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I'm trying to make some sense of the numerous references in Roman literature to "half-burnt bodies". This usually seems to have happened when there wasn't time to complete a full cremation. It doesn't seem to have been thought of as making any difference to the soul's chance of entering the underworld, but it was still seen as something unpleasant and undignified. What I should like to know, or know where to find the answers to, is: 1. Roughly how long would it take to cremate a body fully on an open pyre? 2. How long would it take to cremate a body sufficiently for it to be no longer identifiable? Someone suggested to me that people might have half-cremated a body intentionally (and buried it in a shallow grave) in order to make it unrecognizable until they could go back and complete the rites. David Noy Dept of Classics University of Wales Lampeter %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%