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Looking for Singles in the Archaeological Record
of Roman Egypt
Anna Boozer
Archaeology and Singles
While literary and documentary source material have long been used for
family and demographic studies of the ancient world, the surviving material culture continues to be perceived as too epistemologically ambiguous
for shedding light on the ancient family. In spite of such skepticism, both
the abundance and the variety of archaeological material make it indispensible for studies of the ancient family, and in this case, the ancient
single life. In contextualizing distinct temporal and geographical loci,
archaeology serves not only to reconstruct a broad pattern of household
materialities, but also to discern what factors led to particular household
formations. This ability to provide both breadth and detail demonstrates
how archaeology might contribute to ongoing discussions of singles in
Antiquity.
This article looks for singles in the archaeological record of Roman
Egypt. In doing so, there are four important considerations to keep in
mind. First, identifying singles purely on the basis of material evidence
and without any sort of written testimony is, to put it simply, not possible.
The most critical issue with the archaeological data is ambiguity; what
archaeological signatures suggest a single person? Even among documentary sources, questions of defining single-ness are fraught issues, particularly given the flux evident in all family forms. This issue is even more
difficult for archaeologists, who often struggle to define single event
horizons in the archaeological record, much less distinguish individual
persons. Additional problems plague archaeological interpretations of the
single life. Disparate qualities of data collection can significantly impact
Nevett :–. See also Jameson .
See Laes, in this volume. See also DePaulo and Morris a, b.
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our ability to reconstruct and compare archaeological material within and
across sites. Moreover, all too often, archaeological data is poorly published
or physically inaccessible to researchers. And, finally, data often is not
interpreted in a way that allows for broad social questions to be asked of it;
a complete re-evaluation of the material would be required before theoretical interpretations could be advanced.
Even when archaeology provides a mute or uncertain response to a
question, basic reasoning about the possibilities is essential. For example,
women and children were long ignored for their role in producing and
using a substantial portion of the archaeological record. Recent research
has demonstrated the value in considering age groups and genders beyond
men in their prime of life when interpreting the archaeological evidence.
Although we must remain cautious in how we interpret data, we do real
conceptual harm to archaeological interpretation by ignoring a group that
may have contributed to a substantial percentage of the material culture
left behind.
In order to answer this call to include archaeological approaches in the
study of singles in Antiquity, I first review Laslett’s household classification system, which was published in . In doing so, I underscore
where we might find singles among these forms and, in turn, identify
where these forms might appear in the archaeological record. A necessary
corollary to any current review of Laslett is the critiques that have come
about in recent years. These critiques also provide direction for ways in
which archaeology can further developments in household studies that
grow out of Laslett’s model. This article provides four case studies of
Romano-Egyptian archaeological material that speak directly to Laslett’s
classification system, namely apartments, praesidia (remote garrisons),
field houses and houses. These four case studies demonstrate both the
particular circumstances of singleness, including short-term singleness,
as well as the material conditions in which long-term or life-long singles
resided. Finally, I conclude this article with a discussion of how archaeology can continue to contribute to our understanding of singles in
Antiquity.
On the archaeology of children, see Baxter ; Johnson ; Kemp ; Sofaer Derevenski
, a, b. On the archaeology of women, see Claassen ; Dommasnes ; Gero
and Conkey ; Gilchrist ; Hendon ; Joyce . For an application of these theories
and perspectives in a Romano-Egyptian house, see Boozer .
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Household Classifications: Laslett
The classic Cambridge household classification system, developed by
Laslett in the , distinguished between at least five different types of
households:
() Solitary households (one individual)
() No-family households (roommates)
() Simple or nuclear family households (conjugal couple residing with/
without children; single-parent families)
() Nuclear families with an elderly parent
() Multiple family households (more than one conjugal couple residing
together)
Rather than serving as stagnant categories, these five household types
should be viewed as fluctuating over the years. These different forms of
family composition should be understood as stages in a categorical model
of household progression. Indeed, a single individual might experience all
five of these household options during the life course.
For the purposes of this paper, it is notable that singles could be found
in types , , , and . In other words, singles can be found in each and
every one of the classification systems that Laslett provides. Singles turn
out to be a dominant category to consider when employing the Laslett
terminology for analyzing household structures.
Critiques of Laslett
It is undeniable that the Laslett household classification system has conceptual flaws and numerous scholars have critiqued Laslett’s model over
the years. A particularly common thread of criticism is that Laslett’s system
smooths over the considerable variety found among regional household
forms in the Mediterranean. These local variations range from almost
exclusively nuclear households to a system with a high percentage of
complex family households. These variations would impact where we
might look for singles.
Laslett and Wall . See also Laslett .
In the recent past these “no-family households” typically consisted of unmarried siblings residing
together, but it also could be people living in apartments above work spaces (an ancient example is
Kom el Dikka, see below). Today these no-family households would be seen more frequently as
apartment shares in expensive, large cities, such as New York, London or Tokyo.
