Papers by Rebecca Redfern
Britannia, 2024
The aim of this study is to estimate the minimum prevalence of intestinal parasites in the popula... more The aim of this study is to estimate the minimum prevalence of intestinal parasites in the population of Roman London through analysis of pelvic sediment from 29 third- to fourth-century burials from the 1989 excavations of the western cemetery at 24–30 West Smithfield, 18–20 Cock Lane and 1–4 Giltspur Street (WES89). Microscopy was used to identify roundworm eggs in 10.3 per cent of burials. We integrate these results with past palaeoparasitological work in the province of Britannia to explore disease, hygiene and diet. The most commonly found parasites (whipworm and roundworm) were spread by poor sanitation, but other species caught from animals were also present (fish tapeworm, beef/pork tapeworm and liver flukes). Parasite diversity was highest in urban sites. The health impacts of these infections range from asymptomatic to severe.
Applied Economics Letters, 1996
This paper presents a new method for evaluating the relationship which exists between strikes and... more This paper presents a new method for evaluating the relationship which exists between strikes and absenteeism, as alternative forms of industrial conflict. The proposed method is outlined and its use illustrated in an analysis of the British dock labour market.
The body of the combatant in the ancient mediterranean, 2024
This experimental combination of epigraphic and bioarchaeology data from cemetery settings in Bri... more This experimental combination of epigraphic and bioarchaeology data from cemetery settings in Britain underscores the importance of using multiple datasets to explore the Roman combatant experience, since each provides a different perspective. The inscribed memorials
illuminate individual lives, but have key limitations beyond their tersely formulaic character. When aggregated they are unlikely to give a representative sample of Roman military experience (Scheidel 1996, 2007). We acknowledge that the male injury recidivist group will23
contain individuals who were not soldiers, and whose multiple injuries in some cases are the consequences of enslavement and structural violence. However, given the particular urban contexts of these cemeteries, it is a distinct possibility that many such individuals could have been soldiers.
The bioarchaeological data provide support for the diversity of origin and heritage seen in the epigraphic record. These data extend that diversity of geographical origin into the later Roman period, and amplify the likely attestations of individuals of Black or mixed heritage,
even if the precision of individual points of origin does not yet match what is sometimes recorded in inscriptions. The human remains offer a much more nuanced impression of the reality of military life, of trauma as the price of violence, hardship and gruelling labour and its
likely consequences of bodily disability, disfigurement and mental disability. In this respect, the bioarchaeological data capture the lived experience that has been elided or edited out of the
formulae that summarised a soldier’s life in typical military commemorative monuments.
Current limitations to non-destructive methodologies for ageing adult skeletal remains mean that no straightforward comparisons can be made between epigraphically- and skeletally attested ages at death. In contrast to the soldiers on active service who dominate the epigraphic
record, the bioarchaeological data may well mark the presence of veterans – men whose virtus may be much more commonly embodied in their skeletons than can ever be visible to us in their epitaphs
Proceedings of the Dorset Natural History and Archaeological Society 142, 2021
The Iron Age Durotriges community, whose main territory included the county of Dorset, were one o... more The Iron Age Durotriges community, whose main territory included the county of Dorset, were one of the few British groups to practice a recoverable burial rite. Their life course and gender roles shaped funerary practice and, for a few, reflect specialised/elite roles. We applied an osteobiographical approach to the lives of seven individuals, to unite mobility and dietary isotope data with other archaeological evidence for exchange/connections during the 1st century BC to
AD 1st century. Incremental dentine analysis showed that weaning was completed by the age of 4 years old, but childhood dietary patterns were not consistent across the group. Mobility data identified at least two individuals who may have originated further north and east, an area for
which there is no archaeological evidence for exchange. The results support earlier hypotheses for combatant mobility reflecting their training and martial activities, and the movement ofindividuals earlier in life for the acquisition of knowledge. Importantly, the results show that
non-local individuals were afforded Durotrigian funerary rites, potentially revealing the role of kinship networks in southern Britain.
