scholarly journals Embodied Identities in Roman Britain: A Bioarchaeological Approach

Britannia ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 48 ◽  
pp. 177-194 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rebecca Gowland
Keyword(s):  
Roman Empire ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Skeletal Remains ◽  
Biological Information ◽  
Human Skeletal Remains ◽  
Roman Britain ◽  
The Social ◽  
Diversity Of Life ◽  
The Military ◽  
Integrated Study

ABSTRACTHuman skeletal remains from Roman Britain are abundant and provide a rich repository of social as well as biological information concerning health, migration, diet and body/society interactions. At present, skeletal remains tend to be marginalised in studies of Roman trade, the military, economy, urbanisation and the like, yet they have huge potential to contribute to current debates. This article aims to highlight the potential of bioarchaeological analysis for understanding aspects of social identity in Roman Britain through the use of a more integrated, theoretical approach towards embodied interactions. It encourages future collaborative scholarship between bioarchaeologists, archaeologists and historians. The social determinants of health and identity will vary greatly between regions and the only way of establishing the diversity of life across the Roman Empire is through the instigation of a more comprehensive, large-scale, integrated study of funerary and skeletal assemblages.

More Circe than Cassandra: The Princess of Vix in ritualized social context

2002 ◽  
Vol 5 (3) ◽  
pp. 275-308 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christopher J. Knüsel
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Social Change ◽  
Health Status ◽  
Skeletal Remains ◽  
Biological Information ◽  
Ritual Practice ◽  
Human Skeletal Remains ◽  
Rapid Social Change ◽  
The Social ◽  
Hallstatt Period

Ritual and ritual specialists have often been dissociated from power in the writings of prehistorians and archaeologists. From ethnographic and ethnohistoric accounts, however, ritual specialists often exert disproportionate control over the maintenance, manipulation, and elaboration of social codes and practices. Their roles in ritual practice (orthopraxy in non-literate societies) and its effect on decision-making accord them considerable social and political importance. Due to this involvement they become the targets of ritual sanctions that include punitive rites, ritualized deaths, and suppression during periods of rapid social change, both from within their own societies and from without. The present article derives from a re-analysis of the Vix (Côte-d'Or, Burgundy) human skeletal remains, specifically with reference to the age, sex and health status of the interred individual. An evaluation of the social roles of this so-called ‘Princess’ is then attempted, integrating this biological information with that derived from a consideration of the grave inclusions and their imagery in the context of competitive feasting and social change in the late Hallstatt period.

scholarly journals The Seat of the Roman Governor at Carnuntum (Pannonia Superior)

Heritage ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 4 (4) ◽  
pp. 3009-3031
Author(s):  
Christian Gugl ◽  
Mario Wallner ◽  
Alois Hinterleitner ◽  
Wolfgang Neubauer
Keyword(s):  
Roman Empire ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Topographic Analysis ◽  
Archaeological Prospection ◽  
Military Camp ◽  
Roman Province ◽  
The Military

The Roman site of Carnuntum was once a flourishing center on the frontiers of the Roman Empire. In its heyday as the capital of the province of Pannonia superior, Carnuntum probably covered an area of almost 9 km². The whole site was divided into a military settlement (castra and canabae legionis) and a civil town (municipium/colonia). Through a large-scale archaeological prospection project, this huge area could be investigated and analyzed in great detail using a wide variety of nondestructive prospection methods. One of the main discoveries of the project was observed in the military settlement, where it was possible to identify a previously unknown military camp, interpreted as the garrison of the governor’s guard, the castra singularium. Through the topographic analysis of the immediate surroundings, the Roman fort was determined to be embedded in a large administrative complex related to the governor’s seat in Carnuntum. This article presents these new discoveries and shows what an important part they formed in the administration of the Roman province of Upper Pannonia.

