The End of the Spectrum: Towards an Archaeology of Marginality Network

The End of Spectrum is an international, interdisciplinary research network on inequality and social marginality.

Currently hosted by the UCL Institute of Archaeology, the network involves archaeologists, bioarchaeologists, historians, research consultants and disability activists who share an interest in social exclusion in present and past societies, and intend to develop collaborative research and outreach on this topic.

Topics

Topics of interest for the network include but are not limited to:

• Dynamics of resistance and the agency of the socially excluded
• Violence and coercive power
• Poverty, inequality, starvation, slavery
• Disease and disability
• Infectious diseases in deep history
• Pandemics and epidemics: marginality, chronic illness and patient activism
• Bioarchaeological approaches to social marginality
• Ethics in bioarchaeology and cognate disciplines
• Big data approaches to past marginality
• Gender, age and personhood; marginality and social exclusion in relation to motherhood, pregnancy and childhood neglect
• Marginality in times of crisis, collapse, catastrophe, climate change, environmental instability and accelerated socio-political transformation
• Marginal landscapes and peripheral regions; ethnic marginality, genocide and epistemicide; borders and frontier zones
• Anomalous burial rites, funerary deviancy and marginal burials; taphonomic approaches to past marginality
• Marginality and inequality in relation to social complexity as a deep time issue
• Material culture and technology between deprivation and élite consumption
• Marginality and social exclusion today; Intangible Cultural Heritage (ICH) and the safeguarding of marginalized people's endangered cultural heritage

Aims

The aims of the network include:

• Developing theoretical and methodological frameworks to investigate past marginality
• Promoting marginality studies in (bio)archaeology, evolutionary biology and cognate disciplines
• Fostering international collaborations, interdisciplinary research and outreach
• Acting as a visible umbrella group for initiatives by network members
• Promoting collaborative research on social marginality at UCL by creating links with projects/networks that are already operating

Related outputs

• Collaborative initiatives by network members include:

• • E. Perego and R. Scopacasa have been leading MARGA, a project and attached database for the bioarchaeological study of marginality in the Ancient Mediterranean and nearby inland regions (https://linktr.ee/MARGAproject). The project leaders have been exploring avenues for collaboration with big data initiatives.
  • E. Perego led the MSCA CoPOWER project on coercive power and social marginality in European late prehistory at the Austrian Academy of Sciences in 2017-19 (https://www.oeaw.ac.at/en/oeai/research/prehistory-wana-archaeology/prehistoric-identities/copower; https://cordis.europa.eu/project/id/750596). The project saw interdisciplinary collaboration with network members R. Scopacasa, K. Rebay-Salisbury, V. Tamorri et al.
  • E. Perego and R. Scopacasa have been collaborating on marginality and human-environment interactions in deep history. Their “Ancient Italy Climate Project” (https://linktr.ee/ancientitalyclimateproject) investigates the effects of climate oscillation and natural disaster on non-élite and marginal social segments in late prehistoric and early Roman Italy.
  • E. Perego, R. Scopacasa and S. Amicone have been leading the project “Collapse or Survival? Micro-dynamics of crisis, change and socio-political endurance in the Central Mediterranean” (https://linktr.ee/Collapse_Survival). Collapse or Survival explores the impact of accelerated sociopolitical changes on non-élite social segments and marginal landscapes of the late second and first millennia BC.
  • E. Perego, A. Reynolds and A. Gardner co-organized the TAG-52 session “Archaeologies of Marginality” at UCL in December 2019 (https://tag2019ucl.sched.com/event/X0W6/tag52-archaeologies-of-marginality)
  • E. Perego organized the online/Twitter session at TAGDeva 2018 “#SilentNightScience. Discussing the Marginalisation of Diverse Voices in Archaeological Research” with presentations by network members E. Perego, V. Tamorri and R. Scopacasa. The event was virtual to foster inclusivity.
  • E. Perego organized the round table “Disability in late prehistory: concepts, methods, and ethics” at the Austrian Academy of Sciences in October 2018. The round table saw the participation of network members E. Perego, R. Scopacasa, K. Rebay-Salisbury and V. Tamorri. It included virtual presentations and a Twitter discussion to foster inclusivity.
  • E. Perego convened the “Collapse and Inequality” workshop at the Austrian Academy of Sciences in May 2018. The workshop was co-organized by network members E. Perego, V. Tamorri, S. Amicone and R. Scopacasa, saw the additional contribution of network member K. Rebay-Salisbury and included virtual participation to foster inclusivity.
  • E. Perego, A. Reynolds and A. Gardner co-organized the network's first public event, a workshop on past social marginality held at the UCL IoA on 15 June 2016. The workshop - kindly supported by the Institute of Archaeology within the framework of its Academic Initiatives - featured talks by network members from Italy, the UK, Austria and Brazil, and was  attended by UCL staff and students. Network member K. Rebay-Salisbury wrote about the event at https://motherhoodinprehistory.wordpress.com/2016/06/24/motherhood-and-marginality/
  • Veronica Tamorri, E. Perego, R. Scopacasa, and former network member Viridiana Tamorri collaborated on Intangible Cultural Heritage (ICH) and social marginality in archaeology and museum studies in 2016.