Proceedings of the Dorset Natural History and Archaeological Society 143, 2022
The Iron Age burials excavated from the eastern entrance of Maiden Castle hillfort by Sir Mortime... more The Iron Age burials excavated from the eastern entrance of Maiden Castle hillfort by Sir Mortimer Wheeler in the 1930s show a mixture of ‘local’ (Durotrigian) funerary traditions, as well as those
seen at other hillforts (i.e. prone burials). Research by Stewart and Russell (2017) suggests that they could had been made by and for people from outside of the region. In order to investigate their
hypothesis, we adapted a landmark forensic archaeology article published by Komar (2008) to understand whether the ‘agent of burial’ at the hillfort were the Durotriges. This was achieved by
looking at variables such as numbers of individuals buried, presence of bindings, body position, grave-goods and seasonality using faunal remains. We used funerary and bioarchaeological data from cemetery sites across Dorset in order to place the findings in context, and also drew on recent isotope data available for two adult males from the site. The results strongly suggest that the majority of burials had been undertaken by the Durotriges community, with a minority
either taking place during times of ‘stress’, such as inter-community violence or in episodes of ritual violence, which was a feature of Iron Age Britain.
Materialising the Roman Empire, 2024
Roman Bioarchaeology: Interdisciplinary Perspectives on Life and Death in the Roman World, 2024
Identity is one of the most interesting and rewarding themes to research in the Roman world, as i... more Identity is one of the most interesting and rewarding themes to research in the Roman world, as its study relies on the bringing-together of many diverse datasets and sources of evidence and can be used to explore the variation in lived experiences, such as childhood and enslavement. Identity represents the focal point of all the various strands which form and shape a person’s life. This chapter identified some aspects of identity which remain under-explored, in particular diasporas of religious faiths (e.g., Christian)6 and the bioarchaeology of food-ways beyond Britain and the Mediterranean. Nevertheless, bioarchaeology has played a crucial role in our understanding of identities in the Roman world, often challenging received wisdoms and moving from being paid lip-service, to being a cornerstone of interpretation (Gowland 2017).
The Poetics of Violence in Afroeurasian Bioarchaeology, 2024
It can be suggested that the patriarchal organisation of the Empire, and Roman concepts of mascul... more It can be suggested that the patriarchal organisation of the Empire, and Roman concepts of masculinity, created a poetics of violence which shaped, often to detrimental effect, female lives in Britain and elsewhere in the Roman world. Throughout the life-course, female lives were shaped by many different and intersecting forms- a web of violence. This ranged from the social and legal proscriptions about gendered behaviour and freedoms, the value their body and fertility held for their family or enslaver, and how they were treated and remembered after death. The data suggests that women experienced the majority of physical violence from adolescence to middle-age, corresponding to their decades of fertility, a pattern which is also traced in the funerary evidence for the Romano-British life-course (Moore 2014; McGovern 2019).
It is argued that the racist attitudes and ethnic stereotypes which existed across the Empire, would have contributed to the violence experienced, but this factor remains difficult to unpick and explore more fully, because race and ethnicity were not conceived and enacted as they are today (Joshel 2009), meaning that their entanglement with other intersections (e.g. age, gender) is harder to unpick but their presence can no longer remain unspoken.
Britannia, 2023
Co-authored with Kyriaki Anastasiadou, Marina Soares Da Silva, Alexandre Gilardet, Monica Kelly, ... more Co-authored with Kyriaki Anastasiadou, Marina Soares Da Silva, Alexandre Gilardet, Monica Kelly, Mia Williams, Thomas Booth and Pontus Skoglund
(Crick Institute)
In 2017, ancient DNA analysis of the Harper Road burial from Southwark (London) found that the individual had male chromosomes. Now analysis has discovered that the individual had female chromosomes, data which match the osteological estimation of sex and the interpretation of the grave-goods.
Bartonet al.1raise several statistical concerns regarding our original analyses2that highlight th... more Bartonet al.1raise several statistical concerns regarding our original analyses2that highlight the challenge of inferring natural selection using ancient genomic data. We show here that these concerns have limited impact on our original conclusions. Specifically, we recover the same signature of enrichment for high FSTvalues at the immune loci relative to putatively neutral sites after switching the allele frequency estimation method to a maximum likelihood approach, filtering to only consider known human variants, and down-sampling our data to the same mean coverage across sites. Furthermore, using permutations, we show that the rs2549794 variant nearERAP2continues to emerge as the strongest candidate for selection (p = 1.2×10−5), falling below the Bonferroni-corrected significance threshold recommended by Bartonet al. Importantly, the evidence for selection onERAP2is further supported by functional data demonstrating the impact of theERAP2genotype on the immune response toY. pesti...