Sacchi and Viazzo : .
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How can archaeological data help to mitigate critiques of Laslett’s
model? Let us look at three major categories of critiques leveled against
his model.
First, critics urge scholars to remain mindful that real households were
always a process rather than a category. Household boundaries are fluid,
defined by the everyday practices and relationships of its members. These
household forms can be shaped by marriage patterns, fertility and mortality rates. The family evolves over time through cycles of birth, marriage,
death and divorce. Researchers have called this process “the family life
cycle”. The order, contours and timing of these events are particular to
individual families, although quantitative detail can be informative as well.
The call for more emphasis upon the family life cycle is valid, but an
archaeological contribution to understanding singles as part of this process
is limited. It is difficult for archaeology to differentiate fine-grained, shortterm changes on the basis of the current data that we have available to us in
most regions and time periods. Archaeologists require exceptionally wellpreserved and well-defined contexts in order to sort out short-term household changes. Some scholars argue that even household-level change is
beyond the ability of archaeologists to detect. This area of work should
not be ignored, however, as there are ways around this issue. For example,
we can consider various contexts for their physical role within different
phases of a single life course even if we cannot follow the life course of a
single individual from birth to death.
Second, there is considerable regional and local variety in families,
which critics would like to see addressed more thoroughly. Archaeology
can contribute enormously to addressing this issue. Although census
data, and particularly the Roman census in Egypt, is an incredible
resource for ancient demographic studies, this data is highly geographically and temporally circumscribed. Archaeology can provide additional
regional texture to the data that we gain from census documents (among
others).
Third, there is a pressing need to combine categorical, quantitative
research with qualitative, in-depth studies of families. For example,
Sacchi and Viazzo have suggested turning to qualitative sources where
epigraphic and papyrological evidence does not exist. It is notable,
Hammel : ; Wilk ; Wilk and Netting : . For Roman Egypt, see Huebner .
Heinz, Huinink and Weymann ; Mayer . For recent archaeological approaches to the life
course, see Gilchrist , .
Nevett .
See Huebner, in this volume.
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however, that they do not consider (or even mention) the potential of
material evidence for facilitating qualitative study of households. The
urge for qualitative rather than quantitative studies of the family is
noteworthy, although statistical analysis cannot and should not be discarded. Archaeological research can contribute substantially to
gathering qualitative data on ancient families because we can provide
access to the so-called ‘people without history’ whose lives went largely
unrecorded in Antiquity.
Data and Analysis: Methods for Looking for Singles
This section introduces the methodology for finding singles in the archaeological record to determine how we should look for them and where
they may have been located physically.
In the next section, I examine four different options for the physical
location of singles in Roman Egypt: apartments (insulae) at Kom el-Dikka
(Mediterranean coast), praesidia in the Eastern Desert, possible field
houses in the Dakhleh Oasis (Western Desert) and houses in the Western
Desert and the Fayum. The wide range in geographic locations is intended
to mitigate against the bias of the Roman census data, which concentrates
upon other locales in Roman Egypt.
For each case study I present a table summarizing the data sets
employed as well as the assumptions I make. I also describe the Laslett
category that the example addresses. In this way, I suggest viable contexts
in which different types of singles may be found. These physical locales
provide texture and depth to literary and documentary evidence.
My methods for finding singles are heavily dependent upon texts and
cross-cultural comparisons. I have focused on archaeological contexts that
documentary texts suggest would be likely locales for singles (apartments,
praesidia, houses) or that cross-cultural comparisons reveal as a context
deserving of further exploration in Roman Egypt (field houses). Rather
than signaling a weakness, this cross-disciplinary work demonstrates the
considerable gains scholars can make when employing a diverse range of
evidence for answering nuanced research questions.
Sacchi and Viazzo : , –.
On this critique, see Sacchi and Viazzo . On the need for statistics, see Bowersock .
Wolf focused upon globalization and its impact upon both “civilized” and “uncivilized” people in
his well-known book (Wolf ). The term “people without history” has been used beyond this
period and framework to include others who have been ignored in traditional macro-histories.
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Case Studies of Singles in the Archaeological Record
()
Apartments
The term insula (pl. insulae, literally ‘island’) denoted a city block and also a
multistoried apartment building. This form of housing was essential in the
urban areas of the Roman Empire due to population increases and the rising
costs of land in densely occupied areas. Survivals of apartment buildings have
been poor in major cities such as Rome, where they are presumed to have
been the dominant housing form. Ostia, located at the mouth of the Tiber
River and the major port for Rome, provides our best examples of apartment
houses. These Ostian apartments could have multiples entrances into the
building. Central courts helped to provide air and light into the individual
apartments. The exterior could include shops at street level.
