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A Lady of York: migration, ethnicity and identity in Roman Britain

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2015

S. Leach ,
H. Eckardt ,
C. Chenery ,
G. Müldner  and
M. Lewis
S. Leach
Affiliation:
1Department of Archaeology, School of Human and Environmental Sciences, University of Reading, Reading RG6 6AB, UK
H. Eckardt
Affiliation:
1Department of Archaeology, School of Human and Environmental Sciences, University of Reading, Reading RG6 6AB, UK
C. Chenery
Affiliation:
1Department of Archaeology, School of Human and Environmental Sciences, University of Reading, Reading RG6 6AB, UK 2NERC Isotope Geoscience Laboratory, British Geological Survey, Kingsley Dunham Centre, Keyworth, Nottingham NG12 5GG, UK
G. Müldner
Affiliation:
1Department of Archaeology, School of Human and Environmental Sciences, University of Reading, Reading RG6 6AB, UK
M. Lewis
Affiliation:
1Department of Archaeology, School of Human and Environmental Sciences, University of Reading, Reading RG6 6AB, UK
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Abstract

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Modern methods of analysis applied to cemeteries have often been used in our pages to suggest generalities about mobility and diet. But these same techniques applied to a single individual, together with the grave goods and burial rite, can open a special kind of personal window on the past. Here, the authors of a multidisciplinary project use a combination of scientific techniques to illuminate Roman York, and later Roman history in general, with their image of a glamorous mixed-race woman, in touch with Africa, Christianity, Rome and Yorkshire.

Keywords

YorkRomanburialisotope analysisancestryrankivorymortuary theory
Type
Research
Information
Antiquity , Volume 84 , Issue 323 , March 2010 , pp. 131 - 145
Copyright
Copyright © Antiquity Publications Ltd 2010

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