Batavians and Romans on the Lower Rhine

2002 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
pp. 16-38 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jan Slofstra
Keyword(s):  
Roman Empire ◽  
Cultural Change ◽  
Major Part ◽  
The Political ◽  
Social Mechanisms ◽  
Cultural Interaction ◽  
The Social ◽  
Roman Culture ◽  
The Military ◽  
Lower Rhine

AbstractThis paper is a plea for the rehabilitation of the concept of Romanisation in the discussion about socio-cultural change resulting from the confrontation of (proto-)historical peoples with Roman power and an often dominant Roman culture. In the theoretical introduction, first of all an attempt is made to identify the social mechanisms of Romanisation; this is followed by a discussion on a model of dimensional analysis attuned to the dynamics of specific processes of Romanisation.The major part of the article is devoted to an outline of the Romanisation process in the northern frontier zone of the Roman Empire, the Lower Rhine region. It focuses on the political and cultural interaction between the Batavian tribe living here and the Romans in the period between the Gallic war and the 3rd century A.D. The paper attempts to explain the differences between the process of Romanisation in the central part of Gaul (‘Interior Gaul’ in Greg Woolf's terminology) which had already been ‘civilised’ early on and the military frontier, where tribal traditions still continued to play an important part, certainly until the Batavian revolt of 69/70 A.D.

Roman Britain, 1910–1960

1960 ◽  
Vol 50 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 173-191
Author(s):  
I. A. Richmond
Keyword(s):  
Roman Empire ◽  
Urban Areas ◽  
Private Enterprise ◽  
Important Work ◽  
Roman Britain ◽  
General Picture ◽  
Substantial Body ◽  
Archaeological Material ◽  
The Military

In 1910, when the Society for the Promotion of Roman Studies was founded, the study of Roman Britain was already firmly set upon its path. Earlier brilliant treatments by F. Haverfield, in Traill's Social England, in the Victoria County History and in his own Romanization of Roman Britain, had set a general picture which was an attractive and cogent synthesis of the evidence provided by literature and archaeology. There already existed, thanks to a long tradition of private enterprise and to enlightened action of such bodies as the Society of Antiquaries of London, a substantial body of archaeological material, extending not merely to objects, but to buildings and their plans. Thus, by 1911, John Ward could publish a volume on Romano-British Buildings and Earthworks which, for its day, curried a volume of detailed information quite unsurpassed in any other province of the Empire. Here the antiquities of the military area and of the countryside were illustrated with particular vividness. But highly important work had already been done in the urban areas. The excavation of the Romano-British cantonal capital of Silchester, organized by the Society of Antiquaries of London, had already been estimated by Haverfield to have made it ‘better known, perhaps, than any provincial town of the Roman Empire’. Excavations of the same type, directed to the wholesale uncovering of foundations over wide areas, were also in progress at Caerwent and were revealing the striking differences which might obtain between communities in different areas of the province.

scholarly journals Second Century Defences around Small Towns in Roman Britain Structured by Road Network Connectivity

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joseph Lewis
Keyword(s):  
Roman Empire ◽  
Road Network ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Network Connectivity ◽  
Small Towns ◽  
Second Century ◽  
Roman Britain ◽  
The Road ◽  
Inference Methods ◽  
Flow Of Information

The large-scale provision of defences around small towns in Roman Britain during the second century is without parallel in the Roman Empire. Whilst the relationship between defended small towns and the Roman road network has been noted previously, provincial-level patterns remain to be explored. Using network analysis and spatial inference methods, this paper shows that defended small towns in the second century are on average better integrated within the road network, as well as located on road segments important for controlling the flow of information, than small towns at random. This research suggests that the fortification of small towns in the second century was structured by the connectivity of the Roman road network and the functioning of the cursus publicus

‘A colony so fertile’

2008 ◽  
Author(s):  
Richard Hingley
Keyword(s):  
Eighteenth Century ◽  
Roman Empire ◽  
Seventeenth Century ◽  
Public Buildings ◽  
Roman Britain ◽  
The Public ◽  
Late Eighteenth Century ◽  
Published Evidence ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Military