A number of urban apartment blocks have been discovered in Egypt, of
which the complex at Kom el-Dikka is the prime example. Given that
most of Alexandria has remained unexcavated, the ratio of public buildings, palaces and parks to shops and housing, both apartment housing and
houses, remains unknown. Moreover, the proportion and distribution of
these various types of structures would have changed over time and these
diachronic shifts are not well understood.
Kom el-Dikka has undergone excavation since the s by Polish
archaeologists, and excavations continue to this day. This site is the most
Table .. Kom el-Dikka Apartments
Who
Duration
Why
How
Primarily young and male; older males also possible
Short- and long-term occupancy
Artisans and apprentices
Suites of data (archaeological and papyrological);
comparisons
Boozer ; Gates : .
Rodziewicz : –, pl. III. Also on Kom el-Dikka, see Rodziewicz , . Some apartment
blocks consisting mostly of two-room flats, with a similar arrangement, have been excavated at Abu
Mina, by the DAI since , in the northwestern region of the site, beside the North Bath (Grossmann
and Pfeiffer : –, fig. ). These blocks appear to have been rest houses for pilgrims and travellers.
See also al-Taher, Abd al-Hafiz and Grossmann : fig. ; Grossmann et al. ; Grossmann :
. This site also could be explored for the study of singles.
Delia : .
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Figure . Map of Egypt.
Drawn by M. Matthews after a commission by A. Boozer (CC-BY).
extensive and intensive site available to us within ancient Alexandria.
In the early Roman Period, Kom el-Dikka had luxurious urban residences
that were damaged or destroyed and subsequently abandoned by the midfourth century CE. At this stage, the entire area was rebuilt with new
structures. These structures include a small theater (or odeion), a bath
Majcherek , , , , .
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Figure . General plan of Kom el-Dikka.
Courtesy of the Polish Center of Mediterranean Archaeology.
complex and a set of auditoria, which probably belonged to an educational
institution. This area may have included a gymnasium complex.
The Kom el-Dikka apartment building is located near the baths. There
is an earlier brick structure (third-fourth century CE) and a later, larger
brick-and-block construction (fifth century CE) with apartments or shops
to the west. The apartment building at Kom el-Dikka appears to date from
the early fourth to the mid-seventh centuries CE. It is a two-, possibly
three-story building with a number of one- or two-room apartments
surrounding a narrow central court. There must have been a balcony
For a summary of the visible evidence, see Bagnall and Rathbone : –.
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Figure . General view of Kom el-Dikka.
Photo: Institute for the Study of the Ancient World. © Iris Fernandez
(used with permission).
running around the court that could have been used to access the apartments upstairs since there is no portico. A stairway opposite the entrance
on its east, narrow, side, provided access to these apartments. There is a
common latrine next to the stairs.
Evidence for ivory working, as found in various dumps, as well as
glassmaking, as found in dumps and in kilns, suggests that this complex
is associated with craft production. Parallels to the association between
artisanal and domestic space can best be found in Rome and Ostia. This
craft production, and particularly the ivory carving, appears to have been
on an industrial scale.
The apartment complex at Kom el-Dikka has not been published fully
yet, but a viable hypothesis for its use must connect it to the craft
production areas. As such, it is likely that at least some of the apartments
in this complex housed artisans and their apprentices who were learning
St. Clair : .
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the crafts produced here, namely glassmaking and ivory working. These
apprentices were almost certainly singles.
According to recent research, the circulation of children and young
adults to learn various trades appears to have occurred in the ancient
Mediterranean. Dixon has described the mobility of children between
families in the Roman world. The institution of apprenticeship of
adolescents that we know best for Roman Egypt, thanks to the papyrological evidence, can also be regarded as life-cycle service. Farmers and
artisans sent their own children to other peasants or artisans to help them
out or let them learn a trade. In turn, these families might host the children
of other families in their own household, while providing them with
training. These apprentices would live with the family and be fed and
clothed. After a few years they would return home with the new skills they
had acquired.
The juxtaposition of the Kom el-Dikka apartment complex with intensive craft production suggests a possible urban solution to housing craft
workers and apprentices. Rather than incorporating apprentices into
houses, it is possible that crafts people and apprentices resided in these
small apartments. In Laslett’s system, these arrangements would be termed
‘no-family households’ and the singles found here were most likely male.
() Praesidia
All Roman soldiers were banned from contracting legal marital unions,
probably from the time of Augustus until CE, when the marriage ban
was lifted. Despite this ban, we have ample papyrological data suggesting
that soldiers and veterans produced large households. Illegitimacy obviously led to some complications for inheritance, and accounts of these legal
issues can be found in documentary sources. The legally required single
Alston and Alston : . It was not uncommon to find singles in cities in Roman Egypt.
Alston and Alston also note the concentration of craft areas in cities, which would promote the
movement of singles into urban areas.
