John Robb
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View article: More continuity than change following the Black Death epidemic in medieval Cambridge
More continuity than change following the Black Death epidemic in medieval Cambridge Open
The Black Death epidemic of Yersinia pestis (1347-50 CE) killed about half the population of England, and many historical changes have been ascribed to it. But we still know surprisingly little about how the epidemic actually affected peop…
View article: Bone Adhered Sediments as a Source of Target and Environmental DNA and Proteins
Bone Adhered Sediments as a Source of Target and Environmental DNA and Proteins Open
In recent years, sediments from cave environments have provided invaluable insights into ancient hominids, as well as past fauna and flora. Unfortunately, however, sediments are not always collected during excavation. In this study, we ana…
View article: Neolithic Lifeways at the Microlevel: Isobiographies From Italy
Neolithic Lifeways at the Microlevel: Isobiographies From Italy Open
Characterization of prehistoric lifeways tends to work at the level of generalization, but can we investigate microvariation? For example, it is common to discuss the “Neolithic diet”, but how much did what people ate vary, not only betwee…
View article: Achieving Equality: Why There Was Not as Much Inequality in Prehistoric Europe as We Imagine
Achieving Equality: Why There Was Not as Much Inequality in Prehistoric Europe as We Imagine Open
Archaeologists have long investigated the rise of inequality in prehistoric Europe. I argue that images of steadily increasing inequality are usually based on cherry-picking outstanding cases and selectively interpreting the results. Based…
View article: The Use-Life of Ancestors: Neolithic Cranial Retention, Caching and Disposal at Masseria Candelaro, Apulia, Italy
The Use-Life of Ancestors: Neolithic Cranial Retention, Caching and Disposal at Masseria Candelaro, Apulia, Italy Open
When archaeologists discuss ‘ancestor cults’ or ‘ancestor veneration’, what this might entail in practice usually remains vague, leading to charges that the concept of ‘ancestors’ is often applied generically. In this article, the authors …
View article: Prehistoric Italian foodways: Meta-analysis of stable isotope data from the Neolithic to the Iron Age
Prehistoric Italian foodways: Meta-analysis of stable isotope data from the Neolithic to the Iron Age Open
Italian Later Prehistory was characterised by profound changes that impacted everyday life in many aspects. Whether or not and how such changes were reflected in the subsistence practices of ancient populations is an ongoing question in th…
View article: Bone adhered soil as a source of target and environmental DNA and proteins
Bone adhered soil as a source of target and environmental DNA and proteins Open
In recent years, sediments from cave environments have provided invaluable insights into ancient hominids, as well as past fauna and flora. Unfortunately, locations with favourable conditions for ancient DNA (aDNA) preservation in sediment…
View article: Low Genetic Impact of the Roman Occupation of Britain in Rural Communities
Low Genetic Impact of the Roman Occupation of Britain in Rural Communities Open
The Roman period saw the empire expand across Europe and the Mediterranean, including much of what is today Great Britain. While there is written evidence of high mobility into and out of Britain for administrators, traders, and the milita…
View article: Health inequality in medieval <scp>Cambridge</scp>, 1200–1500 <scp>CE</scp>
Health inequality in medieval <span>Cambridge</span>, 1200–1500 <span>CE</span> Open
Health inequality is not only a major problem today; it left its mark upon past societies too. For much of the past, health inequality has been poorly studied, mostly because bioarchaeologists have concentrated upon single sites rather tha…
View article: Histotaphonomic analysis of bone bioerosion reveals a regional framework of diverse deathways in the Neolithic of Southeast Italy
Histotaphonomic analysis of bone bioerosion reveals a regional framework of diverse deathways in the Neolithic of Southeast Italy Open
The wide diversity of Neolithic funerary practices is increasingly recognised. In Southeast Italy, recent studies have drawn attention to the co-existence of multiple ways of treating the dead within single sites and across the region. In …
View article: Genetic history of Cambridgeshire before and after the Black Death
Genetic history of Cambridgeshire before and after the Black Death Open
The extent of the devastation of the Black Death pandemic (1346–1353) on European populations is known from documentary sources and its bacterial source illuminated by studies of ancient pathogen DNA. What has remained less understood is t…
View article: Translation and Transformation: The Materiality of Rock Art in a World of Bytes
Translation and Transformation: The Materiality of Rock Art in a World of Bytes Open
Rock art is fundamentally material and local in several ways: its substrate’s material qualities affect how humans made it and interact with it (for instance, how visible it is), it is fixed in a specific landscape location, and it partici…
View article: Pathways to the medieval hospital: collective osteobiographies of poverty and charity
