Book; “Human Identities in the Archaeological Record...from Late Antiquity to the Modern Period”

 

How people lived centuries ago: This volume explores their identity

Book Announcement

University of Bonn

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from the Bonn Center for ArchaeoSciences.

 

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Credit: Photo: Bernadett Yehdou/University of Bonn

How did people live centuries ago? How did they see themselves? How were they perceived by others? Today, archaeology uses modern methods to examine skeletons, personal belongings, burial practices, material culture and social and spatial relationships. The book “Human Identities in the Archaeological Record: Interdisciplinary Perspectives from Late Antiquity to the Modern Period” shows how past identities can be reconstructed from this evidence.

“Identity is an extraordinarily timely topic,” says co-editor Jun.-Prof. Dr. Alice Toso of the University of Bonn’s Center for Archaeological Sciences. “We all experience identity as something shaped by belonging, difference, memory, social expectations, and personal decisions.” The scholar is fascinated by the question of how people in the past may have understood themselves and how they were perceived by others.

Of course, researchers can never fully understand people from the past. They must always be careful not to impose their own categories on them. “The possibility of reconstructing something of a person’s experiences, affiliations, or struggles after such a long time gives me goosebumps,” says the bioarchaeologist from the University of Bonn. “For me, this sense of human connection across centuries is one of the most powerful aspects of archaeological research.”

Co-edited by Annamaria Diana (Independent researcher, Ireland), Daniela Marcu-Istrate (Vasile Pârvan Institute of Archaeology, Romania), and bioarchaeologist Alice Toso (University of Bonn), “Human Identities in the Archaeological Record” brings together international perspectives on belonging, diversity, resilience, and otherness from Late Antiquity to the modern period.

Science Across Borders

Using innovative analytical methods, researchers can investigate what people ate, where they grew up and how their bodies were affected by disease, diet, work, and inequality. However, the editors emphasize the importance of a transdisciplinary approach: “Large datasets remain incomplete as long as they are not interpreted within the archaeological context, using historical evidence and incorporating social science theories”, says Diana.

Diet is an excellent example of the complexity of this research. “What a person ate depended not only on their personal preferences,” says Toso. Rather, it was also shaped by the landscape and the resources available there, as well as by religious regulations, agricultural practices, access to markets, political power, household structures, and social status.

Interpreting a burial is just as complex. “A grave does not simply express the identity of the deceased”, says Marcu-Istrate, senior researcher at the Vasile Pârvan Institute of Archaeology in Bucharest, “it also reflects the decisions of relatives, religious authorities, and the wider community.” Thus, the location, design, grave goods, and treatment of the body reflect the relationships between the individual, the community, and social institutions.

Which identities are concealed?

The fundamental question addressed by the book is how people understood themselves and others. But also, how these identities were expressed, negotiated, imposed, altered, or suppressed. “Every person is both unique and part of one or more communities” says Diana. The volume examines how individuality coexisted with collective affiliations based on religion, social status, occupation, ancestry, gender, origin, or political identity.

The researchers are asking how reliably identity can be reconstructed from material remains. Archaeological evidence is incomplete, and historical sources are often fragmentary and shaped by elite perspectives. Whose identity becomes visible, and who is forgotten or deliberately erased? “Archaeology can recover evidence of enslaved people, migrants, religious minorities, social outsiders, and communities that are absent from written history,” says Toso, who is also a member of the Cluster of Excellence “Bonn Center for Dependency & Slavery Studies” as well as the transdisciplinary research areas “Life & Health” and “Present Pasts.” “Reconstructing identity is therefore also an ethical responsibility.”

Drawing on case studies from Europe, America, Africa and Australia, the book illustrates how people and communities expressed, negotiated, and preserved their identities in various historical contexts. It is surprising how relevant these archaeological questions are today. Many of the chapters address migration, displacement, religious persecution, colonialism, and the suppression of cultural diversity. “The past reveals both the long history of these processes and the resilience of communities whose identities were preserved despite the pressure to conform”, says Marcu-Istrate.

Publication: “Human Identities in the Archaeological Record: Interdisciplinary Perspectives from Late Antiquity to the Modern Period,” Bloomsbury Academic, 288 pp., 46 black-and-white illustrations, 120 US-Dollar

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Hidden layout of ancient Roman city of Parion in present-day Turkey

National Research University Higher School of Economics

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Orthophotographic map of Parion (Ancient Civilizations from Scythia to Siberia)

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Credit: © İdil Malgil

İdil Malgil, a researcher at HSE University, conducted a UAV-based LiDAR survey of the ancient Roman city of Parion in present-day Turkey. The high density of the scans allowed the team to detect subtle terrain features concealed beneath the ground and vegetation. The survey revealed traces of entire neighbourhoods, terraced structures, and walls that had remained invisible during routine excavations and could not be identified through aerial photography. The findings have been published in Ancient Civilizations from Scythia to Siberia.

