Hella Eckardt
Biographic Data
| ID | 3643377 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Hella Eckardt |
| GIVEN NAMES | Hella |
| FAMILY NAME | Eckardt |
| SIGNATURE | ECKARDT H |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of Reading |
| ORCID | 0000-0001-9288-5624 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 26 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 367 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 26 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1999 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2025 |
| H-INDEX | 8 |
Beachy Head Woman
The skeletal remains of an individual colloquially referred to as Beachy Head Woman (BHW) were re-discovered in the Eastbourne Town Hall collection in 2012, and have remained the subject of significant public interest since. Radiocarbon dating yielded a calibrated date of between 129 and 311 calCE indicating that she lived during the period of the Roman occupation of Britain and, over more than a decade, there have been several attempts to unrave…
Writing and Power in the Roman World
In this book, Hella Eckardt offers new insights into literacy in the Roman world by examining the tools that enabled writing, such as inkwells, styli and tablets. Literacy was an important skill in the ancient world and power could be and often was, exercised through texts. Eckardt explores how writing equipment shaped practices such as posture and handwriting and her careful analysis of burial data shows considerable numbers of women and childre…
Writing power and status
This chapter examines writing equipment and the ways in which their use reflects the elite's engagement with the powerful new technology of literacy in the Roman Empire's northern provinces, particularly Britain. It analyses the evidence for writing and literacy from Britain and some highly decorated metal inkwells from across the north-western provinces. It first considers actual writing (epigraphy and graffiti) before turning to writing tablets…
Embodied meanings
This chapter focuses on an object type associated with the body and female adornment in the Roman Empire's northern provinces, particularly Britain: a hairpin decorated with the image of a right hand holding a circular object. This object type occurs over much of the Roman Empire and its wide distribution may relate to shared religious and symbolic beliefs. Although hairpins are strongly gendered objects of relatively low value, there are other a…
Local, regional, and inter-provincial identities and provincial material culture
This book has explored portable material culture and the important insights it offers about identities in the Roman Empire's northern provinces, particularly Britain. By focusing on the archaeology of Roman Britain, it has elucidated the evolving and complex aspects of provincial identities such as those relating to gender, status, age, and religious beliefs, all intertwined with local, regional, and Empire-wide customs and practices. The artefac…
Seeing Black
This chapter explores what kinds of objects were made to depict Africans who inhabited the Roman Empire's northern provinces, and in particular Britain. It considers the distribution of artefacts such as vessels and amulets, and whether it bears any relationship to the presence of Africans in Roman Britain. Using epigraphic evidence, it analyses the origins, professional identities, and status of the men, women, and children who came to Britain f…
Mobility, Migration, and Diasporas in Roman Britain
This chapter examines the main sources of evidence for mobility in the Roman period, focusing on epigraphy, material culture, and new scientific techniques, specifically isotopic analysis, evaluating strengths and weaknesses of each approach. Employing diaspora theory and hybridization models, it also asks broader questions of how interactions and relationships between incomers and locals can be modelled. Finally, and acknowledging that there is …
Objects and Identities
This book explores ancient Rome's northern provinces through the portable artefacts people used and left behind. Objects are crucial to our understanding of the past, and can be used to explore interlinking aspects of identity. For example, can we identify incomers? How are exotic materials (such as amber and ivory) and objects depicting 'the exotic' (e.g. Africans) consumed? Do regional styles exist below the homogenising influence of Roman trad…
People on the move in Roman Britain
Levels of mobility in the Roman Empire have long been assumed to be relatively high, as attested by epigraphy, demography, material culture and, most recently, isotope analysis and the skeletons themselves. Building on recent data from a range of Romano-British sites (Poundbury in Dorset, York, Winchester, Gloucester, Catterick and Scorton), this article explores the significance of the presence of migrants at these sites and the impact they may …
Cosmopolitan Catterick? Isotopic evidence for population mobility on Rome’s Northern frontier
What was a mortarium used for? Organic residues and cultural change in Iron Age and Roman Britain
The Romans brought the mortarium to Britain in the first century AD, and there has long been speculation on its actual purpose. Using analysis of the residues trapped in the walls of these 'kitchen blenders' and comparing them with Iron Age and Roman cooking pots, the authors show that it wasn't the diet that changed - just the method of preparing certain products: plants were being ground in the mortarium as well as cooked in the pot. As well as…
The ‘Headless Romans’
A Lady of York
