Roman Bioarchaeology Carnival LXVIII

Some cool new finds, and some interesting new published research this month.  Let's hit it!

New Finds

Tomb of a woman from the 3rd c AD.
Photo by Adriana Romanska.

• 12 January - Roman link to local cemetery (Luton Today). Seven Roman cremations were found during a dig at a modern cemetery in England (30mi north of London). No more has been reported, though.

• 20 January - Graeco-Roman necropolis discovered in Alexandria (Ahram Online). Tomb raiders found a necropolis, but there's no mention of bones, just of pottery.

• 28 January - Huge burial site from before 2 thousand years will be analyzed by specialists (Science & Scholarship in Poland). Over 120 burials from the 1st-4th century AD were found in Poland. Burial rituals appear to vary considerably, and there were plenty well-appointed burials. Bioarchaeologists plan to do Sr/C/N isotopes and aDNA analysis.  It would be great to have these data for this part of the Roman Empire!

Amphipolis Updates

• 19 January - Five people buried in tomb in ancient Amphipolis, tests reveal (Ekathimerini). 

• 20 January - Important news: the excavated bones belonged to 5 different people (The Amphipolis Tomb).

• 26 January - Bones from era of Alexander the Great raise more questions than answers (National Geographic). 

Publications

• Becker, M.J. 2014. Dentistry in ancient Rome: direct evidence for extractions based on the teeth from excavations at the Temple of Castor and Pollux in the Roman Forum. International Journal of Anthropology 29(4):209-226. tl;dr - Carious, extracted teeth found in a drain during the excavation of the Temple of Castor and Pollux in the Forum suggest use of the space by a Roman dentist.

• Killgrove, K. 2013. Biohistory of the Roman Republic: the potential of isotope analysis of human skeletal remains. Post-Classical Archaeologies 3:41-62.  This pub of mine came out in late 2013, but it is now open-access, woo!  tl;dr - "There is a distinct need for bioarchaeological studies of Republican-period cemeteries, although a large hurdle is the fact that cremation was a popular burial rite in this time period."

• Manzon, V.S. and E. Gualdi-Russo. Early view. Health patterns of the Etruscan population (6th-3rd centuries BC) in Northern Italy: the case of Spina. International Journal of Osteoarchaeology. tl;dr - "The analysis of porotic hyperostosis and osteoperiostitis allowed [us] to determine the general health status of this group, and the analysis of osteoarthritis to hypothesize a gender[ed] division of labor. The results suggest a relatively high left expectancy for the time as well as good health and quality of life."

• Redfern et al. Early view. Urban-rural differences in Roman Dorset, England: a bioarchaeological perspective on Roman settlements. American Journal of Physical Anthropology.  tl;dr - "There are significant health, demographic, and mortality differences between rural and urban populations in Roman Britain."