Dear All,

See below for a final Call for Papers for the Roman Archaeology Conference 2018 session ‘Plants, Animals and Identity’.

Please email any abstracts (of no more than 300 words) to [log in to unmask] by the 15^th of September.

Best wishes,

Lauren

Session Title: Plants, Animals and Identity

Proposers

Dr Maaike Groot

Institut für Prähistorische Archäologie, Freie Universität Berlin

Lauren Bellis

University of Leicester

Dr Sabine Deschler-Erb

IPNA, Universität Basel

Dr Örni Akeret

IPNA, Universität Basel

In recent decades, identity has become an important theme in Roman archaeology. Identity is often studied through material culture and epigraphy. The potential of organic remains of plants and animals has not been utilised fully. This is surprising, since the consumption of food and rearing of particular plants and animals – for which organic remains provide direct evidence – is an important way of claiming and expressing identity, and differentiating from others. When we do find statements about identity that are related to food, these are often simplified and not always correct. For instance, it is widely claimed that the ‘Romans’ prefer to eat pork. The evidence behind the supposed Roman preference for pork seems to be based on King’s regional study of animal bones, which shows a dominance of pig for Central Italy. So it depends on what the term ‘Romans’ refers to - people from Central Italy, legionary soldiers or everyone living in the Roman Empire - whether the statement is valid or not.

Another example concerns the spread of Roman herbs, fish sauce, wine and olive oil throughout the Roman Empire. What does this say about the identity of the people who incorporated these new elements into their diet? Animals that were not exploited for food are also indicative of changing identity. Several Roman provinces show the introduction of new varieties of dog, particularly very small ‘toy’ varieties. The choice to keep new types of dog, particularly in rural areas, likely indicate changes in the identity of their inhabitants. They are also ideal case studies for investigating changes in the treatment of animals during their life - another potential marker of identity.

Studies of organic remains can also reveal differences in growing food and ornamental plants between different regions of the Empire. Of course, these differences are at least in part due to differences in environment and climate. Nevertheless, identity can also have played a role in how people farmed, for instance what methods and technology were used, what crops were cultivated and what animals were raised (e.g. Kreuz 2005).