Bioarchaeology of Marginalized People, 2019
Abstract Our study was twofold: to provide bioarchaeological evidence for population diversity in... more Abstract Our study was twofold: to provide bioarchaeological evidence for population diversity in Medieval London as this topic relies on primary sources, and to investigate whether social inequalities based on ancestry resulted in health disparities. We collected palaeopathological data, and applied macromorphoscopics to establish the ancestry of 41 individuals from a Black Death cemetery, uniting these data with extant light stable isotope and ancient DNA data for childhood residency and population origin. The forensic ancestry method identified seven different population affiliations and individuals of Black African ancestry and dual heritage (White European and Black African). The scientific analyses found that one of the individuals with dual heritage was likely to have maternal ancestry from the British Isles, and one male with Black African ancestry was at least a second-generation migrant. The study failed to identify any health disparities or differences in funerary treatment.
Nature, 2021
Present-day people from England and Wales harbour more ancestry derived from Early European Farme... more Present-day people from England and Wales harbour more ancestry derived from Early European Farmers (EEF) than people of the Early Bronze Age1. To understand this, we generated genome-wide data from 793 individuals, increasing data from the Middle to Late Bronze and Iron Age in Britain by 12-fold, and Western and Central Europe by 3.5-fold. Between 1000 and 875 BC, EEF ancestry increased in southern Britain (England and Wales) but not northern Britain (Scotland) due to incorporation of migrants who arrived at this time and over previous centuries, and who were genetically most similar to ancient individuals from France. These migrants contributed about half the ancestry of Iron Age people of England and Wales, thereby creating a plausible vector for the spread of early Celtic languages into Britain. These patterns are part of a broader trend of EEF ancestry becoming more similar across central and western Europe in the Middle to Late Bronze Age, coincident with archaeological evidence of intensified cultural exchange2-6. There was comparatively less gene flow from continental Europe during the Iron Age, and Britain's independent genetic trajectory is also reflected in the rise of the allele conferring lactase persistence to ~50% by this time compared to ~7% in central Europe where it rose rapidly in frequency only a millennium later. This suggests that dairy products were used in qualitatively different ways in Britain and in central Europe over this period.
Archaeological Journal, 2016
some Neolithic funerary practices at the site involved the cremation of bones after the complete ... more some Neolithic funerary practices at the site involved the cremation of bones after the complete or near-complete decomposition of flesh and soft tissues. The assessment of skeletal representation levels (or the proportions of identified bones from different parts of the skeleton) by Gonçalves et al. from the Iron Age cemetery at Tera, in Portugal, suggested that in rare cases only a selection of cremated bones were retrieved from the pyre or deposited within the burial context. Skull fragments and upper limb bones were found to be over-represented in some of the urns, although the reasons behind the deliberate or accidental selection of cremated bones remain unknown. The analysis of patterns between burial types and demographic data from the Roman Augusta Emerita cemetery in Spain (Silva) revealed several trends within the burial data, such as the fact that nonadults were more commonly found in double burials or deposited within pottery vessels than adults. The examples touched upon above demonstrate the value of detailed analyses of cremation deposits. Although the editor states in the concluding chapter that the ‘case examples in this book have demonstrated that novel techniques can be useful when fully integrated with more traditional osteological analyses’ (p. 243), it is disappointing that few of the studies presented in this volume actually involved the application of such new analytical techniques. A notable exception is the CT scanning of cremation urns in toto by Harvig, which demonstrated that a significant amount of bone loss occurred through post-burial taphonomic processes. The analysis showed that whilst Late Bronze Age urns from the Fraugde region in Denmark contained the remains of almost complete bodies, Early Iron Age cremated bone burials from the same region contained only a fraction of the expected bone weights. This suggests that a major change in the collection and deposition of cremated human remains occurred at the start of the Early Iron Age period in southern Scandinavia. Other relatively novel analytical techniques are the X-ray powder diffraction (XRD) and Fourier Transform Infrared (FT-IR) methods for the estimation of pyre temperatures, both of which led to the identification by Piga et al. of a novel funerary practice in the Monte Sinai Phoenician-Punic necropolis in Sardinia, where some of the bodies were only ‘semi-combusted’ to temperatures of between 400–850 °C. The use of the FT-IR technique by Squires also demonstrated variability in pyre temperatures within early Anglo-Saxon cremation burials in England. These differences were interpreted to reflect the hierarchical status of the deceased, as individuals of a lower status may have been cremated on smaller pyres for a shorter period of time than for individuals of a higher status. The fact that this book includes both detailed technical methods for the study of cremated bones, as well as wider contextual analyses of funerary data from a diverse range of sites, means it will be of interest to both archaeologists and osteologists.
