion in the Jezreel Valley—have uncovered a shallow pit containing nothing but the jaws of at least thirteen domestic pigs. Lee Perry-Gal, Greg Leyfirer, Matthew J. Adams and Yotam Tepper report that the deposit, dug beside contemporary cremation and inhumation graves, is unlikely to be kitchen waste; instead, it fits the literary description of a funerary banquet (silicernium) in which mourners sacrificed a pig to purify the grave and then dined on the animal’s meat .
A unique deposit
The pit lay about 50 m from the nearest cremation burial and cut a single, compact soil layer, signalling one rapid event rather than gradual dumping. Zooarchaeological study showed a stark bias: mandibles outnumbered maxillae three to one, and no other skeletal parts or species were present. Minimal weathering and almost no butchery marks suggest the jaws were collected immediately after slaughter and interred together . Such carefully sorted bone groups are rare; the authors know no parallels from Roman cemeteries in Syria Palaestina.
Age and status of the animals
Tooth metrics place nearly all specimens below the wild-boar size range, confirming a homogenous herd of domestic pigs. Wear stages show more than half were slaughtered between seven and eighteen months—prime meat age but before maximum weight—implying deliberate selection rather than routine provisioning . Dental stress markers reveal some pigs grew in poor conditions, yet the authors stress that livestock quality was secondary to ritual suitability.
Linking archaeology to Latin texts
Roman writers note that graves were made legally “clean” only after a sow was offered (Cicero, Leges 2.22.55), and that the nine-day mourning cycle (novendialis) ended with another meal at the tomb. Apuleius and Varro mention the silicernium, a graveside feast featuring pork sausage, while Emmerson argues a pig sacrifice marked both the start and close of funeral purification . The exclusive deposition of jaws at Legio fits these descriptions: diners removed more desirable cuts for eating, then buried the symbolic parts that had touched the sacrificial blood or altar.
Comparison with other Levantine finds
Clusters of pig jaws have been reported in fourth-century refuse under Wilson’s Arch in Jerusalem and in a cistern at the Givʿati Parking excavation, but those contexts are urban debris, not cemetery features. At Tel Akko a pagan graveyard yielded mixed animal offerings without mandibular dominance. Legio therefore stands out as the only military burial ground where a jaw-only pit is firmly tied to soldier graves, linking the rite to legionary rather than civilian practice .
First regional evidence for a Roman rite
Perry-Gal and colleagues argue that their find “may represent the first archaeological evidence in our region of the Roman burial customs of the silicernium and cena novendialis.” The structured deposit shows that foreign troops stationed in the province maintained metropolitan funerary traditions and that pigs—often viewed as a Roman military emblem—played a formal role in honoring the dead .
Broader implications
Because Latin texts do not specify how sacrificial remains were disposed of, the Legio pit closes a gap between literature and practice: it demonstrates that jaws, and jaws alone, could embody the pig’s ritual presence once the meal ended. The discovery invites re-examination of Roman cemeteries across the Near East for similar selective bone caches and underscores the value of fine-grained zooarchaeology in decoding military ceremony. As the authors note, further pits of this kind could refine our understanding of how legionaries blended imperial customs with local landscapes while retaining distinctive rites of passage for their comrades in arms.
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