Session: #67

Theme & Session Format

Theme:
4. Polis, Empire, League and Beyond – Living in Interconnected Societies
Session format:
Regular session

Title & Content

Title:
Cremation Funerary Practices across the Roman Empire: A Bioarchaeological Approach
Content:
In one of the greatest and most enduring Empires of antiquity, particularly until the first two centuries AD, cremation was the most dominant way of disposing of the dead. Trends of regional scope and/or according to the historical period were unveiled through the analysis of the characteristics of their graves. Moreover, the advances in the analysis of burned bone, have allowed to gather data on these individuals (biological profile, signs of diseases and geographic mobility) and related cremation funerary practices.
This session will take a multidisciplinary bioarchaeological approach regarding cremation usages across the Roman Empire between the 2nd century BD to the 4th century AD. Papers may explore issues related to the process of combustion (e.g. body position, temperatures achieved, bone’s burning degree or cases of multiple cremations) and post-cremation funerary gestures (e.g. bone collected from the pyre; place of deposition and burial of the human remains). Another relevant contribution would be the diachronological analysis related to a specific city/region, or studies comparing cremation burial rites in distinct types of settlements (e.g. pre-Roman versus new, urban versus rural) in a given historical period. Atypical cremation cases are also considered. Interpretations of these data will be also based on information achieved from other disciplines (e.g. historical sources and archaeological and biochemical data) in order to have a sociocultural view of the cremation funerary practices across Roman Empire.
This session intends to bring together recent bioarchaeological studies of cremated human remains from different Roman provinces, and to update the knowledge and methodologies currently used.
Keywords:
Cremated bone, Biologic profile, Combustion process, Post-cremation gestures, Roman necropolis, Roman provinces
Session associated with MERC:
no
Session associated with CIfA:
no
Session associated with SAfA:
no
Session associated with CAA:
no
Session associated with DGUF:
no
Session associated with other:

Organisers

Main organiser:
Filipa Silva (Portugal) 1
Co-organisers:
Sabrina Masotti (Italy) 2
Birgit Grosskopf (Germany) 3
Affiliations:
1. Research Centre for Anthropology and Health (CIAS), Department of Life Sciences, University of Coimbra, Portugal
2. Department of Neuroscience and Rehabilitation, University of Ferrara, Italy
3. Historische Anthropologie und Humanökologie Johann-Friedrich-Blumenbach-Institut der Georg-August-Universität Göttingen, Germany