Dixon . On the Greek world, see Bremmer .
Bradley a; Brewster ; Herrmann ; Westermann .
Bradley a: .
Van Minnen argues that we find only very few freeborn females among the apprentices because
parents of freeborn females of marriageable age kept them at home to ensure their virginity (van
Minnen : ). Cases in which female apprentices are found (n= in van Minnen’s study)
show them living with women (n=) or a married couple (n=). This does not mean that freeborn
women did not learn or practice a trade; they just learned it at home (Bradley a: ).
van Minnen .
Alston : –; Campbell ; Phang : .
Phang : –, .
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Table .. Praesidia
Who
Duration
Why
How
Adult males
Medium-term occupation
Soldiers garrisoned in a remote locale
Suites of data (archaeological and documentary);
comparisons
Mons Porphyrites
Wadi
Belih
Abū Sha'ar al-Qibli
er
Riv
Abū Sha'ar
Bādīya
Dayr al-Atrash
Abū Qurayya
Bāb al-Mukhayniq
Qattār
Al-Sāqiya
Wádi Safaga
Al-Hâyita Abū Zawal
Mons Claudianus
Qarya
Tiberiane
Al-'Aras
Samna
Quway
Kainè
(Qina) Al-Matūla Krokodilô Bi'r Sayyēis
Myos Hormos
Qusūr Persou
Dawwi (Qusayr al-Qadim)
al-Banât
Koptos
Al-Hamrā
Maximianon
Phoinikôn
Didymoi Bi'r al-Hammâmât
Dios polis
Aphrodites
Paneion of
orous
Domitianè/Kaine Latomia
le
Ni
R
e
d
S
the Wadi Menih
e
NA
RIA
AD
VIA H
Kompasi
Latôn polis
Apollōnos polis
hè megalé (Idfu)
Barrāmīya
Xéron
Pelagos
Al-Kanāïs
Bi'r Samūt
Ancient settlement
a
Dios
Bi'r Bayza
(Isna)
Mersa Makari
Mons Smaragdus
Phalakron
Apollōnos Hydreuma
Ancient Fort
Cabalsi?
Ancient road or route
Kainon Hydreuma
0
0
25
50
25
75
100 km
50 miles
Figure .
Vetus Hydreuma?
Syènè
Bereniké
Map of Eastern Desert Roman roads with Dios indicated.
After J.-P. Brun; reproduced with the permission of Brun and the IFAO (Hélène Cuvigny, Jean-Pierre
Brun, Adam Bülow-Jacobsen, Dominique Cardon, Jean-Luc Fournet et al., La route de Myos Hormos,
L’armée romaine dans le désert Oriental d’Egypte (Praesidia du désert de Bérénice I). Le Caire, ,
Fouilles de l’IFAO /–).
status of a Roman soldier should not, therefore, be taken a priori as
evidence of soldiers not forming families.
All locales, however, did not equally allow for Roman soldiers to develop
family entanglements, be they legal or not. For example, soldiers stationed
at well-fortified garrisons (praesidia) in remote areas would have had fewer
opportunities for forming family ties. There were simply fewer people with
whom they could form relationships. One such locale to consider is
Egypt’s Eastern Desert. In this remote locale, garrisons can be found on
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Figure . Plan of Dios.
After J.-P. Brun; reproduced with the permission of Brun and the IFAO (Hélène Cuvigny, Jean-Pierre
Brun, Adam Bülow-Jacobsen, Dominique Cardon, Jean-Luc Fournet et al., La route de Myos
Hormos, L’armée romaine dans le désert Oriental d’Egypte (Praesidia du désert de Bérénice I). Le Caire,
, Fouilles de l’IFAO /–).
the road from Koptos to Myos Hormos and the Red Sea, and in the
quarries of Mons Claudianus, Didymoi, Aphrodites Orous, Kompasi,
Dios and Xeron. The building of the praesidia along the recently
constructed stretch of road from Phoinikon (Laqeita) to Phalakro was
new under Roman rule and seems to have happened under Vespasian,
probably around – CE. Desert products (e.g. porphyry) and trade
items from the Red Sea were important to Egypt’s Roman rulers. Moreover, the Eastern Desert was important for military control of the desert
Sidebotham, Hense and Nouwens : .
Bagnall, Bülow-Jacobsen and Cuvigny .
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Figure .
Dios.
Photo: J.-P. Brun; reproduced with the permission of Brun and the IFAO (Hélène Cuvigny,
Jean-Pierre Brun, Adam Bülow-Jacobsen, Dominique Cardon, Jean-Luc Fournet et al., La route
de Myos Hormos, L’armée romaine dans le désert Oriental d’Egypte (Praesidia du désert de Bérénice I).
Le Caire, , Fouilles de l’IFAO /–).
and guarding against marauders. The praesidia served to maintain
boundaries and to control and guard trade goods. Each garrison would
have contained approximately men.
