Theme:
5. All Roads Lead to Rome: Multiscalar Interactions
Session format:
Regular session
Title:
Archaeology and Anthropology, two approaches one goal: insight into life and death from the 3rd to 7th century CE
Content:
In the 3rd century CE began a period of economic, political, social, and religious changes that paved the way for all those events that led to the crisis and fall of the Western Roman Empire in the 5th century. The whole of Western Europe underwent a great socio-cultural transformation and reorganization caused by the invasion of barbarian or non-Romanised western and eastern peoples (Goths, Franks, Lombards, etc.), and due to economic crisis, climatic changes, conflicts and the spread of infectious diseases and epidemics. Trade networks for supplies shifted towards the East causing new patterns of mobility and movement of people resulting in high inter-individual heterogeneity. These changes affected the areas of the Empire in different ways, especially the limes areas characterised by military occupation.
Anthropology can trace the effects of changes in the life of individuals through the analysis of skeletal remains. Similarly, archaeology attempts to answer the question of whether the funerary practices of this period reflect changes in beliefs and society. For instance, ways of displaying and commemorating the dead shifted after the spread of Christianity, and funerary structures reflect a shared ideology and symbols between Christians and pagans.
The purpose of this session is to combine two disciplines, funerary archaeology, and physical anthropology to explore the social and cultural changes from the 3rd to 7th century CE.
Contributions should include a multidisciplinary perspective, bringing together the analysis of human remains with burial patterns to address the same question. Papers may cover not only the mobility, genetics, demography, diet, and health of individuals of the period, but also the funerary contexts, grave goods, and material culture from various geographical areas, different social contexts, rural or urban areas, throughout the Roman Empire. This session aims to bring together bio-anthropological and archaeological studies to share and update the latest findings.
Keywords:
Crisis, Grave goods, Osteology, Changes, Mobility, Funerary context
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:
Main organiser:
Jessica Mongillo (Italy) 1
Co-organisers:
Marion Bolder-Boos (Germany) 2
Rachele Dubbini (Italy) 3
Barbara Bramanti (Italy) 1
Stefano Roascio (Italy) 4
Affiliations:
1. Department of Environmental and Prevention Sciences, University of Ferrara
2. Institut für Altertumswissenschaften (IAW), Arbeitsbereich Klassische Archäologie, Johannes Gutenberg-Universität Mainz
3. Department of Humanities, University of Ferrara
4. Ministero della Cultura, Parco Archeologico dell’Appia Antica
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