[Authors and titles are listed at the end of the review.]
Roman bioarchaeology is an emergent sub-discipline of Roman and environmental archaeology. Placing the human body at the center, it explores shifts in population dynamics, diet, health, hygiene, weaning and much more. While bioarchaeology is a well-established field of study, the development of Roman bioarchaeology, with its own specialists, databases, and data sets, is only three decades old. It is, as Elizabeth A. Bews and Kathryn E. Marklein describe, a discipline that is ‘becoming’, and, excitingly, new technological developments in aDNA, paleoproteomics and dental calculus have the power to transform our understanding of life within and under the Roman Empire. The diversity of experiences and the truly unique life course of each individual is being brought further and further into focus, challenging any remaining notions of a homogeneous Roman world. Roman bioarchaeology is a carefully curated volume that aims to show the breadth and scope of Roman bioarchaeological research thus far, and, point to directions for its future. It asks the reader to challenge our often white-Eurocentric cultural norms, and no matter how difficult or uncomfortable, allow people from the past to speak for themselves. The chapters are methodologically and theoretically informed, written by authors as disciplinarily and geographically diverse as the Roman world itself.
The introductory chapter by the editors provides a brief history of the discipline alongside current progress on numerous pertinent topics such as sex and gender, violence and trauma, and migration and mobility. There is a section on the impacts of imperialism, which is a theme that re-appears in many of the following chapters. The chapter concludes with a look to the future and reveals a discipline engaged with social theory. Future interdisciplinary potential is expressed through collaborations with, for example, medical anthropologists and epidemiologists. Chapter 2 to 7 are then very practical in nature, describing methodological approaches and highlighting key studies and findings.
Chapter 2 explores sex and gender. Bioarchaeology can readily improve our understanding of gender-based inequality using methods such as isotope analysis to explore dietary differences. Understanding the complexities of gender expression, however, remain difficult due to the limitations of the data. Leslie Quade and Rebecca Gowland suggest that skeletons classified as indeterminate with regards to sex should be more carefully studied as they may provide evidence of intersex and non-binary individuals. Chapter 3 looks at childhood in Roman Britannia, excellently weaving together literary sources for child rearing with the bioarchaeological evidence. Through a series of three case studies Rebecca Pitt and Mary E. Lewis paint a rather grim picture of childhood under the Roman conquest with fewer resources for those in rural communities and increased urbanization leading to more disease. The chapter also demonstrates how the study of childhood has become much more holistic, with both children and mothers taken into account. The nutritional stress or deficiency of mothers is described alongside the cultural pressures for women in Britain to adopt new, Roman-style child rearing practices that could sometimes be quite harmful.
The next chapter, by Tracy Prowse, is the clearest description of isotope analysis this reviewer has ever read. Focusing on carbon, nitrogen, oxygen and strontium, the chapter explains what isotopes are, how each of these four elements are studies, what they can tell us, and their limitations. There is a good discussion of breastfeeding and weaning in the section on nitrogen isotopes. The chapter then reviews the use of isotopes in the study of Roman diet and questions of human mobility. The chapter is filled with helpful references and should be required reading for students and anyone looking for an introduction to the topic. While isotope analysis has become an incredibly popular method in recent decades, the topic of chapter 5, biodistance, has only rarely been applied to Roman period material. ‘Biological distance analysis examines the genetic relationships within and between archaeological human groups using skeletal phenotypic traits.’ (p. 101). A case study on skeletons from Tyre, Beirut and Byblos in Lebanon is used to demonstrate the benefits of this method and explores the interesting question of the importance of biological vs. non-biological kinship relationships in this part of the Roman world. Previous studies are also described in the chapter. The most recent is from 2021 which, although the authors argue otherwise, does not suggest that this is a growing field and is likely to be replaced by aDNA analysis. Unlike the previous chapter, this one is certainly not written for the non-specialist as numerous terms and methodological processes are not explained.
Despite a slightly misleading title, as it includes much more than a narrow discussion of tuberculosis in Italy, chapter 6 presents a detailed overview of aDNA. The chapter opens with a summary of the historical development of aDNA and how it works in practice. The discussion then shifts to aDNA and paleopathology, looking at malaria before moving to tuberculosis and the evidence from Roman Italy. Although also somewhat on the technical side, and lacking in images, the chapter very effectively demonstrates the great potential of aDNA studies. The next chapter, 7, introduces a similarly developing field – paleoparasitology. As with all the previous chapters, this one starts with a helpful introduction to the topic, a brief history of paleoparasitology’s use in archaeology and how parasites survive in the archaeological record. While describing both ecoparasites (fleas, lice etc.) and endoparasites (those that live inside the body), the main focus is on endoparasites. A case study from Vagnari is presented alongside an overview of finds from elsewhere in the Roman empire, looking at regional differences, diet and methods of transmission. Parasites were a common part of life in antiquity.
The next three chapters aim to show how bioarchaeology can make use of or challenge current theoretical frameworks within Roman archaeology. Chapter 8 explores the way the nature and function of violence, particularly socially sanctioned forms of violence such as gladiatorial combat and public execution, can be used to understand and interpret signs of violence in the bioarchaeological record. Current theories surrounding violence as a display of imperial power and forms of colonial control are outlined, followed by the chronological development of public executions. The bioarchaeological examples focus on material from Pannonia and Dalmatia, both because that is the authors’ area of study, but also to bring attention to the geographical imbalance in the study of Roman violence and the lack of inclusion of material published in non-English languages.
