Romans emerging everywhere!
Katy Meyers of Bones Don’t Lie writes about cremation cemeteries in the Roman Empire, and on a Viking ship burial in Scotland.
Guy Halsall of Historian on the Edge writes about the young and old in the Roman Army.
Kristina Killgore of Powered by Osteons writes of a pair of skeletons from 6th century Modena found holding hands, potential victims of a slave revolt from Roman Modena, and on syphilis in skeletons of the Roman Empire. She also takes a stab at mapping ancient parasites in her Imperial Romans (from Italy).
Krystal D’Costa of Anthropology in Practice wrote an interesting post about Roman glass recycling a few weeks ago.
Skellies and other Gore
Katy Meyers of Bones Don’t Lie has been busy also writing about discoloration of skeletons and trepanation, or a hole in the head.
Puff the Mutant Dragon brings us a post on the many different colors of blood — red, white, blue, and even a little yellow.
The Chirugeon’s Apprentice brings us some gems from the dissecting room. I love the pickled parts but I bet the osteologists will like the two-headed boy of Bengal and the hydorcephalic adult. Following up on her forensic posts, she also wrote about proving and disproving infanticide in early modern England.
Pestilence, New and Old
Here at Contagions I wrote about the relationship between famine and pestilence, and summarized the recent sequencing of the Black Death from East Smithfield plague victims. Katy Meyers of Bones Don’t Lie also questions the value of the aDNA without a better archaeological context. I also wrote about a children’s plague in Ireland, 683-685 on Heavenfield.
Connor Bamford of the Rule of 6ix has a flurry of posts on all things viral: the difficulty of getting a dengue vaccine, dino paget’s disease as evidence of paleo-viruses, and another on recent outbreaks of Mumps.
Samantha Price of The View from a Microbiologist writes about the dangerous amoeba living on your contact lens.
Michael Walsh of Infection Landscapes brings us the many faces of Escherichi coli.
Small Things Considered likewise brings us a a new look at good ‘ole E. coli K-12 and a post on shipwreck microbiology.
Maryn McKenna of Superbug is hot on the trail of the newest super antibiotic resistance gene NDM-1 and the official political white wash that comes with it, and an update on the troubled polio eradication campaign.
Medieval Miscellany
Bamburgh Research Project posted results from their 2008 Chapel excavations, the castle within it’s landscape context, and excavations outside of St Oswald’s Gate the original entrance to the fortress.
Jonathan Jarrett of A Corner of Tenth Century Europe wrote about the Viking diaspora, and on the wins and losses of the Bishop of Girona.
Tim Clarkson of Senchus writes on the Pictish Cross-slab at Crail in Scotland.
Magistra et Mater writes about Alex Woolf’s recent talk on the raid on Brega, Ireland 684.
Nicola Griffith of Gemæcca shares Hild’s family tree from her upcoming novel. She is looking for feedback and we get a sneak preview of Hild’s world.
Contagions 