Sensory Explorations of Roman Material Culture: a Disability Perspective

Abstract

This paper introduces a disability perspective to sensory explorations of Roman material culture. Exploration of the senses often assume a non-disabled, adult perspective; however, a person’s experience is greatly impacted by their body and whether an environment is designed to include different bodies. The paper presents an interdisciplinary, osteoarchaeological approach to exploring the sensory experiences had by people with impairments. To illustrate, the paper explores two case studies of people with impairments, whose skeletal remains were found at the Alington Avenue cemetery, Dorset, UK. Whilst there are limitations to a person’s ability to understand what it is like to stand in another’s shoes, even small insights can prove enlightening to both our understanding of the past and how we think about our disabling world today. This paper is a call for further research in this field.

Keywords

• Senses archaeology
• Osteoarchaeology
• Disability
• Roman Dorset
• Bioarchaeology
• Impairment