2016 Expedition

During the 2016 UP PURE season we learned that the cemetery area under investigation had been in use from the founding of the city through Late Antiquity into the Middle Ages when inhabitants of the ever more abandoned Pollentia moved to the new walled Alcúdia in the 13^th c. Questioning whether the diverse citizenry from “pagan” through Christian into Muslim times shared the same cemetery, with burials side by side, is one of the goals of the present analysis of finds.

Photos from Roman era graves illustrate that this occupation across the history of Pollentia, by ancient Romans and each following generation of inhabitants, Christians and Muslims. Uncovering several undisturbed Roman tombs from 1^st-2^nd centuries BC (initial dating based on pottery, awaiting DNA and Carbon 14 dating) provides the terminus a quo (earliest date) for the analysis. [Burials among pre-Roman Talyotic inhabitants of the island follow different patterns, mostly mound burials, etc.]

The short 2″ Pollentia From Above video provides an overview of the entire 30+ acre Pollentia. That information, along with dating evidence, will help us better understand the nature of Pollentia’s population across its 1200+ year history – and hopefully even figure out, by way of establishing their genetic origin, who its Christians were and what buildings their community left behind.

Highlights include:

Our UP PURE faculty/student “Team DNA” is working to determine the relationship of individuals buried both in our “city cemetery” and those buried more randomly across other parts of the site, especially the abandoned forum and macellum (covered market center) areas of the city center. See the short “Team DNA” video.
Similarly, our “Team Chemistry” took soil samples from key points all around the newly uncovered skeletal remains to explore 1) whether the long-enduring chemical elements surviving decomposition might tell us something about the individual’s life style and/or cause of death and 2) what kinds of bacteria and fungi might be traceable, revealing ancient disease and/or pointing to new forms of antidotes to still unknown strains of ancient bacteria.
Meanwhile, when not in the field digging, “Team Bones” studied both recently uncovered bones and teeth to explore how wear and tear over time can reveal something of the kind of work the individuals did and the nature of their diet with its impact on skeletal and dental health.
The Roman cremation urn was found buried: intact and with charred cremated bone fragments still inside – untouched for some 2100 years! A point of interest: the urn was buried – not just kept in a devotional home shrine or on a shelf in a family mausoleum, etc. Nevertheless, finding a cremation urn buried suggests pursuing further whether inhabitants of other Roman outposts elsewhere (whether properly Romans or other “nationalities”) had the custom of burying urns with cremated remains – a matter of interest in contemporary North America.