In A Specimen of a History of Oxfordshire, the Reverend Thomas Warton reflected on the significance of the Roman pavement at Stonesfield (Oxfordshire) and explored the two main themes which structure chapters three and four: he writes of Roman settlers who migrated with their families to Britain but suggests that wealthy and well-connected Britons might have built villas like the example uncovered at Stonesfield. From the late seventeenth century to the beginning of the twentieth, the debate about the nature of society in Roman Britain drew upon these contrasting images to explain the character of the Roman occupation of southern Britain. Certain writings of the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries had developed the idea of the passing on of civility from the Romans to the British, which could be used as a source of patriotic reflection. There was less confidence in this idea during the eighteenth century, when influential works on the Walls and the northern stations promoted a primarily military interpretation of Roman sites in the south. In the introduction to his volume of 1793, Roy presented a thoughtful assessment of contemporary understanding of Roman Britain and emphasized its military nature. Following earlier examples, he divided the monuments of the Roman empire into two types: the public buildings—the temples, amphitheatres, and baths well known to British gentlemen from their visits to Italy—and the military sites. Roy emphasized that, with regard to military remains of Britain ‘perhaps no quarter of their vast empire, not even Italy itself, furnishes so great a variety; and many of them exceedingly perfect’. By contrast, in reflecting on public buildings, he states that ‘Britain affords very few vestiges of any consequence’. Indeed, it is true that, by the late eighteenth century, there was very little published evidence for public buildings to compare with the extensive evidence for the military sites of southern Scotland and northern England. Roy argued, ‘neither is it probable that the Romans ever executed many of those costly edifices in this island’. At the time Roy was writing (c.1773), little excavated evidence had been found for public buildings or ornate architecture anywhere in Britain.

Invention, Tinkering, or Transfer?

2020 ◽  
pp. 307-354
Author(s):  
Tamara Lewit
Keyword(s):  
Roman Empire ◽  
Ease Of Use ◽  
First Century ◽  
Regional Patterns ◽  
Communications Networks ◽  
Roman Economy ◽  
Major Activity ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Press ◽  
The Military

The production of wine and olive oil was a major activity within the Roman economy, and therefore innovations to the press mechanisms used are of great importance. Historical discussions have focused on the introduction of a screw, and have assumed that presses throughout the Roman Empire were transformed, with the aim of increasing efficiency, by this single ‘invention’ in the first century BC to first century AD. However, recent archaeological evidence reveals a wider range of innovations, not always involving the use of a screw, and over a much broader period, and shows that press types evolved within regional patterns, rather than uniformly. These innovations can only be understood by considering who initiated and spread them, how, and why. Factors such as the physical weight and durability of press parts, access to skills for ongoing maintenance and repairs, the absence of printed treatises and drawn diagrams, the military and communications networks of the empire, and the social context of ownership and local settlement structures all influenced innovation and its diffusion. A drive to increase production cannot fully explain the patterns of change, and some innovations served other purposes, improving safety or ease of use. Innovations seem to have been developed not by an educated ‘inventor’, but at least partly through day-to-day ‘tinkering’ by local artisans and farmers.

Bioarchaeological perspectives on the social experience of prehistoric and historic communities

Antiquity ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 91 (360) ◽  
pp. 1656-1658
Author(s):  
Kathryn M. Baustian
Keyword(s):  
Skeletal Remains ◽  
Cultural Development ◽  
Human Biology ◽  
Archaeological Research ◽  
Human Skeletal Remains ◽  
The Past ◽  
Archaeological Interpretation ◽  
Physical Environments ◽  
The Social

Traditionally, reconstructions of social complexity in past societies have relied on a plethora of indicators including, but not limited to, ancient texts, monumental architectural and archaeological evidence for hierarchical leadership, surplus storage, craft specialisation and the density of populations. With the exception of mortuary patterns, particularly the quantity and quality of grave goods, bioarchaeological data have featured less prominently in archaeological interpretation. Over the past 40 years, however, the study of human skeletal remains has been more firmly integrated into theoretical explorations of the past, and the broader development of biocultural models has contributed more fully to archaeological research. The first of the two volumes reviewed here is exemplary of current bioarchaeological approaches that draw on human biology, cultural development and physical environments to understand the human experience.

