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