BODIes of CONtact: Identity negotiations and biocultural effects in the Roman colonies of Macedonia, Greece

Project Information

BODICON

Grant agreement ID: 841096

DOI

10.3030/841096

Project closed

EC signature date 11 April 2019

Start date 1 January 2020

End date 31 December 2021

Funded under

• EXCELLENT SCIENCE - Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions

Total cost

€ 187 572,48

EU contribution

€ 187 572,48

Coordinated by

RIJKSUNIVERSITEIT GRONINGEN
Netherlands

Periodic Reporting for period 1 - BODICON (BODIes of CONtact: Identity negotiations and biocultural effects in the Roman colonies of Macedonia, Greece)

Reporting period: 2020-01-01 to 2021-12-31

Summary of the context and overall objectives of the project

BODICON examines the different ways identities are negotiated under colonial regimes by investigating the biocultural effects of Roman conquest on ordinary people through the lense of bioarchaeology. The site of Dion in Macedonia (Greece) is the ideal case study to examine the processes of negotiation of identities from both a diachronic and a regional perspective. Located at the foot of Mount Olympus, Dion was the Macedonians’ religious center and federal shrine from the 5th cent. BC onward. In 169 BC the city fell to the Romans; after the Battle of Actium (31 BC) Dion became a Roman colony and flourished until the end of the 3rd cent. AD. Dion was a highly connected urban centre and part of the network of Roman colonies established in the Greek Peninsula. Material evidence shows a highly urbanized life with signs of prosperity but also a bilingual population and a community that gradually evolved in a process of interaction and exchange leading to the fusion of the Roman and Greek cultures, a multi-ethnic population and a complex society.

The research objectives of the project are:
RO1: To reconstruct the life- and death ways of the population.
RO2: To explore kinship and understand social complexity.
RO3: To introduce a novel, holistic bioarchaeological approach to conquest and colonisation in Roman Macedonia

To achieve these objectives, the project adopts a holistic bioarchaeological approach and combines current, sophisticated theoretical reflection on culture contact with cutting-edge interdisciplinary techniques (paleodietary reconstruction, biodistance analysis, radiocarbon dating). Going beyond traditional disciplinary boundaries, this approach: i) enhances views of the life in the past to a far greater extent than written or archaeological sources allow, and ii) offers a new, critical understanding of contact and admixture of populations diachronically.

Work performed from the beginning of the project to the end of the period covered by the report and main results achieved so far

Dr. Paraskevi Tritsaroli conducted her research from January 2020 to December 2021 under the supervision of Prof. Sofia Voutsaki at the Groningen Institute of Archaeology; a secondment under the guidance of Dr Euthymia Nikita at the STARC/The Cyprus Institute was also included in the project. Despite the restrictions imposed by the covid-19 pandemic during this 2-year period, all tasks and objectives were achieved as included in the original proposal.

Training: Dr. Tritsaroli received training on biochemical analysis for palaeodietary reconstruction and radiocrabon dating at the Center for Isotope Reseach of the University of Groningen. Within the frame of the secondement, Dr Tritsaroli was trained in biodistance analysis.

Dessimination/outreach: the fellow gave three lectures within the frame of Capital Selecta seminar Series, GRASIS (Culture, Religion and Society – Interdisciplinary Studies in the Ancient World) and GCHH (Groningen Centre of Health and Humanities) hosted by the University of Groningen. Upon completion of the osteological analysis, she also participated to two workshops organised by the University of Groningen (Developments in Mortuary Archaeology and The impact of Rome in the East: Change & Continuity through the lens οf the Dead), she co-authored an article in Paleo-aktueel and she has an accepted, co-authored, paper for the 3rd International Congress on Archaeological Sciences in the Eastern Mediterranean and the Middle East (ICAS-EMME 3) that will be published in Journal of Archaeological Science:Reports. One introduction to the project was published in Tijdschrift voor Mediterrane Archeologie; three more peer-review articles will be published in the two years following the termination of the action. In addition, three scientific publications, related to side projects, were published (one article in journal, one in a conference proceedings volume and one book chapter). Finally, the ER participated in the action “Science is Wonderful!” organised by the European Commission (2021).

Teaching/supervision: The fellow taught an intensive course in Human Osteology and Bioarchaeology to five advanced MA students from the Groningen Institute of Archaeology (GIA) and gave a lecture for 2nd year undergraduate students in Archaeology at the same university. Furthermore, she has been co-supervising the dissertations of two undergraduate students from the GIA and has been monitoring the internship of an undergraduate student from the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens.

Progress beyond the state of the art and expected potential impact (including the socio-economic impact and the wider societal implications of the project so far)

BODICON has so far generated a large, bioarchaeological dataset for Graeco-Roman Antiquity in Greece and the Eastern Mediterranean, it gave the possibility to the fellow to strengthen her qualifications and expand her collaborative network and had a substantial contribution in enhancing her future career prospects. The fellow has obtained a new post-doctoral position at the University of Groningen where she is able to strengthen the theoretical and technical knowledge and skills that she acquired during the action. The new collaborations and the response of the scientific community to the results of BODICON also set the basis for wider projects in the years to come.

The analysis shed new light on the processes of identity negotiations in ancient populations that are given material and biological expression, and it elucidated the daily chores and challenges of ordinary people under colonial regimes. The results show that it is difficult to assess interaction between different populational groups as various factors (geographical, ecological, economic, cultural, political and societal) were at play. By analysing in a holistic way the different ways identities were negotiated in the past, and by communicating the results to the scientific community and the broader public, it is expected that this project will have a strong impact on the understanding of the emergence of new cultural and social roles in Europe and the Eastern Mediterranean through time.

Chemical pretreatment of bone samples (CIO, University of Groningen)

Reconstructed burial of an adult skeleton

“Science is Wonderful ”, online MSCA event organised by the EU, November 2021

Samples of crystalline collagen

Sorting of bones from a commingled burial (Wiener Laboratory, ASCSA)

Data collection by the fellow (Wiener Laboratory, ASCSA)