 

Parion was likely founded at the turn of the 8th and 7th centuries BC in northwestern Turkey, in what is now Çanakkale Province, and in the 1st century BC, it became a Roman colony. Systematic archaeological excavations have been underway at Parion since 2005. Researchers have already uncovered Roman baths, a theatre, and several necropolises. However, large parts of the ancient city remain unexplored, as they are either overgrown with grass and shrubs or buried beneath a thick layer of soil.

Conventional aerial photography captures only features visible on the surface. Ground-penetrating radar can reveal what lies beneath the ground, but it produces relatively low-resolution images and is effective only over limited areas. Although archaeologists had data from previous topographic surveys, they still lacked a comprehensive understanding of the city's layout and the structures that remain buried underground.

To address this challenge, İdil Malgil, a doctoral student at the Institute for Oriental and Classical Studies of the HSE Faculty of Humanities, employed LiDAR (laser scanning) technology. 

Surveys of this kind have previously been conducted in archaeological excavations, for example in South America, where LiDAR’s ability to penetrate dense tropical forest canopy is particularly valuable. However, the Parion study is one of the largest UAV-based surveys ever carried out in northwestern Anatolia.

'Unlike a conventional camera, a laser beam can pass through gaps between leaves and tree branches. The reflected signals are then processed by a computer, which filters out reflections from vegetation and retains only the laser pulses that reach the ground and return to the drone’s receiver. The result is a digital model of the terrain, as if all vegetation and structures had been removed,' the researcher explains. 

Additional visualisation algorithms functioned like a digital filter, detecting and highlighting even the smallest terrain irregularities. For example, the Sky-View Factor illustrates how open a location is to the sky: enclosed depressions appear dark, while elevated areas appear light, helping identify features such as artificial terraces or moats. In archaeology, this method is used to detect micro-topographic anomalies, including buried ruins, walls, ditches, and mounds. It is based on high-resolution digital terrain models. Unlike traditional topographic visualisations, which simulate a single light source, the Sky-View Factor calculates the proportion of the sky hemisphere visible from any given point on the Earth's surface.

The UAV completed seven flights over Parion, with a total data acquisition time of 90 minutes. The resulting point density of 796 points per square metre is considered exceptionally high, even for the most demanding archaeological applications. For comparison, conventional airborne laser scanning from aircraft typically yields between one and eight points per square metre, with high-end systems reaching up to 60 points. UAV-based scanning made it possible to visualise objects measuring just a few centimetres in size. 

'The density of 796 points/m² represents a fundamentally new level of detail. We can now visualise not only large underground structures but also individual walls, structural corners, and a system of terraces that were previously indistinguishable against the natural terrain background,' comments İdil Malgil.

The most significant findings were made on the acropolis of Parion, located on the rocky cape of Bodrum. Because the area was not subject to intensive agriculture, the underground structures have remained well preserved. 

The researchers were able to identify a rectangular building to the north of the previously known excavation area, as well as a group of walls and terraces in the northwestern part of the cape. The orientation of these features varies between 74 and 120 degrees, which, according to the author, suggests a deliberate adaptation of the urban layout to the complex natural terrain.

The data obtained does not replace traditional excavations; however, instead of digging indiscriminately across the site, archaeologists can now target specific areas where structures are most likely to be located.

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Journal

Ancient Civilizations from Scythia to Siberia

DOI

10.1163/15700577-20252937 

Ancient DNA of post-Roman Europeans reveals the emergence of a complex new society

 

Study published in "Science" challenges the myth of simple Barbarian domination in the Early Middle Ages

Peer-Reviewed Publication

Institute for Advanced Study

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This schematic illustrates the formation of differing forms of sixth-century communities through the convergence of migrating Northern European (blue) and local Southern European (red) ancestry. By combining ancient DNA, isotopic data, and archaeological data, we are able to reconstruct the emergence of complex regional hierarchies in the post-Roman world.

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Credit: HistoGenes

A new study from the HistoGenes project, of which Patrick Geary, Professor Emeritus in the School of Historical Studies is co-PI, is helping scholars to frame a better picture of the Early Medieval people who inhabited Western Europe after the fall of the Roman Empire, as well as the societies they created. 

