Roman Bioarchaeology Carnival XVI

A surprising dearth of Roman bioarchaeology news this past month...

News and Analyses

New tombs at Alexandria (credit)

• 13 April - Greek and Byzantine-era tomb discoveries in Alexandria prompt construction freeze.  A bit further afield, but an interesting report on some newly found rock-cut tombs, including one dating to the Greco-Roman era.  Sounds like there are skeletal remains too, which is quite interesting.

• 14 April - Ancient burial urns uncovered at St. Albans King Harry Park site.  This article covers the five cremation urns from Verlamion (Roman Verulamium).  I'd previously posted the BBC article about CT scanning of the urns.  There may be more Roman burials at the site.

• 16 April - The 'pushy parent' syndrome in ancient Rome.  Mary Beard writes about the lives of Roman kids (from tombstones) for this BBC piece.  (And if you're in the UK, you can watch her new series, Meet the Romans, online here.)

Dr. Belcastro in her lab (credit)

• 22 April - La Repubblica has a nice piece on Maria Giovanna Belcastro, a well-known Italian bioarchaeologist.  Even if you don't read Italian, click through to this slideshow, which has some awesome pictures of random pathological specimens. Also great? All the skeletons are laid out correctly. (Kind of unfortunate for my "Who needs an osteologist?" series. ;-)

• 28 April - And in more Belcastro news, it seems the remains of St. Deodata, a Christian martyr of the 4th century AD, were found - the front of a skull is marked "Corpus Sanctae Deodatae." Belcastro found in the reliquary the remains of a woman age 36-39, along with bones from two adolescents. I couldn't find much on this saint - anyone have any clue who she was?

• 4 April - York Minster tantalises archaeologists with hints of Saxon church.  Apparently a ton of bones have been found at York Minster, used to backfill a Medieval trench.  They may date as early as the 5th century (just post-Roman) or as late as the 8th century (just pre-Viking).  Much more research on the bones is expected.

• 13 April - Roman and Iron Age finds at (Cambridge Theological) college.  Some Roman-era artifacts, including a copper ring, ceramic tiles, and animal bones, have been found near Cambridge during recent construction.

Articles

• Nutritional and disease stress of juveniles from the Dakhleh Oasis, Egypt (IJOA vol. 22). Sandra Wheeler investigates over 200 skeletons of subadults (fetal to 15 years old) from the Romano-Byzantine cemetery of Kellis 2 and finds that children's health got better in Roman times.

Exhibits and Conferences

• 11-12 April - I was at the PPA and AAPA conferences, and I presented a poster at each. Palaeopathology and Urban Decline at Gabii, and Differential Diagnosis of an Unusual Lower Leg Pathology in an Imperial Roman.
• 18 April - A short piece in Italian on the museum of paleontology at Rome's La Sapienza highlights some of the faunal remains that are on display.  (I liked the title of the article - Nani, scheletri e impronte - which translates as "Dwarves, skeletons, and footprints.")
• 18 April - The 4th Osteology Symposium was held in Rimini from April 18-21.

Videos

• Beth Harris and Steven Zucker talk about the Medea Sarcophagus (140-150 AD) at the Altes Museum in Berlin.
• Brian Rose talks about Atlantis in this hour-long video from the Penn Museum.

Fake News (Satire)

• Romans to Outsource Crucifixion Service

That's all, folks!  Join me here next month for another roundup... or join PbO now on Facebook for all the latest bioarchaeology news.