Modern methods of analysis applied to cemeteries have often been used in our pages to suggest generalities about mobility and diet. But these same techniques applied to a single individual, together with the grave goods and burial rite, can open a special kind of personal window on the past. Here, the authors of a multidisciplinary project use a combination of scientific techniques to illuminate Roman York, and later Roman history in general, wit…
Oxygen and strontium isotope evidence for mobility in Roman Winchester
Strontium and stable isotope evidence for diet and mobility in Roman Gloucester, UK
Migration and diversity in Roman Britain
Previous anthropological investigations at Trentholme Drive, in Roman York identified an unusual amount of cranial variation amongst the inhabitants, with some individuals suggested as having originated from the Middle East or North Africa. The current study investigates the validity of this assessment using modern anthropological methods to assess cranial variation in two groups: The Railway and Trentholme Drive. Strontium and oxygen isotope evi…
Resistivity imaging survey of the Roman barrows at Bartlow, Cambridgeshire, UK
Resistivity imaging was carried out on four large Roman barrows at Bartlow in Cambridgeshire. The geophysical survey formed part of a wider research project designed to record and assess the landscape context of the largest surviving Roman burial mounds in Britain. The barrows today range in height from 6.6 m to 13.2 m and their steep profile posed particular practical and modelling challenges. Data were obtained using a Campus Geopulse resistanc…
Roman’ or ‘Native’ Bodies in Britain
This paper reviews late Roman ‘nail‐cleaner strap‐ends’, a group of objects first discussed by Hawkes and Dunning (1961 ). The precise function of these objects is unclear as their shape suggests use as toilet instruments but the split socket suggests that they were part of belt‐fittings. We suggest a detailed typology and discuss the dating evidence and the spatial distribution of the type. Regardless of their precise function, it is argued in t…
The social distribution of Roman artefacts
An abstract is not available for this content so a preview has been provided. Please use the Get access link above for information on how to access this content
Preface and Editors’ Preface
Remembering and Forgetting in the Roman Provinces
Illuminating Roman Britain
Regional Identities and Technologies of the Self
The material culture of the Roman empire is characterized by a contrast between uniformity in certain artefacts and diversity in others, often expressed in the style of the artefacts or the context of their use. In the past, with ‘Romanization’ acting as the main theoretical framework, attention has focused on the observed similarities in Roman material culture. Much less work has been done on the ways in which material culture and social practic…
Victorian Excavation Methodology
The excavations of the Roman town of Silchester, Hampshire, undertaken under the auspices of the Society of Antiquaries between 1890 and 1909, are reconsidered in the light of renewed excavation on the site of insula IX, first explored in 1893. The excavation methodology of trial-trenching followed by area excavation of masonry buildings thus located is reviewed alongside the evidence of policy for the recovery and retention of finds. It is estim…
Illuminating Roman Britain
Strontium and stable isotope evidence for diet and mobility in Roman Gloucester, UK
The ‘Headless Romans’
Oxygen and strontium isotope evidence for mobility in Roman Winchester
A Lady of York
Modern methods of analysis applied to cemeteries have often been used in our pages to suggest generalities about mobility and diet. But these same techniques applied to a single individual, together with the grave goods and burial rite, can open a special kind of personal window on the past. Here, the authors of a multidisciplinary project use a combination of scientific techniques to illuminate Roman York, and later Roman history in general, wit…
People on the move in Roman Britain
Levels of mobility in the Roman Empire have long been assumed to be relatively high, as attested by epigraphy, demography, material culture and, most recently, isotope analysis and the skeletons themselves. Building on recent data from a range of Romano-British sites (Poundbury in Dorset, York, Winchester, Gloucester, Catterick and Scorton), this article explores the significance of the presence of migrants at these sites and the impact they may …
Cosmopolitan Catterick? Isotopic evidence for population mobility on Rome’s Northern frontier
Migration and diversity in Roman Britain
Previous anthropological investigations at Trentholme Drive, in Roman York identified an unusual amount of cranial variation amongst the inhabitants, with some individuals suggested as having originated from the Middle East or North Africa. The current study investigates the validity of this assessment using modern anthropological methods to assess cranial variation in two groups: The Railway and Trentholme Drive. Strontium and oxygen isotope evi…
What was a mortarium used for? Organic residues and cultural change in Iron Age and Roman Britain
The Romans brought the mortarium to Britain in the first century AD, and there has long been speculation on its actual purpose. Using analysis of the residues trapped in the walls of these 'kitchen blenders' and comparing them with Iron Age and Roman cooking pots, the authors show that it wasn't the diet that changed - just the method of preparing certain products: plants were being ground in the mortarium as well as cooked in the pot. As well as…
Objects and Identities