Batavians and Romans on the Lower Rhine

2002 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
pp. 16-38 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jan Slofstra
Keyword(s):  
Roman Empire ◽  
Cultural Change ◽  
Major Part ◽  
The Political ◽  
Social Mechanisms ◽  
Cultural Interaction ◽  
The Social ◽  
Roman Culture ◽  
The Military ◽  
Lower Rhine

AbstractThis paper is a plea for the rehabilitation of the concept of Romanisation in the discussion about socio-cultural change resulting from the confrontation of (proto-)historical peoples with Roman power and an often dominant Roman culture. In the theoretical introduction, first of all an attempt is made to identify the social mechanisms of Romanisation; this is followed by a discussion on a model of dimensional analysis attuned to the dynamics of specific processes of Romanisation.The major part of the article is devoted to an outline of the Romanisation process in the northern frontier zone of the Roman Empire, the Lower Rhine region. It focuses on the political and cultural interaction between the Batavian tribe living here and the Romans in the period between the Gallic war and the 3rd century A.D. The paper attempts to explain the differences between the process of Romanisation in the central part of Gaul (‘Interior Gaul’ in Greg Woolf's terminology) which had already been ‘civilised’ early on and the military frontier, where tribal traditions still continued to play an important part, certainly until the Batavian revolt of 69/70 A.D.

From Life to Death: Dynamics of Personhood in Gallo-Roman Funerary Customs, Luxemburg Province, Belgium

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jessica I. Cerezo-Román ◽  
Koen Deforce
Keyword(s):  
Social Relationships ◽  
Skeletal Remains ◽  
Political Organization ◽  
Frames Of Reference ◽  
Human Skeletal Remains ◽  
South Eastern ◽  
Cultural Ideologies ◽  
The Social ◽  
Historical Accounts ◽  
Funerary Customs

This chapter explores the identification of, and changes in, aspects of personhood through the study and interpretation of funerary customs. The geographical and temporal foci are the Luxembourg province of south-eastern Belgium from AD 1–150 where variations in social and political organization are well documented but cremation funeral customs are not. This research explores one overarching question: how did the personhood of the deceased change throughout the different stages of cremation customs within and between two contemporary Gallo-Roman sites located in the Belgian province of Luxembourg? The sites selected are Weyler (Henrotay 2011; Henrotay and Bossicard 1999), located in Arlon, and Houffalize, located in Houffalize/Mont (Henrotay 2012) (Fig. 9.1). Two primary datasets were utilized: 1) biological profiles of the human skeletal remains, and, 2) posthumous treatments of bodies inferred from analysis of the remains within their burial contexts. In this chapter, we also contrast these findings with historical accounts of cremation customs among ancient Roman populations.We argue that Gallo-Roman mortuary practices mediated the dead from biological death through a liminal state where personhood was transformed from subject to object/subject before final burial. The concept of personhood is employed in identity research across the social sciences, and in recent years also has been applied in archaeology (e.g. Fowler 2005; Jones 2005). Our research employs the notion of personhood—what constituted the state or condition of being a person—to elucidate the portrayal of individuals in the past. This definition follows previous research in the concept (e.g. Brück 2006a, 2006b; Fowler 2010; Williams 2004a). Throughout an individual’s life social relationships change and new ones are formed. These also are dependent on the individual’s age, sex, class, race, disabilities, and particular group affiliations, among other factors. Mauss (1985) posited that frames of reference for personhood changed through time and space, according to distinct cultural ideologies. Building on this idea Meyer Fortes (1987) added that personhood also was negotiated and dependent upon social relationships and in light of specific moral codes. These ideas suggest that personhood is a social category, that it is inherently dynamic and relational and that it only takes on meaning through the enactment of relationships.

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