• Publications on network-related themes include:

• • Perego, E. and R. Scopacasa, in press 2024. Natural Disaster, Climate Change, and Marginalized Social Agents in Pre-Roman Italy: Case studies from Veneto and Puglia. In M. Bentz and P. Zeidler (eds) Dependency and Social Inequality in Pre-Roman Italy. Berlin: De Gruyter.
  • Scopacasa, R. in press 2024. The Negotiation of Social Hierarchies in a Rural Community of Pre-Roman Samnium, Central Italy. In M. Bentz and P. Zeidler (eds) Dependency and Social Inequality in Pre-Roman Italy. Berlin: De Gruyter.
  • Scopacasa, R. in press. The urban dimensions of mountain society in late-first millennium BC Italy: Monte Vairano in Samnium. European Journal of Archaeology.
  • Reynolds, A. in press. The emergence and development of an execution cemetery in the Anglo-Saxon kingdom of East Anglia, in L. Hodges, Anglo-Saxon Cemeteries at Burnham Market, Norfolk. Oxford: Peter Lang.
  • Gardner, A. 2024. Empires and their Boundaries: the archaeology of Roman frontiers, 261-288. In J. Tanner and A. Gardner (eds) Materialising the Roman Empire. London: UCL Press.
  • Bas, M., C. Kurzmann, J. Willman, D. Pany-Kucera, K. Rebay-Salisbury, and F. Kanz 2023. Dental wear and oral pathology among sex determined Early Bronze-Age children from Franzhausen I, Lower Austria. PLoS One 18(2):e0280769.
  • Cintas-Peña M, M. Luciañez-Triviño, R. Montero Artús, A. Bileck, P. Bortel, F. Kanz, K. Rebay-Salisbury, and L. García Sanjuán 2023. Amelogenin peptide analyses reveal female leadership in Copper Age Iberia (c. 2900-2650 BC). Sci Rep. 13(1):9594.
  • Gardner, A. 2022. Hadrian’s Wall and Border Studies: problems and prospects. Britannia 53, 159-171.
  • Gardner, A. 2022. Practicing the Borders: Structure and creativity on the Roman frontiers. In T. Kienlin and R. Bußmann (eds) Sozialität – Materialität – Praxis / Sociality – Materiality – Practice. Köln: Kölner Beiträge zu Archäologie und Kulturwissenschaften, 321-334.
  • Sheehan, G. and Reynolds, A. 2022 ‘A slice through Sussex and death on the downs: archaeological investigations along the Rampion Wind Farm onshore cable route’, Sussex Archaeological Collections 160, 131-75
  • Saracino, M., Zanoni, V., Zamboni, L., and E. Perego 2021. The unequal dead: Bronze and Iron Age Evidence from Veneto and Trentino-South Tyrol. In Cerasuolo O. (ed.), The Archaeology of Inequality. Tracing the Archaeological Record, IEMA Proceedings, New York State University Press.
  • Perego, E., V. Tamorri, and R. Scopacasa. 2020a. Marginal Identities in Iron Age Veneto: a case study based on micro-scale contextual analysis and burial taphonomy. In Alena Bistáková, Gertrúda Březinová, and Peter C. Ramsl (eds) Multiple Identities in Prehistory, Early History and Presence, 81–96. Nitra: Archeologický ústav SAV.
  • Perego, E., V. Tamorri, and R. Scopacasa. 2020b. Child Personhood in Iron Age Veneto: insights from micro-scale contextual analysis and burial taphonomy. In K. Rebay-Salisbury, and D. Pany-Kucera (eds) Ages and Abilities: The Stages of Childhood and Their Social Recognition in Prehistoric Europe and Beyond, 174–192. Oxford: Archaeopress.
  • K. Rebay-Salisbury, and D. Pany-Kucera (eds) Ages and Abilities: The Stages of Childhood and Their Social Recognition in Prehistoric Europe and Beyond, Oxford: Archaeopress.
  • Perego, E. 2020. Ideological Constructions of Childhood in Bronze and Early Iron Age Italy: Personhood between marginality and social inclusion. In Lesley A. Beaumont, Matthew Dillon, and Nicola Harrington (eds) Children in Antiquity: Perspectives and Experiences of Childhood in the Ancient Mediterranean, 42–59. London: Routledge.
  • Rebay-Salisbury K. et al. 2020. Child murder in the Early Bronze Age: proteomic sex identification of a cold case from Schleinbach, Austria. Archaeological and anthropological sciences 12.
  • Reynolds, A. 2020. A Possible Anglo-Saxon Execution Cemetery at Werg, Mildenhall (Cvnetio), Wiltshire and the Wessex-Mercia Frontier in the Age of King Cynewulf, in A. Langlands and R. Lavelle (eds), Wessex and its Neighbours in the First Millennium AD: Essays in Honour of Barbara Yorke. Leiden: Brill Academic Publishers, 245-75
  • Reynolds, A. 2020. Afterword. in T. K. Betsinger, A. B. Scott and A. Tsaliki (eds), A Theoretical Perspective of Atypical Mortuary Practices: A Geographic and Temporal Investigation. Miami: University of Florida Press, 397-400
  • Reynolds, A. 2020. A historical-geographical discussion, in K. E. Walker, S. Clough and J. Clutterbuck, A Medieval Punishment Cemetery at Weyhill Road, Andover, Hampshire. Cirencester: Cotswold Archaeology Monograph 11, 170-75.
  • Cole, G., Ditchfield, P. W., Dulias, K., Edwards, C., Reynolds, A. and Waldron, T. 2020. Summary justice or the King’s will? The first case of formal facial mutilation from Anglo-Saxon England. Antiquity 94, 1263-77
  • Perego, E. and R. Scopacasa 2019a. Micro-Dynamics of crisis following disaster events in Late Bronze and Iron Age Northern Italy, in Collapse or Survival: Micro-Dynamics of Crisis and Endurance in the Ancient Central Mediterranean, eds. Elisa Perego, Rafael Scopacasa, and Silvia Amicone (Oxford: Oxbow): 1–28.https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctvqc6j5q.8