This book explores ancient Rome's northern provinces through the portable artefacts people used and left behind. Objects are crucial to our understanding of the past, and can be used to explore interlinking aspects of identity. For example, can we identify incomers? How are exotic materials (such as amber and ivory) and objects depicting 'the exotic' (e.g. Africans) consumed? Do regional styles exist below the homogenising influence of Roman trad…
Resistivity imaging survey of the Roman barrows at Bartlow, Cambridgeshire, UK
Resistivity imaging was carried out on four large Roman barrows at Bartlow in Cambridgeshire. The geophysical survey formed part of a wider research project designed to record and assess the landscape context of the largest surviving Roman burial mounds in Britain. The barrows today range in height from 6.6 m to 13.2 m and their steep profile posed particular practical and modelling challenges. Data were obtained using a Campus Geopulse resistanc…
Victorian Excavation Methodology
The excavations of the Roman town of Silchester, Hampshire, undertaken under the auspices of the Society of Antiquaries between 1890 and 1909, are reconsidered in the light of renewed excavation on the site of insula IX, first explored in 1893. The excavation methodology of trial-trenching followed by area excavation of masonry buildings thus located is reviewed alongside the evidence of policy for the recovery and retention of finds. It is estim…
Illuminating Roman Britain
Regional Identities and Technologies of the Self
The material culture of the Roman empire is characterized by a contrast between uniformity in certain artefacts and diversity in others, often expressed in the style of the artefacts or the context of their use. In the past, with ‘Romanization’ acting as the main theoretical framework, attention has focused on the observed similarities in Roman material culture. Much less work has been done on the ways in which material culture and social practic…
The social distribution of Roman artefacts
An abstract is not available for this content so a preview has been provided. Please use the Get access link above for information on how to access this content
Remembering and Forgetting in the Roman Provinces
Mobility, Migration, and Diasporas in Roman Britain
This chapter examines the main sources of evidence for mobility in the Roman period, focusing on epigraphy, material culture, and new scientific techniques, specifically isotopic analysis, evaluating strengths and weaknesses of each approach. Employing diaspora theory and hybridization models, it also asks broader questions of how interactions and relationships between incomers and locals can be modelled. Finally, and acknowledging that there is …
Illuminating Roman Britain
The Colchester 'Child's Grave'
The so-called ‘Child's Grave’ from Colchester is a unique assemblage and particularly famous for a large and diverse group of rare Central Gaulish pipeclay figurines (PL. X). The burial also contained a wide range of other Roman objects, namely ten unguent flasks, twelve pottery vessels, a clay picture lamp, two glass vessels, a bronze vessel, numerous bone and iron fragments derived from a funerary couch, and thirty-four coins
Illuminating Roman Britain
Victorian Excavation Methodology
The excavations of the Roman town of Silchester, Hampshire, undertaken under the auspices of the Society of Antiquaries between 1890 and 1909, are reconsidered in the light of renewed excavation on the site of insula IX, first explored in 1893. The excavation methodology of trial-trenching followed by area excavation of masonry buildings thus located is reviewed alongside the evidence of policy for the recovery and retention of finds. It is estim…
Regional Identities and Technologies of the Self
The material culture of the Roman empire is characterized by a contrast between uniformity in certain artefacts and diversity in others, often expressed in the style of the artefacts or the context of their use. In the past, with ‘Romanization’ acting as the main theoretical framework, attention has focused on the observed similarities in Roman material culture. Much less work has been done on the ways in which material culture and social practic…
Preface and Editors’ Preface
Remembering and Forgetting in the Roman Provinces
Illuminating Roman Britain
The social distribution of Roman artefacts
An abstract is not available for this content so a preview has been provided. Please use the Get access link above for information on how to access this content
Resistivity imaging survey of the Roman barrows at Bartlow, Cambridgeshire, UK
Resistivity imaging was carried out on four large Roman barrows at Bartlow in Cambridgeshire. The geophysical survey formed part of a wider research project designed to record and assess the landscape context of the largest surviving Roman burial mounds in Britain. The barrows today range in height from 6.6 m to 13.2 m and their steep profile posed particular practical and modelling challenges. Data were obtained using a Campus Geopulse resistanc…
Roman’ or ‘Native’ Bodies in Britain
This paper reviews late Roman ‘nail‐cleaner strap‐ends’, a group of objects first discussed by Hawkes and Dunning (1961 ). The precise function of these objects is unclear as their shape suggests use as toilet instruments but the split socket suggests that they were part of belt‐fittings. We suggest a detailed typology and discuss the dating evidence and the spatial distribution of the type. Regardless of their precise function, it is argued in t…
Oxygen and strontium isotope evidence for mobility in Roman Winchester
Strontium and stable isotope evidence for diet and mobility in Roman Gloucester, UK
Migration and diversity in Roman Britain
