The Biological Anthropology of Diversity: Interdisciplinary Approaches to Migration and Ancestry in Roman Britain

There are many different strands of evidence to consider when reconstructing migration and diversity in past societies. These include–but are not limited to–physical or genetic expressions of ethnicity, stable isotopic evidence for the movement of individuals, and written or artistic indications of geographical or ethnic origin. This dissertation will explore all the different facets of diversity in Roman Britain, all within the context of conquest and imperialism. First, the concerns of using cranial phenotypic variation as a means of biological distance analysis are addressed by proposing an approach that is diversity-driven, rather than classification-driven. This model, which employs K-means cluster analysis based upon Euclidean distance, is used to explore the phenotypic diversity and, therefore, the visually recognizable diversity at the Lankhills Late-Roman Cemetery, the Poundbury Roman Camp, the Ancaster Late-Roman Cemetery, and the Baldock “California” Cemetery. Next, previously collected stable migratory isotope data, namely oxygen, strontium, and lead, from several studies are combined and re-evaluated to explore the extent of migration to Roman Britain, specifically at Lankhills Late-Roman Cemetery and the Gloucester London Road Cemetery, as well as several Roman cemeteries in York, Catterick, and London. Then, all known inscriptions throughout Roman Britain that denote people of foreign or indigenous origins are compiled using data from volumes I and III of Roman Inscriptions of Britain (Collingwood and Wright 1965, 2010). Finally, all of these strands of evidence are combined and put within the context of Roman primary sources and provincial responses to Roman conquest in order to better understand the experience of diversity for conquered people within the Roman Empire. Ultimately, it is clear that diversity is well-attested both biologically and archaeologically in Roman Britain, and that the willingness to display one’s diversity appears not to have been hampered despite Roman discrimination against provincials.