  • Perego, E. and R. Scopacasa 2019b. Finale. Micro-collapse and marginality. Looking to the future, in Collapse or Survival: Micro-Dynamics of Crisis and Endurance in the Ancient Central Mediterranean, eds. Elisa Perego, Rafael Scopacasa, and Silvia Amicone (Oxford: Oxbow): 155-170.https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctvqc6j5q.14
  • Perego, E., Scopacasa, R., and Amicone, S. 2019. Introduction: Collapse or survival? Crisis and social change in the ancient central Mediterranean. In E. Perego, R. Scopacasa, & S. Amicone (Eds.), Collapse or Survival: Micro-dynamics of crisis and endurance in the ancient central Mediterranean, eds. Elisa Perego, Rafael Scopacasa, and Silvia Amicone (Oxford: Oxbow): xix–xxx) https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctvqc6j5q.7
  • Perego, E., S.R. Amicone and R. Scopacasa (eds.) 2019. Collapse or Survival? Crisis and Social Change in the Ancient Central Mediterranean. Oxford: Oxbow.
  • Tamorri, V. 2019. Taphonomic approaches to funerary evidence in times of collapse and crisis. In E. Perego, S. Amicone, and R. Scopacasa (eds) Collapse or Survival? Crisis and Social Change in the Ancient Central Mediterranean, 29–56. Oxford: Oxbow.
  • Dunne J, Rebay-Salisbury K, Salisbury RB, Frisch A, Walton-Doyle C, Evershed RP. Milk of ruminants in ceramic baby bottles from prehistoric child graves. Nature. 2019 Oct;574(7777):246-248. doi: 10.1038/s41586-019-1572-x.
  • Perego, E. and R. Scopacasa 2018a. Children and Marginality in Pre-Roman Samnium: a personhood-focused approach. In J. Tabolli (ed.) From Invisible to Visible: New Data and Methods for the Archaeology of Infant and Child Burials in Pre-Roman Italy, 167–176. Stockholm: Astrom Editions.
  • Perego, E. and R. Scopacasa, 2018a. The Agency of the Displaced? Roman expansion, environmental forces, and the occupation of marginal lanscapes in Ancient Italy. Humanities 7(4), 116.
  • Zanoni V., Saracino, M., Perego, E., and L. Zamboni 2018. Crossing Places. Luoghi di passaggio e resti umani nella protostoria dell’Italia nord-orientale. In Nizzo V. (ed.), Archeologia e antropologia della morte. Atti del III incontro di studi di archeologia e antropologia a confronto. Ediarché, Roma: 141-157.
  • Saracino, M., Perego, E., Zamboni, L. and Zanoni, V. 2017. Funerary deviancy and social inequality in protohistoric Italy: What the dead can tell. Preistoria Alpina 49, 73–83.
  • Perego, E. and Scopacasa, R. 2016a. Burial and Social Change in First-millennium BC Italy: Approaching Social Agents. Gender, personhood and marginality. Oxford, Oxbow Books.
  • Perego, E. 2016. Inequality, abuse and increased socio-political complexity in Iron Age Veneto, c. 800–500 BC. In E. Perego and R. Scopacasa (eds) Burial and Social Change in First-Millennium BC Italy: Approaching Social Agents. Gender, Personhood and Marginality, 273–309. Oxford: Oxbow. 
  • Perego, E., & Scopacasa, R. (2016). Introduction: Burial and social change in first-millennium BC Italy: an agent-focused approach. In E. Perego & R. Scopacasa (Eds.), Burial and Social Change in First Millennium BC Italy: Approaching Social Agents , xi–xxxiv. Oxbow Books. http://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt1kw29j0.5
  • Scopacasa, R. (2016). Falling behind: access to formal burial and faltering élites in Samnium (central Italy). In R. Scopacasa & E. Perego (Eds.), Burial and Social Change in First Millennium BC Italy: Approaching Social Agents , 227–248. Oxbow Books. http://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt1kw29j0.15
  • Perego, E., & Scopacasa, R. (2016). Shifting perspectives: new agendas for the study of power, social change and the person in late prehistoric and proto-historic Italy. In E. Perego & R. Scopacasa (Eds.), Burial and Social Change in First Millennium BC Italy: Approaching Social Agents, 313–338. Oxbow Books. http://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt1kw29j0.18
  • Perego, E., Viridiana Tamorri, Veronica Tamorri, and R. Scopacasa 2016. Marginality in the Museum Context. Problems and perspectives https://www.romarche.it/s3abstract/39
  • Brookes, S. and Reynolds, A. 2016. Territoriality and social stratification: the relationship between neighbourhood and polity in Anglo-Saxon England. In S. Brookes, J. Escalona and O. Vesteinsson (eds.), Neighbourhood and Polity in Early Medieval Europe. Turnhout, Brepols.
  • Gardner, A. 2016. Roman Britain from the outside: Comparing western and northern frontier cultures. In S. González Sánchez and A. Guglielmi (eds.) 'Romans' and 'Barbarians' beyond the Frontiers: Archaeology, Ideology and Identities in the North. Oxford, Oxbow Books (TRAC Research Papers).
  • Perego, E., Saracino, M., Zamboni, L. and Zanoni, V. 2015. Practices of ritual marginalization in late prehistoric Veneto: Evidence from the field. In Z.L. Devlin and E.-J. Graham (eds) Death Embodied: Archaeological Approaches to the Treatment of the Corpse, 129–159. Oxford: Oxbow.
  • Reynolds, A. 2015. New directions in medieval landscape archaeology: An Anglo-Saxon perspective. In A. Chavarría Arnau and A. Reynolds (eds.) Detecting and Understanding Historic Landscapes. Mantova, SAP Società Archeologica.