The Routledge Handbook of Museums, Heritage, and Death, 2023
Cambridge Archaeological Journal, 2020
This paper proposes a multi-disciplinary approach which can be used to identify captives and the ... more This paper proposes a multi-disciplinary approach which can be used to identify captives and the enslaved of Iron Age Britain (seventh centurybc–adfirst century). It uses a ‘poetics of violence’ perspective which recognizes that violence and warfare are created and enacted through social relations, and encompasses violence for which there is often no archaeological trace. Roman primary sources, bog-bodies and other archaeological evidence from Iron Age Britain and Europe suggest that people in these states of ‘social death’ were used to acquire material goods, employed in the agricultural economy, and their deaths played an important role in episodes of ritual violence. Drawing on research from North America, a series of funerary, isotope, archaeothantology and osteological variables have been identified for this period, and when integrated into an osteobiography, allows for the re-interpretation of many burials and structured deposits encountered in Iron Age settlements and hillforts.
The Routledge Handbook of the Bioarchaeology of Climate and Environmental Change, 2020
This chapter examines the connections between violence and climate change, the types of violence ... more This chapter examines the connections between violence and climate change, the types of violence (e.g, warfare, dietary insufficiencies, migration) associated with these changes, and explores these with case-studies from Prehistoric and Medieval Europe. When climate changes, it has an incredibly powerful effect on human societies, as the author Margaret Atwood has observed about our own time, “This isn’t climate change—it’s everything change” (Harvey, 2018). No population, community or person is or has been protected or isolated from global climate change or catastrophic weather events. These have always impacted human populations, with respect to economy, culture, and health, and it has been identified as a causative factor in violence (Levy and Sidel,2014). Improvements in archaeological dating techniques and methods of understanding population movement (i.e., stable isotopes), allow us to use the archaeological and geological evidence for climate change in how past societies are interpreted. We can now make robust connections between the bioarchaeological evidence for violence and poor health with these events, such as the eruption of an Indonesian volcano in 1257, which changed weather patterns in northern Europe, resulting in violence against minorities and famine (Fagan, 2000).
The Cambridge World History of Violence, 2020
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Papers by Rebecca Redfern
illuminate individual lives, but have key limitations beyond their tersely formulaic character. When aggregated they are unlikely to give a representative sample of Roman military experience (Scheidel 1996, 2007). We acknowledge that the male injury recidivist group will23
contain individuals who were not soldiers, and whose multiple injuries in some cases are the consequences of enslavement and structural violence. However, given the particular urban contexts of these cemeteries, it is a distinct possibility that many such individuals could have been soldiers.
The bioarchaeological data provide support for the diversity of origin and heritage seen in the epigraphic record. These data extend that diversity of geographical origin into the later Roman period, and amplify the likely attestations of individuals of Black or mixed heritage,
even if the precision of individual points of origin does not yet match what is sometimes recorded in inscriptions. The human remains offer a much more nuanced impression of the reality of military life, of trauma as the price of violence, hardship and gruelling labour and its
likely consequences of bodily disability, disfigurement and mental disability. In this respect, the bioarchaeological data capture the lived experience that has been elided or edited out of the
formulae that summarised a soldier’s life in typical military commemorative monuments.
Current limitations to non-destructive methodologies for ageing adult skeletal remains mean that no straightforward comparisons can be made between epigraphically- and skeletally attested ages at death. In contrast to the soldiers on active service who dominate the epigraphic
record, the bioarchaeological data may well mark the presence of veterans – men whose virtus may be much more commonly embodied in their skeletons than can ever be visible to us in their epitaphs
AD 1st century. Incremental dentine analysis showed that weaning was completed by the age of 4 years old, but childhood dietary patterns were not consistent across the group. Mobility data identified at least two individuals who may have originated further north and east, an area for
which there is no archaeological evidence for exchange. The results support earlier hypotheses for combatant mobility reflecting their training and martial activities, and the movement ofindividuals earlier in life for the acquisition of knowledge. Importantly, the results show that
non-local individuals were afforded Durotrigian funerary rites, potentially revealing the role of kinship networks in southern Britain.