The praesidia themselves are small structures that resemble miniature
Roman army camps. There were pragmatic and ideological considerations for this resemblance; the construction was familiar and easy to
replicate while also signaling a perpetual Roman presence, even in the
barren desert. Most of the praesidia are rectilinear and were constructed
with materials found at hand, such as cobbles and small boulders that
were laid without mortar. Defensive towers often are placed on the
corners and surrounding the primary entrance gate. Many of these
praesidia had protective deities and shrines associated with them.
A large well (hydroema) can be found in the center of most of these
garrisons. Abutting the interior walls of the structure were storage rooms
Maxfield .
Bagnall .
Bülow-Jacobsen : .
Sidebotham, Hense and Nouwens : .
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and the rooms of the individual soldiers stationed there. Some of these
structures had a small intramural bath.
Records of communication along the roads and between these praesidia
preserve concerns expressing both professional and personal circumstances. Ostraka found in excavations of the praesidia provide ample
details about the daily life of soldiers stationed here. From these records,
we learn that the soldiers were charged with protecting the roads and
aiding with quarrying duties as their official roles. They also seem to have
felt the need to frequent prostitutes. For example, O.Dios. inv.
provides one such account:
. . . Herakles, the horseman, took the letters, but did not leave until the
tenth hour of the night (c. : a.m.), which you can verify, (in margin: ‘I
found it’) because he was lying with a woman.
Prostitutes were transported between the praesidia, from one contract
to the next, by donkey.
The need for prostitutes may indicate the single status of these soldiers
and their need to find some respite from their singleness in this barren
desert. These prostitutes also could be explored as another group of singles
in Antiquity.
As it seems that there was local recruitment of Egyptian legions, it is
possible that some of these praesidia soldiers had prior family arrangements in other areas of Egypt. For example, O.Florida and show
families of soldiers trying to obtain food for them while they are posted
to the Eastern Desert. The loneliness, disconnection and even ennui
found among the soldiers also is attested. Even so, the most viable
interpretation of these praesidia soldiers’ family situation is that they
were single for at least the duration of the time that they occupied these
structures.
Locating singles within these praesidia required ample use of documentary and comparative source material, but the environment as well as the
archaeology itself contributes to interpretations of singles living in these
structures. Once again, this case study provides an example of Laslett’s
‘no-family households’.
Sidebotham : –.
Bülow-Jacobsen : .
Cuvigny , .
Bülow-Jacobsen : . H. Cuvigny published this ostrakon as P.Worp .
Cuvigny : –.
Haensch : , ILS . See also Bagnall : .
Bagnall : .
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() Field Houses
Field houses are very small, seasonally occupied structures. They are best
known from the American Southwest, but they also can be found elsewhere. These structures helped farmers to cope with the inconvenient
distances between residences and agricultural areas. Cross-culturally,
inhabitants of field houses were single or temporarily without a family
while they occupied these structures.
The catalyst for developing field houses centers upon the need to
minimize transportation costs. Some authors have thought that they
represent both the effects of shifting cultivation and the beginnings of its
demise. Preucel, for his part, considers the field house strategy as a form
of agricultural intensification. This intensification develops in response to
escalating competition over arable land as a result of population growth
and the clustering of people into larger settlements or cities. Field houses,
he argues, develop in order to minimize the costs of transportation to and
from distant villages.
Preucel’s observations find particular relevance in the harsh conditions
of the Saharan desert. These unforgiving desert conditions constrain
the development of larger nucleated settlements. Many Saharan oases
have multiple small villages spread through the palm groves in order to
reduce the travel distance between dwellings and gardens. Urbanism has
been a rare and episodic phenomenon in the Sahara as a result of these
environmental constraints. Given Preucel’s reasoning concerning the
Table .. Field Houses
Who
Duration
Why
How
Male (?); broad age range but very young and very old persons unlikely
Episodic; periods of intense agricultural activity (temporarily single)
Increasing competition over arable land due to population growth and
aggregation, which is intensified in oases
Cross-cultural comparisons
Kohler . See also Kolb and Snead ; Kolb .
See Laes, in this volume, for definitions of singleness.
Wilcox : .
Preucel : .
See Fletcher for a link between maximum settlement area and communication range and
travel capacity.
See papers in the forthcoming Mattingly and Sterry volume Urbanism and State Formation.
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Figure .
Sketch map indicating the location of the columbarium farmhouses in
Western Dakhleh, made in .
From H. E. Winlock, ed., Dākhleh Oasis: Journal of a Camel Trip made in . New York, ,
plate XV; reproduced with the permission of the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
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Figure . Plans of columbarium farmhouses drawn in .
From H. E. Winlock, ed., Dākhleh Oasis: Journal of a Camel Trip made in . New York, ,
plate XII; reproduced with the permission of the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
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Figure . Photos of the Dakhleh Oasis columbarium farmhouse, taken in .