• Recent invited talks by members on network-related themes have been delivered at several venues, including:
  The World Sepsis Alliance Congress; European Sespis Alliance Meeting; Cardiovascular Research Trust; PANSOC–Centre for Research on Pandemic & Society, OSLO Met; Museum of Natural History Vienna; Austrian Academy of Sciences; University of Cambridge; Tuebingen University; UCL; KNIR (Royal Netherlands Institute in Rome); University of Sydney; European Association of Archaeologists–EAA; University of Exeter; University of São Paulo; TAG; University of Bonn; University of Trier; Hanse-Wissenschaftkolleg (Delmenhorst, Germany); University of Oslo; Istituto Storico Austriaco (Austrian Institute in Rome); University of Vienna; Federal University of Minas Gerais.

• Public engagement and outreach activities by network members include participation in the European Researchers’ Night, several science podcasts and blogs, Channel 4 UK, RomArchè 2016.

• Network members are often quoted in the press and specialist outlets as experts including in STERN, TIME Magazine, the Atlantic, PBS, Associated Press, MedPage Today, the Conversation, the New Yorker, Evening Standard, Nurse Times, RIFday, ORF.at, Der Standard etc.

Funding

• Academic Initiatives of the UCL Institute of Archaeology.
• Support for projects by members on network-relevant themes have been provided by funding bodies such as the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions, the European Research Council (ERC), the Austrian Research Fund (FWF), the University of São Paulo, the Federal University of Minas Gerais, and the Austrian Academy of Sciences.
• Previous support for research on social marginality includes the 2013-14 Raleigh Radford Rome Fellowship by the British School at Rome, and a 2012-13 Celtic Research Trust Bursary to Elisa Perego, both crucial to develop many of the ideas on which this network is based.