seen at other hillforts (i.e. prone burials). Research by Stewart and Russell (2017) suggests that they could had been made by and for people from outside of the region. In order to investigate their
hypothesis, we adapted a landmark forensic archaeology article published by Komar (2008) to understand whether the ‘agent of burial’ at the hillfort were the Durotriges. This was achieved by
looking at variables such as numbers of individuals buried, presence of bindings, body position, grave-goods and seasonality using faunal remains. We used funerary and bioarchaeological data from cemetery sites across Dorset in order to place the findings in context, and also drew on recent isotope data available for two adult males from the site. The results strongly suggest that the majority of burials had been undertaken by the Durotriges community, with a minority
either taking place during times of ‘stress’, such as inter-community violence or in episodes of ritual violence, which was a feature of Iron Age Britain.
It is argued that the racist attitudes and ethnic stereotypes which existed across the Empire, would have contributed to the violence experienced, but this factor remains difficult to unpick and explore more fully, because race and ethnicity were not conceived and enacted as they are today (Joshel 2009), meaning that their entanglement with other intersections (e.g. age, gender) is harder to unpick but their presence can no longer remain unspoken.
(Crick Institute)
In 2017, ancient DNA analysis of the Harper Road burial from Southwark (London) found that the individual had male chromosomes. Now analysis has discovered that the individual had female chromosomes, data which match the osteological estimation of sex and the interpretation of the grave-goods.
illuminate individual lives, but have key limitations beyond their tersely formulaic character. When aggregated they are unlikely to give a representative sample of Roman military experience (Scheidel 1996, 2007). We acknowledge that the male injury recidivist group will23
contain individuals who were not soldiers, and whose multiple injuries in some cases are the consequences of enslavement and structural violence. However, given the particular urban contexts of these cemeteries, it is a distinct possibility that many such individuals could have been soldiers.
The bioarchaeological data provide support for the diversity of origin and heritage seen in the epigraphic record. These data extend that diversity of geographical origin into the later Roman period, and amplify the likely attestations of individuals of Black or mixed heritage,
even if the precision of individual points of origin does not yet match what is sometimes recorded in inscriptions. The human remains offer a much more nuanced impression of the reality of military life, of trauma as the price of violence, hardship and gruelling labour and its
likely consequences of bodily disability, disfigurement and mental disability. In this respect, the bioarchaeological data capture the lived experience that has been elided or edited out of the
formulae that summarised a soldier’s life in typical military commemorative monuments.
Current limitations to non-destructive methodologies for ageing adult skeletal remains mean that no straightforward comparisons can be made between epigraphically- and skeletally attested ages at death. In contrast to the soldiers on active service who dominate the epigraphic
record, the bioarchaeological data may well mark the presence of veterans – men whose virtus may be much more commonly embodied in their skeletons than can ever be visible to us in their epitaphs
AD 1st century. Incremental dentine analysis showed that weaning was completed by the age of 4 years old, but childhood dietary patterns were not consistent across the group. Mobility data identified at least two individuals who may have originated further north and east, an area for
which there is no archaeological evidence for exchange. The results support earlier hypotheses for combatant mobility reflecting their training and martial activities, and the movement ofindividuals earlier in life for the acquisition of knowledge. Importantly, the results show that
non-local individuals were afforded Durotrigian funerary rites, potentially revealing the role of kinship networks in southern Britain.
seen at other hillforts (i.e. prone burials). Research by Stewart and Russell (2017) suggests that they could had been made by and for people from outside of the region. In order to investigate their
hypothesis, we adapted a landmark forensic archaeology article published by Komar (2008) to understand whether the ‘agent of burial’ at the hillfort were the Durotriges. This was achieved by
looking at variables such as numbers of individuals buried, presence of bindings, body position, grave-goods and seasonality using faunal remains. We used funerary and bioarchaeological data from cemetery sites across Dorset in order to place the findings in context, and also drew on recent isotope data available for two adult males from the site. The results strongly suggest that the majority of burials had been undertaken by the Durotriges community, with a minority
either taking place during times of ‘stress’, such as inter-community violence or in episodes of ritual violence, which was a feature of Iron Age Britain.
It is argued that the racist attitudes and ethnic stereotypes which existed across the Empire, would have contributed to the violence experienced, but this factor remains difficult to unpick and explore more fully, because race and ethnicity were not conceived and enacted as they are today (Joshel 2009), meaning that their entanglement with other intersections (e.g. age, gender) is harder to unpick but their presence can no longer remain unspoken.
