15 - Gendered Violence in Iron Age and Roman Britain

Summary

This chapter employs the ‘mindful body’ and ‘web of violence’ models to survey the range of violence present in Britain during the Iron Age and Roman periods (ninth century BCE – fifth century CE). By recognising that in a community all forms of violence are interrelated and frequently share many causative factors, these models allow for indirect forms to be included (e.g. health inequalities). Iron Age Britain was inhabited by tribal communities, and the results are dominated by young adult males, who have the majority of the evidence for organised conflict, reflecting the presence of a warrior elite. Females and children show evidence for performative violence, with their bodies being broken down and transformed in complex rituals. Bioarchaeological data suggests an absence of evidence for abuse against children, older people and women. After the Roman conquest of 43 CE the evidence for age-, sex- and status-based inequalities substantially increases, and these are much more clearly defined and observable in the primary source and bioarchaeological evidence, particularly enslavement. Overall, health declines, and evidence for the abuse of vulnerable groups increases, principally in females. Ritual violence continues and is attested in deposits of disarticulated body parts associated with sacred spaces, including cemeteries.