Comment by mikestew
10 months ago
From TFA: “Since cremations were common in the European parts of the Roman Empire around 100 AD [CE], inhumations are an absolute exception. Finds of Roman skeletons from this period are therefore extremely rare,” said Kristina Adler-Wölfl, head of the Vienna City Archaeology Department.
Which might tell a story in itself. This might have been a small detachment that was ambushed and utterly wiped out, leaving nobody alive on the Roman side to perform the traditional funeral rites. Instead the attackers were left to bury the bodies in their own tradition.
"Instead the attackers were left to bury the bodies in their own tradition."
Germanic tribes usually burned their bodies as well. But that does not mean, they feld oblieged to give the enemy a proper rite.
>This might have been a small detachment that was ambushed and utterly wiped out
or even three legions, 16,000–20,000 killed. "Teutoburg Forest is considered one of the most important defeats in Roman history, bringing the triumphant period of expansion under Augustus to an abrupt end. It dissuaded the Romans from pursuing the conquest of Germania, and so can be considered one of the most important events in European history."
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_the_Teutoburg_Forest
To be fair, that’s pretty far from Vienna. Those seem to be separate incidents.