Their findings, published in Science, are derived from combining ancient human DNA analyses with archaeological finds. The international and multidisciplinary team and lead authors Yijie Tian (Stony Brook University) and István Koncz (Eötvös Loránd University, Hungary) sequenced the genomes of more than 300 individuals who lived in the Little Hungarian Plain, an area in northwestern Hungary.

The team found that during the Roman period, communities in the region formed part of a dense infrastructural and collaborative network, with populations showing a predominantly southern European genetic ancestry, but also with the notable presence of genetic diversity from Asia and Africa, representing the cosmopolitan nature of the Roman Empire.

However, the post-Roman sites exhibited a rise in northern European genetic ancestry, reflecting large-scale population movements into the region. By integrating their genomic data with archeological material, the researchers surmised that the influx of individuals with northern European ancestry likely reflected the historically documented—yet debated—expansion of the Lombard Kingdom from north of the Danube River into former Roman territories during the early sixth century. They determine this movement was not a single large-scale migration but rather to complex and sustained patterns of mobility, with genetic connections linking individuals in the Little Hungarian Plain to populations farther north. They also determined that these new communities did not just establish loose rural settlements but created a diverse, hierarchical new society consisting of ruling elites forging a new post-Roman polity.

These results are significant, since historians know little about post-Roman life in this region. This period is commonly associated with the migration of so-called “Barbarians”—various groups from other areas of Europe and Asia who took over much of Europe as the Roman Empire disintegrated. These so-called Barbarian kingdoms left very few written records, leaving historians and archeologists to rely on the viewpoints of the conquered Romans.

The HistoGenes team’s findings challenge this picture, showing that in the Little Hungarian Plain, though the migrating Lombards eventually became the ruling power, multiple modes of community formations were shaped by interactions between incoming groups with mainly northern European ancestry and local populations with predominantly southern European ancestry, all helping to form a new, complex society.

Reflecting on the significance of the discoveries and the HistoGenes project more generally, Patrick Geary stated: “The project has revealed both gradual and localized forms of movement across short and long distances, as well as rapid, large-scale population shifts from Eastern Asia into the Carpathian Basin. It has also demonstrated that material culture and genetic ancestry do not necessarily coincide and has illuminated the diverse ways newcomers integrated into existing populations.”

Ancient DNA from Tuscan wells reveal origins of modern wine

Scientists analysing 2,000-year-old grape seeds from ancient wells in Tuscany have mapped the most extensive genetic history of ancient grapevines recovered from a single site.

the Journal of Archaeological Science, show that ancient vineyards were part of the Roman Empire’s highly sophisticated agricultural network that laid the foundation for modern winemaking.

The discovery was made at Cetamura del Chianti, a hilltop settlement in Italy’s famous Chianti wine region. Between 300 BCE and 300 CE, local residents dropped grape pips into deep wells, where oxygen-free mud preserved them.

Dr Oya Inanli, who completed the work as part of her PhD at the University of York’s Department of Archaeology, said: “We sequenced the DNA of 80 seeds and found a remarkable story of continuity. A large majority of the tested seeds belonged to a single, identical variety passed directly from the Etruscans to the Romans and maintained for centuries.

“We were also able to go a step further with the genetic testing and determine the colour of the ancient grapes. The markers revealed that this dominant, long-lived clone produced white berries.” 

The discovery of an overwhelming prevalence of white grapes at an ancient Chianti vineyard was a surprise as the region is globally famous today for its rich, red Sangiovese wines, although some white grapes are still grown in the area today.

Professor Nancy De Grummond, from Florida State University, said: “Our team’s research adds an important chapter on the history of wine in the viticulture region of Chianti. What a delightful surprise to learn that the world-famous red wine of today was actually preceded by a white vintage that was curated and maintained for centuries in Etruscan and Roman times.”

Following the Roman conquest of the settlement, entirely new grapevine varieties appeared at Cetamura, hinting at the introduction of ‘choice varieties’ from the expanding empire. In addition, the team found some evidence of the collection of some wild grapes, thanks to a method which examines the shape of the pips. 

Genetic testing revealed that the dominant Cetamura clone was closely related to two ancient grape seeds previously tested from Southern France. This provides biological evidence of a wide-reaching agricultural trading network developed by the Romans to standardise wine production.

The team also found another ancient grape seed at Cetamura that belongs to a family of grapes still grown across Central and Eastern Europe today.