Chapter 9 critiques the dichotomized urban-rural narrative that continues to be perpetuated by both Roman archaeologists and bioarchaeologists. The authors argue that when scholars take such a broad-brush approach to the Roman world they merely perpetuate stereotypes and assumptions regarding life in urban and rural communities when, in actuality, the picture is much more nuanced. Employing the concept of embodiment, Sammuel Sammut, Bews and Marklein, present the results of their own analysis of 99 sites with pathological and isotopic data from across the Roman Empire to test whether urban and rural physicalities were in fact different. Their conclusions prove their original argument, that not all urban or rural communities look the same and that the individual life course varied based on a much larger variety of factors (i.e., mobility, gender, climate, socioeconomic status) than location. Chapter 10 similarly focuses on the individual, and explores notions of identity. Rebecca Redfern states that bioarchaeology often provides evidence that contradicts assumptions regarding ethnicity and heritage, occupation and status, and sickness, impairment, and disability. She therefore argues for a more holistic approach to identity that requires the full integration of the archaeological evidence for, for example, mobility, age, gender, and status with the bioarchaeological evidence. She highlights the value of using epigraphic evidence and grave goods to help interpret skeletal data.
The final chapter looks to the future while also summarizing the main themes of the book. Here is where we find the discussion of what, how and why bioarchaeology is ‘becoming’. It addresses many of the contemporary issues faced by what could be argued to be its sister disciplines of archaeobotany and zooarchaeology[1] – data sharing and standardization practices, curating and studying legacy collections, closing geographical gaps in the data, language barriers, and creating a more theoretically informed practice. Such confessions and gentle self-criticisms reveal a discipline that is self-aware and highly reflective; all good qualities as it no doubt moves into an exciting and dynamic future.
Taken as a whole, the book emphasizes disparate experiences and identities within the Roman Empire. Throughout authors note the need to be respectful of the data and human remains. The reader comes away with a sense of the great potential of bioarchaeology, individually, and collaboratively with other archaeological disciplines, to shed light on individual agency, cultural interconnectivity and the true complexities of life in the past. That sense of excitement and potential is in large part thanks to the hard work of the editors in creating a very coherent and readable volume. The book is simultaneously aimed at, and therefore useful for, Roman archaeologists and bioarchaeologists. For the Roman archaeologists, each chapter clearly explains the background history, results, and value of each methodological approach. All chapters have endnotes that expand upon or clarify either complex points of discussion or scientific terminology. For the bioarchaeologists, the lengthy discussions of current theoretical approaches in the final few chapters act as useful summaries of current thinking within scholarship.
No volume is perfect and there are just a few minor issues to point out. Chapter 9 places the notion of the rural producer/urban consumer at the centre of the argument it is working to disprove. This emphasis feels slightly outdated as many scholars, including several referenced in that chapter, have moved on to a more holistic understanding of the urban-rural relationship. However, the reviewer does acknowledge that pockets of stubbornness and resistance, sometimes much to our surprise, still remain, and therefore continuing to disprove such economic simplicity can only be of benefit. In chapter 10, texts from ancient funerary inscriptions are attributed to Carroll 2011 and 2006, which is clearly not the case (p. 230). Otherwise, the editing and referencing throughout the book is excellent.
In sum, the book makes a hugely important contribution to the field of Roman archaeology. As the first volume to combine past and present scholarship on Roman bioarchaeology with methodological descriptions, it acts as a cornerstone for future research and collaborations. Students and established Roman archaeologists alike will benefit from the clarity of the information presented in the chapters while those looking to incorporate bioarchaeological evidence into their scholarship now have a key volume to consult. The editors and the many contributors should be applauded for their efforts.
Authors and Titles
- Across the Empire, on the Edge of Disciplines: Ongoing Research in Roman Bioarchaeology (Kathryn E. Marklein and Elizabeth A. Bews)
- Sex and Gender in Roman Bioarchaeology (Leslie Quade and Rebecca Gowland)
- Exploring Childhood in Roman Britannia (Rebecca Pitt and Mary E. Lewis)
- Stable Isotope Analysis in Roman Bioarchaeology (Tracy L. Prowse)
- Biodistance in the Roman World (Mahmoud Mardini and Efthymia Nikita)
- Human Archaeogenetics and the Paleopathology of Tuberculosis in Italy during the Roman Age (Serena Viva, Gabriele Scorrano, Olga Rickards, Pier Francesco Fabbri, and Fabio Macciardi)
- Paleoparasitology: Studying Parasites in the Roman Empire to Understand Disease, Diet, and Living Conditions (Marissa L. Ledger and Piers D. Mitchell)
- Empire of Violence: Bioarchaeological Aspects of Violence in the Roman World (Mario Novak, Mario Carić, and Anna J. Osterholtz)
- Critiquing the Urban-Rural Dichotomy in Roman Period Bioarchaeology (Sammuel Sammut, Kathryn E. Marklein, and Elizabeth A. Bews)
- Identity in the Roman World and Its Relevance Today (Rebecca C. Redfern)
- Progress and Future Prospects in Roman Bioarchaeology (Elizabeth A. Bews and Kathryn E. Marklein)
Notes
[1] Lodwick, L. and Rowan, E., 2022. Archaeobotanical research in classical archaeology. American Journal of Archaeology, 126(4): 593-623; MacKinnon, M., 2007. Osteological research in classical archaeology. American Journal of Archaeology, 111(3):473-504.