From H. E. Winlock, ed., Dākhleh Oasis: Journal of a Camel Trip made in . New York, ,
plate XVI; reproduced with the permission of the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
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Figure .
Plan of Columbarium Farmhouse /-H– or “House VII”.
From A. J. Mills, “The Dakhleh oasis columbarium farmhouse.” Bulletin de la Société archéologique
d’Alexandrie (): –; reproduced with the permission of A. J. Mills.
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conditions required for field houses to develop, it would seem logical
to expect these structures during periods of incipient and full-blown
urbanism.
As far as I am aware, no one working in Roman Egypt has identified
field houses yet. This lack is surprising since these structures could
mitigate against the harsh desert conditions found in the Eastern and
Western Deserts. Given the intensification of urbanism in the Western
Desert under Roman rule, this region offers a prime locale to look for
these structures. I suggest that the so-called “columbarium farm houses”
of the Dakhleh Oasis might be candidates for field houses. Even if these
particular structures later prove not to be field houses, the search for field
houses in Roman Egypt should be pursued. The environmental and
urban developmental pressures that would create the need for these
structures are in place. Moreover, the spatial distribution and architectural
features of these structures reinforce the impression that they were
employed to reduce transportation expenditures within an urbanized,
harsh environment.
The so-called ‘columbarium farm house’ occurs singly, in pairs or (less
often) as part of a larger grouping. The name ‘columbarium’ was
introduced in Herbert E. Winlock’s publication of his research visit
to the Dakhleh Oasis in . The name derives from the incorporation
of a pigeon loft into the structure of each of these houses. The distribution
of this house is oasis-wide, although they seem to occur more frequently in
the western half of the oasis. Some well-preserved examples can be found
near Amheida on the road leading out to the Qârat el-Muzzawaqa burial
ground. The sizes of these farm houses are variable, but they are typically
square in plan view and their dimensions tend to vary from x m to x
m. These dimensions are tentative at this time since only one columbarium farmhouse has been excavated (see below).
Winlock describes the structures that he saw in the vicinity of Deir
el-Haggar as small structures standing to two stories. Most had two vaulted
Ignoring the debates and attention surrounding male-male relationships in Siwa, the long-term
practice of young men living and working outside of the walls of Shali (Fakhry : –) would
be worth exploring from the standpoint of field houses.
The village of Ain el-Gedida in Dakhleh may have been an epoikion (a small agricultural settlement
associated with the management of a large estate) (Bagnall et al. ). Several features found at Ain
el-Gedida, such as at least two large bakeries, storage areas for cereals and grains, a ceramic
workshop and a dovecot suggest that Ain el-Gedida was an agriculturally oriented site
(Aravecchia forthcoming).
On the urbanization of Egypt’s Western Desert, see Boozer forthcoming-a.
Mills : .
Winlock : .
Mills .
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rooms on the ground floor, but one of them (Winlock Building C) had six.
Access to the second floor, where the pigeons were housed, was by means
of a ladder. Another columbarium has an open court in the center, which
measured about m square.
The only columbarium to be examined in any detail is one known as
House VII at site /-H–, which is located in western Dakhleh.
The walls stand nearly four meters high. As is typical of these structures in
Dakhleh, it is remarkably well preserved. This house belongs to a widely
dispersed group of eleven buildings. This village is situated on a flat area of
sandstone bedrock. The use of such natural “turtle backs” for habitation is
common in Egypt as good agricultural land was in great demand and was
protected from construction. North of this bedrock, good arable land can
be found. This farm house group is closer to the escarpment foothills than
to the southern perimeter of the oasis and is . km northeast from Deir
el-Haggar. Given its location, Trimithis (Roman Period Amheida)
would have been the closest city.
The outer perimeter wall of House VII encloses a space of about m x
m. There is a single entrance on the east side, which gives into an open
space that is the northern half of the whole enclosed area. The living space
and the actual columbarium building occupy the southern half of the
enclosure.
The northern half of the courtyard was open to the sky and contained a
single room (no. ) in the northwest corner. This rectangular room,
approximately . x . m, is entered from the east side and utilizes
the outer wall for two of its own. The floor of this chamber was bare
bedrock and the fill consisted solely of a cm compacted layer of animal
droppings and straw. The stable, for a small flock of domestic animals, is a
typical component of Egyptian farmhouses. Apart from this shed, the
northern half of the courtyard is featureless. The southern half contained
the living quarters. There are two parallel, rectangular rooms (nos. and
), each x . m in size. The entrance to each is through an arched
doorway in the north wall, and there is a connecting doorway between
them that was cut through after the building was completed.
Mills found only one floor level in his excavation of the House VII
ground floor. There was little occupational debris, suggesting a short
occupation and planned departure. Adobe floors wear easily and require
Winlock : –.