While its closest modern look-alike is a rare grape variety found in Hungary called Baratcsuha szurke, the discovery connects this ancient seed directly to a legendary, 400-year-old grapevine growing in Maribor, Slovenia. 

This famous vine is officially recognized as the oldest living grapevine in the world that still produces fruit today.

Dr Nathan Wales, from the University of York’s Department of Archaeology, said: “Our new findings show that this specific grape family is ancient and resilient. It is incredible to think that the wine grapes enjoyed by the ancient Romans are mere steps away from the varieties we pour into our glasses today. 

“When you drink wine made from these relic varieties, you are tasting history that is just a stone’s throw from what was served at Roman dinner tables thousands of years ago.”

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Journal

Journal of Archaeological Science 

4,000-year-old evidence of siege warfare in ancient Mesopotamia

New discoveries from a UCF-led excavation in the Kurdistan region of Iraq, near the city of Erbil, are reshaping what researchers know about how ancient cities lived, governed and fell

Reports and Proceedings

University of Central Florida

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The landscape surrounding the ancient site of Kurd Qaburstan, where UCF-led excavations uncovered evidence of siege warfare, administrative archives and urban life dating back thousands of years.

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Credit: Photo courtesy of the Kurd Qaburstan Project

At Kurd Qaburstan, an ancient site in the Kurdistan region of Iraq, archaeologists have uncovered the first substantial group of cuneiform administrative tablets found in the Erbil region, along with evidence of large-scale destruction, mass graves and citywide fortifications. Together, the discoveries are providing one of the clearest archaeological records yet uncovered of siege warfare and urban life during the Middle Bronze Age. 

“Our 2025 research produced clear archaeological  evidence linking the site to the siege of Qabra, beginning with the first significant group of cuneiform tablets found on the Erbil Plain,” says Tiffany Earley-Spadoni, associate professor of history at the University of Central Florida and director of the Kurd Qaburstan project. “Several tablets are dated within days of each other, matching the timeline of the city’s fall.” 
 
The project is supported by the U.S. National Science Foundation and conducted in partnership with the Directorate-General of Antiquities and Heritage in the Kurdistan region of Iraq. The funded excavations took place during two summer seasons in 2024 and 2025. 

A Lost Archive Emerges  

Researchers recovered 20 cuneiform tablets and more than 100 administrative sealings from destruction layers within the Lower Town East Palace (FIG 1). The artifacts are being studied by epigraphers Paul Delnero (Johns Hopkins University) and Parker Zane (Yale University), along with art historian Marian Feldman (Johns Hopkins University). 

The texts include palace administrative records and a letter that may reference a high-ranking official connected to Qabra. Some inscriptions may also correspond to the destruction described on the Victory Stele of Dadusha.  

“Most of the tablets are administrative and provide a snapshot of palace life and the economy of the ancient city,” Earley-Spadoni says. “One tablet appears to have been written by a high-ranking official in ancient Qabra.”  

Evidence of Siege Warfare 

Collapsed structures, burned layers and concentrated debris suggest a coordinated and possibly prolonged assault (FIG 2).  

“The two superimposed destructions match the historical sequence of the siege of Qabra and its conquest by Shamshi Addu,” Earley-Spadoni says. “The charred debris, the large number of ceramic vessels and individuals who met untimely deaths and were buried in the destruction layers, provide the clearest archaeological case of Middle Bronze Age siege warfare yet discovered in northern Mesopotamia.” 

The Human Toll of Conflict 

Within the palace destruction layers, researchers discovered the remains of 17 individuals, studied by bioarchaeologist Andrea Zurek-Ost at Michigan State University (FIG 3). 

“The individuals were not formally buried and had no associated grave goods,” Earley-Spadoni says. “Some appear to have been left where they died, including possible palace workers. One individual was found face down over a stone basin.” 

Researchers also uncovered a preserved street with an engineered drainage system and domestic spaces used for food processing and textile production, pointing to sophisticated infrastructure and economic activity. 

Mapping an Ancient City at Scale 

The team also completed a magnetometer survey covering more than 80 hectares (about 180 acres). The survey, which measures changes in Earth’s magnetic field to detect buried structures, was led by Andrew Creekmore III at the University of Northern Colorado. The survey revealed a monumental wall with bastions encircling the site.  

The fortifications correspond with those depicted on the Victory Stele of Dadusha and support the identification of Kurd Qaburstan as the ancient city of Qabra. 

Rewriting the Story of Northern Mesopotamia  

Mesopotamia is often associated with southern cities like Uruk, long viewed as the center of early urban civilization. Discoveries at Kurd Qaburstan are helping highlight the value of northern cities, Earley-Spadoni says. 

