Osteoarchaeology and the Ancient World Scholar’s Toolkit

Osteoarchaeology and the Ancient World Scholar’s Toolkit

by Adam Hope

Osteoarchaeology: What, Why, and How?

Osteoarchaeology uses bodily remains recovered in archaeological contexts to develop historical insights. The evidence base is the human skeleton, which, when complete, consists of 206 bones and either twenty “baby” or thirty-two “adult” teeth depending on age at death. The completeness of a skeleton hinges on various factors: naturally, burial is a must — meaning this approach is unsuitable for the study of societies which practice “sky burial,” such as pre-Islamic Iran or medieval Tibet — while looting and soil acidity determine the quantity and quality of surviving bone material. Upon detection, bone is excavated by careful troweling. Extensive records are then produced, detailing the anatomical features found, the stratigraphic level at which they were discovered, and features such as visible signs of damage or indicators of sex and age.

Roman Art & Imperial Marmor

In this paper, I discuss the Roman imperial exploitation of valuable white and colored stone resources—or marmor—and the implications of their usage for public, provincial, and private arts across the Mediterranean. I argue that from the late Republic through the high Empire, Roman elites privileged marble, granite, porphyry, and other polished stones as signifiers of status, taste, and regional domination.

A Tunnel That Appears in the Moribund Hour

Despite hailing from different backgrounds, Antigone and Socrates ultimately meet their ends in similar manners, claiming their places in classical history as some of its earliest depictions of civil disobedience. As it were, their motives and the actions that led to those moments are explored in the dialogue created below, as well as the similarities and differences in their approaches to religion, rebellion, duty, and death; thus, the purpose of this preface is not to re-discuss these notions in redundancy.