New CRASIS Network: Marginalised Groups
We are excited to announce the formation of a new CRASIS Network: Marginalised Groups: Giving Voice to Silenced Peoples in the Ancient World. This network aims to explore the experiences of historically underrepresented groups in antiquity.
- Mailing List: If you wish to join the mailing list and stay informed about meetings and events, please register here.
- Planning Meeting: The organisers will meet on 10 December, 15:00–16:00 to plan further activities. If you would like to join, please email
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For more information, see the attached document outlining the network’s goals and themes:
CRASIS Network: Marginalised groups: giving voice to silenced peoples in the ancient world
Organisers:
Anna Moles (Archaeology)
Sofia Voutsaki (Archaeology)
Jacqueline Klooster (Classics)
Bart Danon (Ancient History)
About the Network
The study of ancient society has traditionally focused on the urban elites or the male citizens, and has neglected the women, the children or adolescents, the old people, the disabled or sick, the slaves and criminals, the foreign residents. This network aims to address this problem. While the situation is rapidly changing, with these groups receiving increasing attention, these discussions remain restricted to historical or literary evidence. However, in recent years, mortuary archaeology (the study of mortuary practices) and bioarchaeology (the study of human remains, and associated analytical techniques such as ancient DNA and biodistance analysis to establish genetic relations, or isotopic analyses to reconstruct diet or provenance) produce fascinating insights into the life and death of precisely these neglected categories. These new insights have not been incorporated so far into historical reflection on these ‘silenced groups’. Classicists and ancient historians make little use of (bio)archaeological information, while osteoarchaeologists are not always familiar with the complexities of the ancient world, or ignore the potential of texts, epigraphy, or imagery. As a result, the different disciplines hardly interact with each other, just at the moment when new questions are being asked and new methods introduced.
We want to make use of this network within the framework of CRASIS, as an interdisciplinary research institute, to bring together scholars from across the disciplines studying the ancient world, bridging the gap between these diverse disciplines and between the humanities and the sciences. Doing this through a CRASIS network also enables us to maximise the interdisciplinarity of our approach to marginalised peoples by bringing together a wide range of disciplines interested in ancient societies. Coming from the archaeological perspective, we acknowledge the importance of the growth of archaeological science, but we want to anchor methodological innovation in theoretical reflection and historical knowledge. Coming from the historical/textual perspective we are interested to learn how new archaeological methods can challenge, confirm or fill in the gaps in the discourses we find in ancient texts, both inscribed and literary/historiographical. Moreover, from a reception theories and cultural analysis point of view, we are also interested in seeing how and whether the new facts archaeology can obtain about silenced and marginalized groups will enter the public consciousness through popular science and pop culture. We can think for instance of the spate of popular books on the lives of women that is currently appearing (The Missing Thread, Dunn; Femina, Ramirez; Amazons, Mayor), that use archaeological findings to complete the lacunae in the historical record. Herein lies the strength of situating our research in the very well documented ancient Greco-Roman world where optimal integration of written, material, iconographic and bioarchaeological evidence can be achieved, and including reception scholars as well.
Meeting plans
A series of four meetings to discuss a selection of specific topics within the theme involving both the CRASIS network and external participants. We would like to focus on the status quo of research to-date on these topics, gathering bibliography and available evidence, and discuss how to progress in approaching future study of marginalised peoples and silenced groups in the ancient world. The meetings will take the format of a combination of talks, round-table discussions, student poster sessions, and collections tours. We would like to hear about the current research of those in the network relating to the theme but will also include a specifically student-oriented aspect to each meeting.
The four meeting topics:
1) Women and children
2) The elderly, infirm and disabled
3) The enslaved and criminals
4) Foreigners
We plan to include student activities into these meetings including (but not limited to):
- Student posters on a topic linked to the meeting’s theme.
- For our graduate students, to act as respondents to papers.
- A tour of the Human Osteoarchaeology Laboratory and Mediterranean Archaeology collections.
- Integrate student presentations in the new BA Roman slavery course.
Upcoming events
10 December: Planning meeting with the organisers but any interested parties are welcome (email
If you have questions, wish to propose a meeting, idea or speaker, or if you want to be placed on our mailing list, please send an email to Anna Moles