Outsiders within? A Bioarchaeological Perspective of Prone Burials in Roman Populations from Italy and Switzerland (1st-3rd c. AD)

Irregular burials (i.e. burials showing features deviating from the majority of others in their geographic and chronological context), have traditionally puzzled researchers attempting to disentangle their possible social meanings. Studies of irregular burials are often methodologically biased by their discussion as archaeological curiosities, rather than as the expression of complex underlying funerary practices, and by interpretative generalizations largely based on unsupported ethnographic parallels. Here, we discuss a specifi c type of Roman irregular burial (prone burials) from Italy (Bononia, modern-day Bologna, 1st c. AD) and Switzerland (Aventicum, modern-day Avenches, 1st-3rd c. AD) by means of an alternative, multidisciplinary approach (multivariate analysis of bioarchaeological data, paleopathological analysis, biochemical study of diet and mobility). The following research questions are addressed: 1) Is there a link between this specifi c funerary treatment and differential patterns of health, ethnicity, or social differentiation at each site? Especially, is it possible that pathological conditions (e.g. residual rickets, endocranial lesions, auditory exostoses) observed primarily in these individuals may have infl uenced their differential funerary treatment? 2) Can we distinguish the signals of independent cultural traditions (vs. state-sanctioned homogeneity) in the performance of the same irregular funerary practice in Bologna and Aventicum? Generating a synthetic analysis of diverse datasets we establish important parameters to be taken in account for a more holistic approach to the interpretation of irregular burials..