Roman Bioarchaeology

How bioarchaeology can illuminate the lived experiences of people in the Roman Empire  



Research
on the Roman Empire has long focused on Rome’s legendary leaders,
culture, and conquest. But at the empire’s peak, tens of millions of
ordinary people coexisted in its territories—people who built the
structures, wrote the literature, and transformed the landscapes we
study today. In Roman Bioarchaeology, researchers use human
skeletal remains recovered from throughout the Roman world to portray
how individuals lived and died, spanning the empire’s vast geography and
1,000 years of ancient history.            



This volume
brings together scholarship from archaeological sites in Europe, the
Eastern Mediterranean, and Africa, featuring new and advanced scientific
approaches including DNA studies, stable isotope analysis,
paleoparasitology, paleopathology, biodistance, and more. Throughout,
contributors prioritize the ethical treatment of the deceased by
highlighting individual narratives and working with local descendants
where possible. From rural homes in Britannia to bustling cities in
Phoenicia, these essays showcase the diversity of Roman lives and
illuminate the experiences of the most vulnerable in these societies.
This book demonstrates how bioarchaeology can enrich our understanding
of many facets of life in the Roman world.  



Contributors:
Piers Mitchell | Mario Caric | Efthymia Nikita | Gabriele Scorrano |
Mahmoud Mardini | Serena Viva | Tracy Prowse | Kathryn E. Marklein |
Mario Novak | Olga Rickards | Marissa Ledger | Anna Osterholtz | Pier
Francesco Fabbri | Leslie Quade | Sammuel Sammut | Fabio Macciardi |
Rebecca Pitt | Elizabeth A. Bews | Mary Lewis | Rebecca Redfern |
Rebecca Gowland



A volume in the series
Bioarchaeological Interpretations of the Human Past: Local, Regional,
and Global Perspectives, edited by Clark Spencer Larsen