Network Marginalised Peoples (2024–2026)
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.
Past events
10 December 2024: Start-up meeting with the organisers.
9 May 2025: Network Meeting on Women and Children in the Ancient World
21 April 2026: Ancient World Seminar by Ellen Adams
31 April 2026: Interdisciplinary Approaches to Inequality in the Ancient Greek World (KNAW Early Career Partnership Event)
If you have questions, wish to propose a meeting, idea or speaker, or if you want to be placed on our mailing list, please register here or send an email to Anna Moles a.c.moles rug.nl
Organisers :
Anna Moles (Archaeology) a.c.moles rug.nl
Sofia Voutsaki (Archaeology) s.voutsaki rug.nl
Jacqueline Klooster (Classics) j.j.h.klooster rug.nl
Bart Danon (Ancient History) b.danon rug.nl