(Crick Institute)
In 2017, ancient DNA analysis of the Harper Road burial from Southwark (London) found that the individual had male chromosomes. Now analysis has discovered that the individual had female chromosomes, data which match the osteological estimation of sex and the interpretation of the grave-goods.
Wed 12 Sep • 12:00 – 13:00
Lecture Theatre 1 • Allam Medical Building
Organised by:
British Association for Biological Anthropology and Osteoarchaeology
Suitable for: 16+
What does it really mean to be ‘British’? Migration is a hot topic, yet passage in and out of Britain has been occurring for centuries. Join leading experts to discuss recent advancements in understanding our ancient ancestors and ask if we can trace our origins back to those who first migrated into the country.
The Museum of London curates the remains of over 20,000 individuals, all of whom have been encountered through archaeological excavation or the whim of the River Thames. Paddington’s observation is very apt for my work as the curator for these people, and in this talk I will share the myriad and increasingly diverse ways in which these human remains make a significant and unique contribution to the Museum’s activities and outputs, and also explore the ethical and practical issues which arise from these often contrasting situations.
LocationCouncil Room King's building Strand campusCategoryPublic TalkWhen16/10/2014 (19:00-20:30)Contact
Part of the Arts & Humanities Festival 2014: underground.
This event is open to all and free to attend, but booking is required via our Eventbrite page.
Booking will open on 17 September.
Presented by the Department of Classics.
Registration URLhttps://godsunderground.eventbrite.co.uk
Gods underground in Roman London (& beyond)
A discussion with John Shepherd, Dr Hugh Bowden, Dr John Pearce and Dr Rebecca Redfern
2014 sees the 60th anniversary of the discovery of the temple of the god Mithras near the Walbrook, just south-west of the Bank of England and at the centre of Roman London. Still one of the most important excavations to have taken place in the city, this was an archaeological sensation, revealing a rich collection of cult statuary buried in the floor of the building, which was built in the mid-3rd century AD. The temple was not only 'underground' in that it had been buried and lost to memory in the intervening 1500 years. Its unobtrusive low-lying position by the stream also contributed to the secretive initiate character of the cult, to which the shrine's location and form were central, being imagined both as a symbolic cave where the god slew the bull and as a representation of the cosmos, additionally evoked by the presence of astrological symbols.
The excavation in 1954 attracted visitors in extra-ordinary numbers against a backdrop of an urban landscape razed by the Blitz. Further major excavations took place in 2013 on the same site in advance of the construction of the new Bloomberg building near Cannon St. station, which when complete will also house the redisplayed temple. This fieldwork has enriched the understanding of the neighbourhood surrounding the temple; the exceptional preservation of organic material led to the site’s being dubbed the ‘Pompeii of the north’ in press coverage last year. This is one of many recent large-scale excavations of Roman sites in London which are transforming our knowledge of the city.
This session will examine the significance of this key site from London’s buried past. John Shepherd, author of the report on the 1954 excavation, will review what we now understand of the temple, its setting and discovery, drawing on some of the finds from the recent excavation, and explain why this iconic site merits redisplay in the context of contemporary London. Our understanding of the Mithraic mysteries and of Roman London is much changed in the decades that have passed since the discovery of the temple, and other contributors from the Museum of London and from the Classics department at King’s College London, where the history of the religions of Antiquity is a major focus, will explore the meaning of the temple for the early 21st century. Hugh Bowden will explore the temple’s evidence in the context of recent scholarship on initiate religions and mystery cults. Drawing on recent archaeological discoveries, John Pearce will relate the Mithraeum to current work on the religions of Roman Britain. Rebecca Redfern will consider how human skeletal remains from cemetery excavations are providing new evidence for migration to Roman London to set alongside the movement of gods and ideas for which the temple provides key testimony.
Session: ‘Whose history is this? Multivocal narratives of Roman archaeology
Our presentation focuses on responsible knowledge sharing in museums, using the Museum’s 2018 exhibition, ‘Roman Dead’, designed for both adult and family audiences. We assembled objects, human remains and narratives that reflected the ‘known’ and ‘unknown’ about funerals and burials in Roman London.
Early-on we chose an open narrative approach, emphasizing that there was still a lot to discover. We hoped that this honesty would improve the public’s understanding, and encourage them to think about how content is presented. Overall, the exhibition attempted to display the evidence in a responsible way, and in a manner which was open to discussion, enquiry and allowed contemplation of the human emotions involved.