Mills : –.
Winlock : .
Mills : –.
Mills : , plate XVII.
Mills : –.
Mills .
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numerous episodes of repair and replastering to maintain them. Low
artifact densities suggest that individuals had time to plan the removal of
their belongings.
Full reports of the architectural features, ceramics and small finds are
not available, but the preliminary reports are already informative. For
example, a pair of small domestic ovens (no. ) were found. Special jars
used for the pigeon nests confirm the use of the columbarium for housing
these birds.
The most likely inhabitants of field houses would be men, possibly from
the same family, who were temporarily single. These men could be
considered to be living in ‘no-family households’ because they were not
a conjugal pair. It is also possible, but unlikely, that a single person lived
alone in a field house, thereby occupying Laslett’s first category of a single
person living alone. In either case, it seems likely that the occupants were
temporarily single, having a family living in a city or large settlement in
reasonably close proximity, but visited infrequently during the heavy labor
periods of the agricultural season.
() Houses
A house can be understood as a physical structure, while a household
defines a group of individuals sharing a common dwelling, usually family
members and possibly some biologically unrelated members. The physical
houses of ordinary Romano-Egyptians were modest, consisting of two or
more rooms. They were rectangular, square or sometimes more complicated in their footprints. The majority of Karanis houses found in the
center of the settlement were about m square in their footprint.
Table .. Houses
Who
Duration
Why
How
Family members, domestic or agricultural servants, slaves, lodgers or
apprentices; male or femal; broad age range
Short-term, medium-term, long-term, and temporarily single
Singles ubiquitous despite being ‘invisible’
Documentary sources; archaeology will be mute
Boozer : –.
Mills : –.
Boozer : ; LaMotta and Schiffer ; Schiffer .
Hope : – and plate XIX..
Depraetere .
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Figure .
Plan of House B, Dakhleh Oasis.
Drawn by N. Warner after a commission by A. Boozer (CC-BY).
They were multistoried, and so the total square footage of the structure
would have been larger, depending on the number of floors. Small houses,
of about m square or so for their footprints, were found at the edges of
the town.
Given the potential of field houses, these houses should be fully re-examined. Unfortunately, little
can be found about them in the published reports.
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Figure .
Reconstruction of House B, Dakhleh Oasis.
Drawn by N. Warner after a commission by A. Boozer (CC-BY).
Singles residing with families either could be relatives or they could be
from the non-family category of household members. These singles could
reside with families for anything from a few weeks to a couple of years, or
even a lifetime. Singles residing with their extended families should be
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expected in Roman Egypt. One of the signature characteristics of the
Mediterranean family model is the importance of extended kin who might
live with the so-called immediate family.
The number of family members in the Romano-Egyptian household
ideally increased as the parents entered old age. Culturally, the elderly were
respected and valued household members. The continuously evolving roles
and standings of its members naturally created individual changes, but
elders were not physically and socially isolated in the manner we have
come to expect of most modern nuclear families. Both daughters and
sons were involved in the support of their elderly parents, even if to
different degrees and functions. It is certain that some of these elderly
persons were single as single status becomes more demographically significant in old age.
Non-familial singles might include domestic or agricultural servants,
slaves, lodgers or apprentices. Slaves seem to have played a rather negligible
role in households below the social elite in the Roman world. While the
Roman elite household of Rome, Herculaneum or the great Roman
landowners’ estates required a large slave population, households of the
standard Romano-Egyptian type seem to have owned at most one or two,
and then mainly female, slaves.
As a result, the singles we might expect within the Romano-Egyptian
household likely will be family members, servants, lodgers or the aforementioned apprentices. Archaeology will be mute for most of these possible categories of singles. This ambiguity is normal when considering
individual household members. It is difficult, if not impossible, to attribute
objects to specific household members, although one can make logical
hypotheses when a contextual analysis is employed.
There are additional issues that make identifying singles in RomanoEgyptian houses more difficult than identifying specific genders or age
groups. First, the single person may be kin and there are no specific
material correlates to this status that would materially distinguish this
individual from the rest of the family. Second, apprentices are usually
The significance of the extended, often multigenerational kin groups is a topic of some controversy.
Richard Saller and Brent Shaw minimized the significance of this group in epithets (Shaw and Saller
), which others, notably Huebner, have argued against (Huebner ).
Rupprecht .
Bagnall and Frier . See also Culbertson on the Roman East more broadly.
I attempted to attribute some artifact assemblages and frequency of room usage to specific gender
and age groups in my excavation report for House B from Trimithis (Roman Amheida) in the
Dakhleh Oasis (Boozer forthcoming-a). This analysis was possible due to the preservation of the
structure and the way in which specialists analyzed the material.
