Maureen Carroll

Genomic signals of migration and continuity in Britain before the Anglo-Saxons

The purported migrations that have formed the peoples of Britain have been the focus of generations of scholarly controversy. However, this has not benefited from direct analyses of ancient genomes. Here we report nine ancient genomes (∼1 ×) of individuals from northern Britain: seven from a Roman era York cemetery, bookended by earlier Iron-Age and later Anglo-Saxon burials. Six of the Roman genomes show affinity with modern British Celtic populations, particularly Welsh, but significantly diverge from populations from Yorkshire and other eastern English samples. They also show similarity with the earlier Iron-Age genome, suggesting population continuity, but differ from the later Anglo-Saxon genome. This pattern concords with profound impact of migrations in the Anglo-Saxon period. Strikingly, one Roman skeleton shows a clear signal of exogenous origin, with affinities pointing towards the Middle East, confirming the cosmopolitan character of the Empire, even at its northernmost fringes.

Infant death and burial in Roman Italy

their own lives. In this group of unjustly treated and miserable souls, newborn children appear most pitiable because they had only just begun their lives, and were now doomed to a marginal existence at the gates of Hades. The marginal and ambiguous position of very young children in Roman society is also a feature of Plutarch’s his Wife 4 and 11, on the death of their two-year-old daughter.1 He stresses the importance of restraint in mourning, for infants ‘have no part in earth or earthly things’ and do not require any of the rites normally performed for the dead.

‘The Insignia of Women’: Dress, Gender and Identity on the Roman Funerary Monument of Regina from Arbeia

The current study focuses on the Roman gravestone of a British woman named Regina who died in the second half of the second century at the Roman fort of Arbeia (South Shields) at the mouth of the Tyne and was commemorated by her Palmyrene husband. The paper examines the Latin and Aramaic inscriptions on Reginas gravestone, the depiction of her ethnic clothing and bodily adornment, and the portrayal of the deceased as a woman skilled in wool-working, in order to contextualize and understand the important messages the monument conveys about physical mobility, ethnicity, social standing and gender relationships on Romes northern frontier.

Exploring the sanctuary of Venus and its sacred grove: politics, cult and identity in Roman Pompeii

Archaeological surveys conducted in the temple of Venus in Pompeii showed that the sanctuary was built on a triple portico and that trees were placed in the courtyard around three sides of the temple. This landscape is contemporary with the construction of the Roman temple of the mid-1st century BC, and is one of the oldest consecrated woods in the Roman world for which we have archaeological evidence. The results of the archaeological work shed light not only on the landscape of the site, but also on various important aspects correlated with the original developments of the fence and land use in the colony of Pompeii. A reflection of the archaeological and historical evidence and the social circumstances of the city in the first century BC suggests that the temple and sacred wood of the tutelary gods of the city symbolized both political identity and the divine sanction of Roman Pompeii.

Supplying the Roman fleet: native Belgic, Frisian and Germanic pottery from Cologne

In 1995/96 archaeological excavations were conducted at Cologne on the site known as the Alteburg where the base of the Rhine fleet ( Classis Germanica ) was located. The area investigated was located in the E part of the fort near the river bank (fig. 1). Stratigraphic excavations clarified the chronology of the site, revealing 8 different building phases and a much more complex history than had previously been realised. In Phases 1 (Tiberian), 2 (Claudian), and 3 (Vespasianic), the barracks of the fort were timber structures. Under Domitian after 90/91, these buildings were demolished (Phase 4), and the area levelled to be replaced in Phase 5 by new barrack blocks with stone socles and a timber superstructure. After a fire around the middle of the 2nd c., rebuilding took place in Phases 6 and 7, the remains of which were poorly preserved. In Phase 8, around 270-280, the fort was abandoned and the riverside ditch backfilled. Evidence also suggests that the site was first occupied under Tiberius by legionary troops, possibly Legio I and XX , with a contingent of ships, and that it was not until the establishment of the provincial fleet under Claudius that the site became the permanent operational base of the fleet. Fragments of native, handmade Roman pottery were found in the post trenches, layers and pit fills, ranging in date from the early 1st to the mid-2nd c. (figs. 2-3). Since much of this pottery is virtually unknown on the Lower Rhine in Germany, a study of it in this context can make an important contribution to Roman pottery studies. Furthermore, analysis of the pottery allows us to determine the provenances and better understand the interaction between the Roman military and native societies, particularly in regard to the role various regions played in supplying the fleet with provisions.