“The evidence from Kurd Qaburstan shows that northern cities could be large, complex, and politically significant, with administrative systems, fortifications, and infrastructure comparable to those of the best-known southern sites,” she says.  

These discoveries build on a decade of prior excavation at Kurd Qaburstan by Johns Hopkins University, revealing a city long absent from the historical record. 

“Laboratory investigations are underway, including isotopic and ancient DNA analyses of the 17 individuals,” Earley-Spadoni says. “This work will help researchers understand their origins and relationships.” 

Each discovery brings researchers closer to understanding how this ancient city functioned and how it ultimately fell. 

New clues into how North African cultures adapted to ocean living

 

Canary Island relics offer new clues into how North African cultures adapted to ocean living

By the 11th century, fish and shellfish harvests may have been a key part of a complex local economy

Peer-Reviewed Publication

PLOS

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Location of Playa Chica on Gran Canaria, Canary Islands. a) position of the Canary Islands in Northwestern Africa; b) setting of Gran Canaria within the Canarian archipelago; c) place of Playa Chica in northwestern Gran Canaria and other sites cited within the text; d) general view of the site prior to archaeological intervention indicating Zone 1 and Zone 2. Large volcanic tuff blocks, detached from the cliff face, are visible across the area; e) western section of the site showing Zone 1 and the stone structure separating it from Zone 2.

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Credit: Santana et al., 2026, PLOS One, CC-BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)

Archaeological evidence from the Canary Islands suggests that by the 11th century, people here were harvesting and processing a variety of fish and other marine organisms — indicating that coastal resources may have played a vital role in the economic system, according to a study published June 10, 2026 in the open access journal PLOS One by Jonathan Santana from the University of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Spain, and colleagues.

The Atlantic archipelago was colonized by Berber populations during the late Holocene. The Canary Islands, which were inhabited by people originally from Berber-speaking areas in northwestern Africa beginning in the 1st century, provide critical comparative data for insight into the development of coastal economies in Africa, a region where maritime adaptations remain relatively understudied.

The researchers studied samples from Playa Chica, an archaeological site along the coast of the island of Gran Canaria, dating back between the 11th and 13th centuries. They found fish scales on site, as well as goat horns that they believe were used as tools to scale fish — evidence that this site may have been used for processing harvests from the sea. In addition, the team found remnants of plant material that produces a lot of smoke when burned, such as pine cones, which suggests that fish might have been smoked or dried for preservation.

Most of the fish remains came from near-shore species, suggesting that fishing was mostly done close to land. Based on the species present and the discovery of fishhooks made out of pig tusks, the researchers say that it’s likely that people here used both net and line fishing.

Limited data from earlier phases at Playa Chica, and the scarcity of excavated coastal sites across the archipelago, render these conclusions preliminary. Nevertheless, the study indicates that Playa Chica may have been a central site for supplying seafood to the broader island community. This aligns with the development of mature island economies — and these findings help paint a rich picture of the historical and still largely mysterious coastal cultures of northwestern Africa. Future research should prioritize the excavation and sampling of additional coastal areas for comparable patterns of marine exploitation.

Dr. Jonathan Santana, lead author of the study, adds: “What makes Playa Chica exceptional is that we are not simply looking at a place where people occasionally ate fish and shellfish. The concentration of specialized fishing tools, the thousands of fish scales, the abundance of hearths and the near-absence of domestic pottery all point to a space dedicated to capturing, processing and preserving marine food. For the first time we can see, at this level of detail, how the Indigenous communities of the Canary Islands organized their relationship with the sea, and understand the coast not as a last resort, but as a central part of their economy and their way of life.”

Dr. Jacob Morales, archaeobotanist and co-author, adds: “The plant remains tell a very particular story. Rather than the pine wood normally used for cooking and heating across the island, the people here deliberately gathered plants that smoke heavily at low temperatures. Burning them over shallow fires would have slowly dried and lightly smoked the fish, reducing its moisture and its spoilage so that it could be stored or exchanged with inland communities. It is, in essence, an early form of food preservation captured in the archaeological record.”

  The freely available article in PLOS One: https://plos.io/4v1ZV0w

Citation: Santana J, Morales J, Gilson S-P, Brito-Mayor A, González-Ruiz MdC, Vidal-Matutano P, et al. (2026) Specialized marine exploitation on African islands: A multiproxy archaeological analysis of the Playa Chica site, Gran Canaria (11th–13th CE). PLoS One 21(6): e0349347. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0349347