Previous anthropological investigations at Trentholme Drive, in Roman York identified an unusual amount of cranial variation amongst the inhabitants, with some individuals suggested as having originated from the Middle East or North Africa. The current study investigates the validity of this assessment using modern anthropological methods to assess cranial variation in two groups: The Railway and Trentholme Drive. Strontium and oxygen isotope evi…
The ‘Headless Romans’
A Lady of York
Modern methods of analysis applied to cemeteries have often been used in our pages to suggest generalities about mobility and diet. But these same techniques applied to a single individual, together with the grave goods and burial rite, can open a special kind of personal window on the past. Here, the authors of a multidisciplinary project use a combination of scientific techniques to illuminate Roman York, and later Roman history in general, wit…
Cosmopolitan Catterick? Isotopic evidence for population mobility on Rome’s Northern frontier
What was a mortarium used for? Organic residues and cultural change in Iron Age and Roman Britain
The Romans brought the mortarium to Britain in the first century AD, and there has long been speculation on its actual purpose. Using analysis of the residues trapped in the walls of these 'kitchen blenders' and comparing them with Iron Age and Roman cooking pots, the authors show that it wasn't the diet that changed - just the method of preparing certain products: plants were being ground in the mortarium as well as cooked in the pot. As well as…
Writing power and status
This chapter examines writing equipment and the ways in which their use reflects the elite's engagement with the powerful new technology of literacy in the Roman Empire's northern provinces, particularly Britain. It analyses the evidence for writing and literacy from Britain and some highly decorated metal inkwells from across the north-western provinces. It first considers actual writing (epigraphy and graffiti) before turning to writing tablets…
Embodied meanings
This chapter focuses on an object type associated with the body and female adornment in the Roman Empire's northern provinces, particularly Britain: a hairpin decorated with the image of a right hand holding a circular object. This object type occurs over much of the Roman Empire and its wide distribution may relate to shared religious and symbolic beliefs. Although hairpins are strongly gendered objects of relatively low value, there are other a…
Local, regional, and inter-provincial identities and provincial material culture
This book has explored portable material culture and the important insights it offers about identities in the Roman Empire's northern provinces, particularly Britain. By focusing on the archaeology of Roman Britain, it has elucidated the evolving and complex aspects of provincial identities such as those relating to gender, status, age, and religious beliefs, all intertwined with local, regional, and Empire-wide customs and practices. The artefac…
Seeing Black
This chapter explores what kinds of objects were made to depict Africans who inhabited the Roman Empire's northern provinces, and in particular Britain. It considers the distribution of artefacts such as vessels and amulets, and whether it bears any relationship to the presence of Africans in Roman Britain. Using epigraphic evidence, it analyses the origins, professional identities, and status of the men, women, and children who came to Britain f…
Mobility, Migration, and Diasporas in Roman Britain
This chapter examines the main sources of evidence for mobility in the Roman period, focusing on epigraphy, material culture, and new scientific techniques, specifically isotopic analysis, evaluating strengths and weaknesses of each approach. Employing diaspora theory and hybridization models, it also asks broader questions of how interactions and relationships between incomers and locals can be modelled. Finally, and acknowledging that there is …
Objects and Identities
This book explores ancient Rome's northern provinces through the portable artefacts people used and left behind. Objects are crucial to our understanding of the past, and can be used to explore interlinking aspects of identity. For example, can we identify incomers? How are exotic materials (such as amber and ivory) and objects depicting 'the exotic' (e.g. Africans) consumed? Do regional styles exist below the homogenising influence of Roman trad…
People on the move in Roman Britain
Levels of mobility in the Roman Empire have long been assumed to be relatively high, as attested by epigraphy, demography, material culture and, most recently, isotope analysis and the skeletons themselves. Building on recent data from a range of Romano-British sites (Poundbury in Dorset, York, Winchester, Gloucester, Catterick and Scorton), this article explores the significance of the presence of migrants at these sites and the impact they may …
Writing and Power in the Roman World
In this book, Hella Eckardt offers new insights into literacy in the Roman world by examining the tools that enabled writing, such as inkwells, styli and tablets. Literacy was an important skill in the ancient world and power could be and often was, exercised through texts. Eckardt explores how writing equipment shaped practices such as posture and handwriting and her careful analysis of burial data shows considerable numbers of women and childre…
History (20 works) · Archaeology (19 works) · Classical Antiquity Studies (15 works) · History (13 works) · Geography (11 works) · Archaeology and ancient environmental studies (10 works) · Art (10 works) · Ancient Mediterranean Archaeology and History (9 works) · Sociology (9 works) · Ancient history (7 works)