Pathways to the medieval hospital: collective osteobiographies of poverty and charity Open
Medieval hospitals were founded to provide charity, but poverty and infirmity were broad and socially determined categories and little is known about the residents of these institutions and the pathways that led them there. Combining skele…
View article: Tuberculosis before and after the Black Death (1346–1353 CE) in the Hospital of St John the Evangelist in Cambridge, England
Tuberculosis before and after the Black Death (1346–1353 CE) in the Hospital of St John the Evangelist in Cambridge, England Open
This research explores how the prevalence of tuberculosis (TB) in a medieval hospital was affected by the demographic and social changes that following the Black Death (1346-1353 CE), the initial years of the Second Plague Pandemic. To do …
View article: Test of the lateral angle method of sex estimation on Anglo‐Saxon and medieval archaeological populations with genetically estimated sex
Test of the lateral angle method of sex estimation on Anglo‐Saxon and medieval archaeological populations with genetically estimated sex Open
The lateral angle method of sex estimation is tested on an archaeological population with genetic sex estimates. Casts of the internal auditory canal were made using a quick drying impression material on 90 individuals (76 adults and 14 no…
View article: The Black Death in Hereford, England: A demographic analysis of the Cathedral 14th‐century plague mass graves and associated parish cemetery
The Black Death in Hereford, England: A demographic analysis of the Cathedral 14th‐century plague mass graves and associated parish cemetery Open
Objectives This study explores the paleoepidemiology of the Black Death (1348–52 AD) mass graves from Hereford, England, via osteological analysis. Hereford plague mortality is evaluated in the local context of the medieval city and examin…
View article: Local population structure in Cambridgeshire during the Roman occupation
Local population structure in Cambridgeshire during the Roman occupation Open
The Roman period saw the empire expand across Europe and the Mediterranean, including much of what is today the United Kingdom. While there is written evidence of high mobility into and out of Britain for administrators, traders and the mi…
View article: A Refined Phylochronology of the Second Plague Pandemic in Western Eurasia
A Refined Phylochronology of the Second Plague Pandemic in Western Eurasia Open
Although dozens of ancient Yersinia pestis genomes and a vast corpus of documentary data are available, the origin and spread of consecutive outbreaks of the Second Plague Pandemic in Europe (14th–18th c.) are still poorly understood. For …
View article: Regional long-term analysis of dietary isotopes in Neolithic southeastern Italy: new patterns and research directions
Regional long-term analysis of dietary isotopes in Neolithic southeastern Italy: new patterns and research directions Open
Isotopic analyses of prehistoric diet have only recently reached the threshold of going beyond site-focused reports to provide regional syntheses showing larger trends. In this work we present the first regional analysis for Neolithic sout…
View article: Contents
Contents Open
The great American film critic Manny Farber memorably declared space to be the most dramatic stylistic entity in the visual arts. He posited three primary types of space in fiction cinema: the field of the screen, the psychological space o…
View article: Front Matter
Front Matter Open
This book illuminates the personal experience of being at the centre of a media scandal. The existential level of that experience is highlighted by means of the application of ethnological and phenomenological perspectives to extensive emp…
View article: Medieval social landscape through the genetic history of Cambridgeshire before and after the Black Death
Medieval social landscape through the genetic history of Cambridgeshire before and after the Black Death Open
The extent of the devastation of the Black Death pandemic (1346-53) on European populations is known from documentary sources and its bacterial source illuminated by studies of ancient pathogen DNA. What has remained less understood is the…
View article: To Gender or not To Gender? Exploring Gender Variations through Time and Space
To Gender or not To Gender? Exploring Gender Variations through Time and Space Open
This article is based on an EAA session in Kiel in 2021, in which thirteen contributors provide their response to Robb and Harris's (2018) overview of studies of gender in the European Neolithic and Bronze Age, with a reply by Robb and Har…
View article: Caring for the injured: Exploring the immediate and long-term consequences of injury in medieval Cambridge, England
Caring for the injured: Exploring the immediate and long-term consequences of injury in medieval Cambridge, England Open
Further study of bilateral asymmetry in trabecular architecture could complement our understanding of altered loading modalities in past societies.
View article: Sex bias in <scp>N</scp>eolithic megalithic burials
Sex bias in <span>N</span>eolithic megalithic burials Open
Objectives A statistical study comparing osteological and ancient DNA determinations of sex was conducted in order to investigate whether there are sex biases in United Kingdom and Irish Neolithic megalithic burials. Materials and Methods …