Modern DNA and the Ancient Mediterranean

This chapter takes a look at genetics and its role in the study of ancient history. Genetics is the study of inheritance, and DNA variation is the essence of heredity. DNA sequence differences underpin genetics overall and population genetics is the study of such diversity in populations and how it changes through time. Reconstructing human history using modern DNA has been a longstanding endeavor rooted in sampling practicality. If a mutational change does not negatively affect the individual's ability to reproduce, it may be passed down to each succeeding generation, eventually becoming established in a population. Such mutations, whether beneficial, harmful, or neutral, can serve as genetic markers.

Zooarchaeology

This chapter discusses zooarchaeological exploration that might be less familiar (but no less important) within the discipline's broader contribution to classical archaeology. Scientific investigations and analyses of zooarchaeological materials from classical archaeological sites have grown rapidly since the 1980s. These are broadened further through initiatives taken not simply to understand biological and environmental components of the past (aspects that might, superficially, ally better with natural science), but to engage animals as markers of cultural complexity as well. Investigations today are increasingly conducted by zooarchaeologists who specialize in the scholarship of Greek and Roman antiquity, a tactic consequently helping to blur or dissolve traditional academic boundaries in classical studies that previously emphasized primacy to other categories of material remains, such as texts or art. Scientists now infiltrate classics, and vice versa.

Ancient DNA

This chapter examines how ancient DNA (aDNA) analysis has helped reconstruct ancient history. It focuses in particular on cases investigating Roman history. History leaves traces in the human genome as well as those of pathogens and domesticates. While much can be gleaned from the genetic fossils preserved in extant genomes, genomes are palimpsests, with more recent events overwriting previous ones in part. The study of aDNA—DNA preserved in archaeological, paleontological, and museum sources—permits investigations into the genome before and after historic events and observations into how it evolves in real time. The field of aDNA also has a palimpsestic nature in which older results are not only extended and revised, but totally discarded due to rapid technological advances. The chapter briefly describes biochemistry of ancient DNA and the history of its research. Through several key case studies, it shows the potential for aDNA research to clarify the course of ancient history, and also highlights some of its weaknesses and limitations.

Human Growth and Stature

This chapter reviews the study of stature in the archaeological record with a focus on the Roman period. A critical review of current methods of estimating stature, including an evaluation of the differing techniques and their application to the Roman period follows. This chapter does not advocate the comparison of long bone lengths alone for the study of stature in the Roman world. It argues that such an approach overlooks the biocultural significance of overall body proportions (including trunk height); instead more effort should be made to establish population-specific regression formulae. Finally, the chapter argues that because adult stature and final body proportions are strongly influenced by environmental conditions during childhood, a more nuanced consideration of growth and adversity during infancy and childhood is required.

Reconstructing the Roman Climate

This chapter frames our current state of knowledge about the physical climate in the period of the Roman Empire's expansion, flourishing, and final fragmentation, at roughly 200 BCE to 600 CE. The emphasis here is on the new evidence of paleoclimate proxy data. The chapter explores what it is starting to tell historians about the timing and nature of large-scale climate change in the centuries of interest. To conclude, the chapter draws together the disparate sources of evidence into a tentative narrative. It highlights the questions that can be asked about the relationship between climate change and historical change and underscores the need for more and better data to fill in such a narrative in the future.

Bones, Teeth, and History

This chapter discusses human bones and teeth, which are the primary databank for biological anthropologists. The topic has aroused little interest among historians of antiquity. The beginnings of an explanation of this disparity are to be sought in the fact that human skeletal remains have no obvious relevance as a source of information for politics, political institutions, political thought, government, law, religion, warfare: in brief, for the traditional concerns of ancient historians. A second consideration is that biological anthropology is rooted in prehistory; its practitioners are characteristically involved in the exploration of the origins of humanity. Fortunately, some anthropologists have allowed themselves to stray into historical periods, including the classical world of Greece and Rome. In the meantime, historians of antiquity are showing increased interest in social, economic, and cultural history, and are displaying a new willingness to expose themselves to other disciplines, including the natural and social sciences. Thus, the time seems ripe for fruitful communication between historians and anthropologists. Specifically, health and demography (mortality, fertility, and mobility) hold promise as fields for constructive dialogue and collaborative research.

Introduction

This introductory chapter shows how the contribution of science has broadened even further as entirely new types of evidence from genetics to climate proxies have been brought to bear on historical inquiries in recent years. Thanks to this accelerating expansion, the study of history in general is now approaching a new stage of interdisciplinarity that is firmly grounded in the recognition that human and natural history are intimately and inseparably intertwined. Indeed, the study of the ancient Roman world is no exception to this trend. The chapter embarks on the potential applications of biohistory for ancient Roman history. It also discusses the integration of conventional evidence with scientific findings.

Archaeobotany

This chapter aims to highlight what can be achieved through archaeobotany by focusing on one aspect: food. It is divided into five main sections, each concentrating on one of the five phases of food: food production, the realm of the farm and the landscape; food distribution and trade, the realm of the granary, the market, and long-distance transport; food preparation, the realm of the kitchen; food consumption, the realm of the meal and, in many instances also, the realm of the table; and finally food disposal, the realm of the dustbin or refuse deposit and, par excellence, the realm of archaeology. Other human–plant interactions are mentioned in passing. The chapter concludes with a brief reflection on how these interactions helped create many different modes of being. It considers how daily life in antiquity varied across time and space.