The UBC Centre for Migration Studies 2021-22 Speaker Series presents:
“Genetics and Memorials: People and their Remembrance in Byzantine, Islamic and Norman Sicily” with Dr. Martin Carver
Tuesday, October 19, 202112:30 PM – 2:00 PM Pacific Time (PT)Location: Online via ZoomFree & open to the public. To register, fill out the RSVP form below.
Co-sponsored by the UBC Department of Classical, Near Eastern, and Religious Studies & the UBC Department of Anthropology
[Abstract]
The European Research Council project Sicily in Transition – the archaeology of regime change is joint research being carried out by the Universities of Rome Tor Vergata, Lecce and York at the BioArCh facility. We are exploring the effect of successive regimes and religions on Sicilian farmers, merchants and their families between 550 and 1250 CE. The present talk concerns the data drawn from 22 partially excavated cemeteries, their locations, burial rites and the identities of some 200 individuals as determined by osteology, stable isotope analysis, aDNA and radiocarbon dating. The variations in health, diet, mobility, and ancestry in time and space paint an intriguing and perhaps unexpected picture of migration and demographic change. This is further illuminated by the historical record, notably the evidence of status and consanguinity drawn from the Norman Registers. Associated in this research are Michelle Alexander (SI), Aurore Monnereau (aDNA), Derek Hamilton (C14), the work of Sicilian archaeologists, especially Alessandra Molinari, and the writings of Jeremy Johns on the registers.
[Bio]
Dr. Martin Carver is PI of Sicily in Transition (acronym: sictransit) and a specialist in the archaeology of the early Middle Ages in Britain and Europe. Dr. Carver was an Army Officer for 15 years (Royal Tank Regiment), a Commercial Archaeologist for 13 years (just as it was starting), Professor of Archaeology at the University of York for 22 years and Editor of Antiquity for 10 years. Since 2008 he has been a full-time professional researcher, writer, public speaker and broadcaster.
His research has been mainly in England, Scotland, France, Italy and Algeria – his more prominent excavations were at the seventh-century royal burial ground at Sutton Hoo in Suffolk and the eighth-century Pictish Monastery at Portmahomack, Easter Ross. In 2014 Dr. Carver began a new project ‘Sicily in Transition’ (SICTRANSIT for short) in partnership with Alessandra Molinari of the University of Rome Tor Vergata. Like the other two, this project is concerned with what happens to people when a new regime is imposed on them.
Dr. Carver is Professor Emeritus at the University of York and Chairman of the commercial archaeology company FAS-Heritage Ltd. For more information, see http://www.martincarver.com.