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treated like family members, and therefore also are invisible archaeologically. Third, domestic furniture was modest and preserves poorly so we
cannot attempt to identify singles and additions to houses through beds
and other items. Fourth, houses of most families were small and the ways
in which they used space changed throughout the time of day and year,
which leaves behind confusing and even conflicting material signatures.
For example, areas for accounting become areas for spinning linen, and
then become areas for sleeping. The genders, age groups and (for our
purposes here) marital status of the people using this area become intertwined and may be impossible for archaeologists to disentangle.
Despite these caveats, we would do a conceptual disservice to our
understanding of domestic life if we did not admit to the possibility and,
indeed, likelihood, that singles occupied houses. We also may devise
logical strategies for surmising the presence of singles in houses if we retain
a strong element of caution. First, the houses of Roman Egypt were easily
modified to accommodate changing circumstances because they were
made predominantly of mud brick. If houses are excavated and analyzed
closely, we can discern physical modifications to the structures to allow for
a greater number of people. In particular, additions that are not clustered
with the rest of the rooms of the structure might reveal non-familial
household additions.
Second, concerns for security within the house can be discerned in
papyrological and archaeological evidence. Some families would lock
internal doors in houses to protect individuals and possessions from nonfamily members. We could look at house plans and at door construction to
discern door bolts that would have been used for this construction.
Additionally, the presence of locks on boxes and the like may provide
additional clues that security was a concern. As is usual in archaeology, the
confluence of multiple material signatures will be more persuasive than an
isolated signature suggesting singleness.
The houses that included singles would most likely be Laslett’s “simple
or nuclear family household”, “nuclear family with elderly parent household”, or a “multiple family household”.
Conclusion
Even if Laslett’s model is now dated, it provides a useful comparative
tool and illustrative device. For the purposes of this paper, Laslett’s model
Bradley .
Boozer forthcoming-a: PAGES AT PROOF STAGE.
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reminds us that singles can be found across all of his categories. Indeed,
I have explored examples for each of Laslett’s five categories in the four case
studies provided. At this stage it is useful to re-examine the possibility of
‘finding’ singles in the archaeological record of Roman Egypt as well as
considering how they might be located archaeologically in other regions
and time periods.
Most fundamentally, it must be made clear that singles cannot be
identified securely in the archaeological record. Despite this negative
statement, I argue that there is conceptual harm in ignoring singles. Singles
were a known group of people who produced and used a significant
proportion of the material record. Ignoring this category of individuals is
conceptually erroneous.
Moreover, this article has suggested that we can provide best-guess
scenarios for the physical location of singles by using a holistic approach
to the data as well as employing cross-cultural comparisons. The four case
studies employed demonstrate how we might approach the material signatures associated with singles. These case studies may help to illustrate the
potential for future work to incorporate singles into our conceptions of
craft production, the military, agricultural production and domestic life.
Moreover, I suggest that archaeology can contribute substantially to
redressing critiques of Laslett’s model. The four case studies have demonstrated some possibilities for answering these critiques, but additional
research could do substantially more to further such objectives.
First, critics wish to see more emphasis upon the family as process. Sites
such as Karanis (among others) could contribute substantially to our
understanding of diachronic household changes if re-analyzed contextually. Karanis has deep stratigraphy with houses superimposed upon one
another. Analyzing these houses using the method suggested here could
produce diachronic data on changing family structures as well as underscoring viable hypotheses for the presence of singles in specific locales.
Second, critics point out that families experience great regional and local
variety. Although documentary and literary sources provide remarkable
details on family life in Antiquity, as other papers in this volume amply
demonstrate, they often subject researchers to a particular region, gender
and class perspective. In the case of Roman Egypt, the Roman census
provides a narrow chronological and regional perspective of demographic
conditions. Archaeology can provide considerable regional and local variety
that can compliment or enhance the documentary and literary record. For
example, we have informative archaeological remains from the Eastern
Desert, the Western Desert, Alexandria and the Fayum to contribute to
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our understanding of these regions. All of these regions were missing from
the Roman census, and therefore there are great gains to be envisioned by
looking to other categories of material for amplifying the data drawn from
the Roman census.
Third, critics of Laslett have urged that scholars should contribute more
qualitative rather than quantitative studies of the family. Due to the
uncertainties involved, archaeological studies cannot provide secure quantitative data on singles, but they can provide instructive qualitative data. In
the present article, I discussed groups such as the military, artisans, farmers
and families. Archaeologists can study the possibility of singles among
additional groups of people, particularly when they pair archaeological data
with documentary and literary sources. A few examples of these groups
might include monastic, pilgrimage, migrant, work (such as miners) and
even prison communities.
An archaeological study of singles may initially appear to be an impossible task, but this article suggests potential ways forward through the
inherent uncertainties. It is hoped that additional, future studies, possibly
as outlined above, will reveal more data about this enigmatic but pervasive
group in Antiquity.
Sacchi and Viazzo .