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Seminar: Phillip ENDICOTT
20 DECEMBER 24
IHP-EFEO Talk
Speaker:
Dr. Phillip ENDICOTT
Research Fellow, University of Tartu, Estonia /University of Bournemouth, United Kingdom
Title:
Investigating Kinship Practices Using Population Biology in Southern Coastal Britain during the Transition from the Late Iron Age to the Roman Period
Date:
Wednesday, January 8, 2025, at 3:00 pm
Venue:
Room 703, Research Building, IHP, Academia Sinica
Abstract:
The use of ancient DNA for the study of European prehistory is hailed by some as a ‘paradigmchanging’ revolution, but it is also polarising opinions in archaeology. Many high-profile studies are critiqued for privileging of biological over social relatedness when attempting to interpretkinship practices operating in the past. Many assume, contrary to evidence from cross-cultural ethnographic surveys, that specific subsistence strategies can be equated with specific kinship practices, resulting in a growing belief that Europe since the Neolithic was a patrilocal society,with descent organised on patrilineal lines.
I will present a feasibility study of southern coastal Britain either side of the Roman conquest in 43 CE. Shortly after the hillforts of Dorset fall into disuse ~100 BCE, a new cultural horizon appears, characterised by a distinctive funerary tradition, and lasts into the early 2nd century CE.The site under study, Winterbourne Kington, is central to its distribution. Genetic pedigrees, based on 45 individuals, are consistent with matrilocal post-marital residence and male exogamy. Using genetic haplotypes and chromosome painting reveals a significant increase in mobility from the continent commencing prior to the Roman conquest, which is not witnessed outside of the southern coastal region of Britain.
This study demonstrates both the strengths and limitations of population biology for understanding social structure in the past. I will explain how distinguishing between different possible descent groups associated with matrilocal residence, and the geographical origin of male partners, will be addressed in an extended study using detailed settlement archaeology, and stable isotopes of mobility. Moreover, by increased sampling density it will be possible to study transformations in kinship before, during, and after the Roman conquest, establish whether this distinctive funerary tradition is a local development and if it could be connected to the regional polity named as the Durotriges by Ptolemy in the 2nd century CE.
The talk will be chaired by Prof. HWANG Ming-chorng, Research Fellow, Institute of History and Philology, Academia Sinica, and Prof. Frank Muyard, EFEO Taipei Center.
The talk will be given in English. Registration is not required.
lecture
Speaker:
Dr. Phillip ENDICOTT
Research Fellow, University of Tartu, Estonia /University of Bournemouth, United Kingdom
Title:
Investigating Kinship Practices Using Population Biology in Southern Coastal Britain during the Transition from the Late Iron Age to the Roman Period
Date:
Wednesday, January 8, 2025, at 3:00 pm
Venue:
Room 703, Research Building, IHP, Academia Sinica
Abstract:
The use of ancient DNA for the study of European prehistory is hailed by some as a ‘paradigmchanging’ revolution, but it is also polarising opinions in archaeology. Many high-profile studies are critiqued for privileging of biological over social relatedness when attempting to interpretkinship practices operating in the past. Many assume, contrary to evidence from cross-cultural ethnographic surveys, that specific subsistence strategies can be equated with specific kinship practices, resulting in a growing belief that Europe since the Neolithic was a patrilocal society,with descent organised on patrilineal lines.
I will present a feasibility study of southern coastal Britain either side of the Roman conquest in 43 CE. Shortly after the hillforts of Dorset fall into disuse ~100 BCE, a new cultural horizon appears, characterised by a distinctive funerary tradition, and lasts into the early 2nd century CE.The site under study, Winterbourne Kington, is central to its distribution. Genetic pedigrees, based on 45 individuals, are consistent with matrilocal post-marital residence and male exogamy. Using genetic haplotypes and chromosome painting reveals a significant increase in mobility from the continent commencing prior to the Roman conquest, which is not witnessed outside of the southern coastal region of Britain.
This study demonstrates both the strengths and limitations of population biology for understanding social structure in the past. I will explain how distinguishing between different possible descent groups associated with matrilocal residence, and the geographical origin of male partners, will be addressed in an extended study using detailed settlement archaeology, and stable isotopes of mobility. Moreover, by increased sampling density it will be possible to study transformations in kinship before, during, and after the Roman conquest, establish whether this distinctive funerary tradition is a local development and if it could be connected to the regional polity named as the Durotriges by Ptolemy in the 2nd century CE.
The talk will be chaired by Prof. HWANG Ming-chorng, Research Fellow, Institute of History and Philology, Academia Sinica, and Prof. Frank Muyard, EFEO Taipei Center.
The talk will be given in English. Registration is not required.
lecture