McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research annual report 2018-19

Research Highlights
Interamna Lirenas. A Roman Town and
its Territory
Alessandro Launaro & Martin Millett (Faculty of Classics)
Three new trenches were opened in order to investigate the
nature and state of preservation of a series of buildings/structures
originally identified through geophysical prospection. The first
trench, next to the theatre and along the forum, brought to light
the lower part of two large brickwork columns (Ionic/Corinthian
style), a well-preserved concrete floor and scarcely preserved
remains of a lateral wall (also in concrete). By integrating this
evidence with the geophysical data we were able to confirm our
original interpretation of this building as the town’s basilica (c.
20×26 m), whose precise chronology is yet to be established. The
second trench was opened over a building (whose interpretation
remains elusive) at the southwestern corner of the forum. Plough
damage turned out to have been especially extensive in this case:
it had reached as deep as the thresholds and the foundations,
intercepting two late child burials, which had been placed there
following the abandonment of the building. A third trench was
opened downslope from the theatre, confirming the presence of
a retaining wall (in opus reticulatum) which kept the theatre’s own
terraced platform in place. Further work was carried out within the
theatre, significantly illuminating aspects of its architecture and
original building process.
For more information about the project, visit
www.classics.cam.ac.uk/interamna
The 2019 season was undertaken in collaboration with the Soprintendenza
Archeologia Belle Arti e Paesaggio delle Province di Frosinone Latina e Rieti, the
British School at Rome and the Comune di Pignataro Interamna, with support
from the Faculty of Classics and the Comune di Pignataro Interamna.
A Mycenaean Social Bioarchaeology
(MYSOBIO)
Ioanna Moutafi
My research investigates the interplay between funerary
treatment and social dynamics in the Late Bronze
Age Aegean (1700–1050 bc) through a contextual
bioarchaeological approach to human remains.
Transcending traditional disciplinary boundaries, the
MYSOBIO project integrates mortuary theory and traditional
archaeology with interdisciplinary scientific advances in
the study of collective mortuary assemblages. The aim is to
reconstruct Mycenaean funerary treatment to a new level of
detail, in order to assess its complex interaction with wider
socio-political developments.
This year, work was divided between multi-faceted data
analysis in Cambridge, focusing on the final processing
of taphonomic and demographic data, and completing
data collection in Greece. In March 2019, extensive aDNA
sampling (over 250 samples from key Mycenaean sites) was
concluded through a field-trip in the Peloponnese and the
initial processing of samples in the M.H. Wiener Laboratory
(ASCSA) in Athens. The genetic component of MYSOBIO is
conducted in collaboration with the Centre for GeoGenetics,
University of Copenhagen (directed by Eske Willerslev).
This year was also particularly busy in terms of broad
dissemination of the project through a series of international
lectures, teaching seminars and conference presentations in
the UK, Greece, Netherlands, Denmark and Switzerland.
This project is funded by an H2020 Marie Skłodowska-Curie Fellowship
(grant no. 747458). The genetic analyses run under the Rise II project
‘Towards a New European Prehistory’, led by Kristian Kristiansen
(University of Gothenburg) and funded by Riksbankens Jubileumsfond.
J.D. Lauwereins
Aerial view of the archaeological excavation at
Interamna Lirenas, looking south.
Ioanna Moutafi and Jesper Stenderup in the Wiener
Laboratory, Athens: preparing for aDNA sampling
of an adult skull from the Mycenaean cemetery of
Voudeni (fourteenth century bc).
Archaeology at Cambridge 2018–2019 35