Emerging from a session held at the 2016 Theoretical Roman Archaeology Conference (TRAC), this third volume of TRAC Themes in Roman Archaeology is set across nine main chapters prefaced by a foreword by Francesca Ferranado and a commentary by Oliver J.T. Harris. Ferranado is a prominent voice within posthuman discourse across the humanities, while Harris is a key theorist in archaeology. The contributions of these authors reflect the potential Roman studies can make to posthuman discourse and the importance of this volume in providing an impetus for its exploration.
The first chapter skilfully introduces posthumanism to the reader (pp. 4–6). Rightly, it eschews a single definition, outlining instead some of the ‘pathways’ explored by the contributors including new materialism, relational agencies and the collapsing of ontological boundaries. Chapter 2 by Carlà-Uhink is an exploration of the latter, investigating literary accounts and physical representations of historically maligned emperors Caligula and Nero. In a fascinating discussion, it examines how the emperors challenged boundaries of human–god, man–woman and human–animal, emphasising their ‘more-than-human’ qualities. Further, it recognises that the perceived ‘madness’ of these emperors in later accounts could be based on their violations of normative boundaries (p. 22). In so doing, it suggests Caligula and Nero can be studied as posthuman entities.
Chapter 3 by Mihajlović is concerned with the agencies of epigraphic funerary markers (EFMs) in shaping how ideas of ‘deceased-ness’ emerged in the Roman world (p. 31). Mihajlović convincingly demonstrates how EFMs were active components involved in how death was understood. Chapter 4 similarly focuses on material agency. Discussing votive figurines from a sanctuary in Umbria, Pavia shows that rituals relating to ‘well-being’ were expressed through different forms of material over a long duration spanning the pre-Roman period to the end of the Roman era (p. 50). In chapter 5, Iara examines both religious objects and architecture in the city of Rome. Rather than simply being passive objects representative of deities, Iara suggests that together they actively ‘presenced’ the gods in the real world (p. 55).
Feider, Hambleton and Maltby combine ideas of object agency and ontological difference in chapter 6 by considering a group of Iron Age coins displaying chicken imagery from northern Gaul and southern England. In focusing on what the objects did rather than merely what they represented, they show a religious association in Gaul which is not as clear-cut in Britain (p. 72). An element that would merit further investigation is how the coinage relates to other media which represent poultry.
Moving away from human-made objects, chapters by Lodwick and Ingate respectively focus on components traditionally associated with the ‘natural world’ using case-studies from Roman Britain. Lodwick critiques ideas of the ‘introduction’ of certain weeds in Britain as a mere by-product of Roman imperialism (p. 83) and perceptively interrogates how they affected everyday life. Assessing examples from rural and urban environments, Lodwick rightly positions the spread of weeds as a relational assemblage, demonstrating how their effects were realised in association with human actions (pp. 85–7).
Ingate meanwhile critiques how an understanding of water in the Roman world has largely been shaped by human attempts to control it (p. 94). Using the colonia at Lincoln as a case-study, Ingate thoughtfully and convincingly shows how the city's waterscape carried over meanings from prehistory which affected its inhabitation in the Roman present. It enables Ingate to question a Roman understanding of water, and its agencies, as radically different from our own.
The penultimate chapter, written by the editors, is based on the premise that the idea of the Anthropocene necessitates the need for Roman posthumanisms (p. 109). While this may seem counter-intuitive, as Harris points out in his discussion (p. 128), the authors are right to stress the extents to which Roman societies impacted upon the environment and ecosystems. In a powerful discussion, they examine declines in animal populations as a consequence of Roman public spectacles (p. 115). It allows the authors to assert that ‘Roman anthropogenic processes had a considerable and lasting impact on the Earth’ (p. 119). But can posthuman archaeologies do this without recourse to the Anthropocene? As Lodwick and Ingate did so shrewdly, we should avoid separating the human world from the natural, animal or object worlds.
In the commentary, Harris highlights the contribution Roman archaeology can make to posthuman debates on account of the volume of its material in addition to the ways the Roman past has been historically exploited to underscore binaries which we are now problematising (p. 129). Consequently, this thought-provoking and timely volume will be a valuable resource for scholars and undergraduates. It deserves a wide readership to stimulate further debate.