This paper seeks to explore how violence beyond the battle-field and initial period of conquest shaped people’s lives. Violence in Roman Britain was powerful and subtle; combined with experiencing invasion, the fragmentation of communities through military conscription, relocation and enslavement, colonisation would have created psychological and physical trauma, forever changing and diversifying society’s life course, status and gender roles. As these core tenets of life directly influence health and well-being outcomes, the evidence for abuse, enslavement, poor health and early deaths, provide a more nuanced understanding of life during this period, and emphasize that violence is not limited to or defined solely by warfare.
The results failed to find a signi ficant three-way association between age, sex and injury. There was no difference between the sexes when individuals with single versus multiple injuries were compared. There were significant differences in the age-distribution of people with 0/1/>2 fractures, but no difference between those with 1 or >2 fractures. Males and those 26-35 years old were most likely to have fractures and multiple injuries. Health variables that were significantly associated with a fracture were porotic hyperostosis, periostitis and enamel hypoplasias. However, there was no significant relationship between general poor health and multiple injuries.
Secondly, it seeks to understand the evidence for fertility and compromised health in past societies using a structural violence approach (Farmer 2004; Galtung 1969). Such an approach allows for the osteological data to be better understood in terms of status, gender and age inequalities, and sheds light on reported patterns of disease and mortality.
We employed standard osteological methods to record the remains, and examined each bone using a digital microscope to confirm the presence of trauma and to establish whether the injuries were peri- or ante-mortem in origin. Our analysis found that the female had sustained blunt force injuries to her back some weeks before her death, as there are multiple healing fractures present to the scapulae, and the posterior aspects of the ribs and vertebral column. Her manner of death included peri-mortem blunt force fractures to the same locations, and repeated blows to the head, including one large circular lesion to the left parietal bone.
Anglo-Saxon law codes describe capital punishment by decapitation, hanging, drowning, stoning and burning. In addition, criminals were denied burial in consecrated ground. The type and distribution of injuries seen on this individual, combined with burial in a liminal location, are consistent with Anglo-Saxon execution by stoning, a punishment often meted out for adultery or witch-craft.
Last year, a Roman sarcophagus was found near to Harper Road in Southwark. As only the third sarcophagus discovered in London since 1999, archaeologists at Pre-Construct Archaeology began working immediately to reveal its secrets, and what the unique find tells us about the ancient city that 8 million people now call home.
The sarcophagus will be placed on public display for the first time, alongside the skeletons and cremated remains of 30 Roman Londoners found during archaeological excavations of ancient cemeteries. The exhibition also features over 200 objects from burials in Roman London, exploring how people dealt with death in Londinium. Many items were brought here from across the Empire, showing the extent of London's international connections, even at this early time in its history.
Roman Dead uses these grave goods and the results of scientific analysis of ancient Londoners' skeletons to explore who Roman Londoners were, and show the city's diverse past.
Objects on display include tombstones, jewellery and cremation urns of varying shapes and sizes. The charred remains of food and vessels that may have contained drinks help to shed light on how Roman Londoners prepared their friends and family for their journey to the afterlife.
A young man, buried without ceremony in South Gloucestershire 3,500 years ago. A Roman couple found in a single stone coffin and a girl from a Victorian burial ground.
They reflect society’s rich and varied past and the changing face of the places we live and work in today.
Alongside the exhibition, an exploratory space reveals some of the science behind the stories. Test your knowledge of bones; search for hidden clues to analyse skeletons yourself; and hear from experts of the excavation site, lab and museum.
A touring exhibition from Museum of London and Wellcome Trust. Please note this exhibition contains human remains.
The piece also provides new insights into the decoration on the torc.
The Roman Empire covered most of western Europe and the Mediterranean, bringing together geographically and genetically diverse communities through trade and military conquest. People travelled vast distances for different reasons: some because of their occupation, like soldiers or merchants; some had no choice, such as enslaved people. These journeys were recorded in the form of inscriptions on tombstones or memorials, and in material culture, such as dress accessories. Roman citizens often settled and died far from their birth-place.
In Britain, where Roman inscriptions are less common compared to other countries, the remains of past people are an independent source of evidence for these journeys and migrations. By studying their skeletons and the chemicals in their teeth and bones, we are able to shed light on where Roman Londoners spent their early childhood, their ancestry, how they lived and what they ate.
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0305440316301030