Care in the Past: Archaeological and Interdisciplinary Perspectives

by Lindsay Powell (Editor), William Southwell-Wright (Editor), Rebecca Gowland (Editor)

Care-giving is an activity that has been practiced by all human societies. From the earliest societies through to the present, all humans have faced choices regarding how people in positions of dependency are to be treated. As such, care-giving, and the form it takes, is a central experience of being a human and one that is culturally mediated. Archaeology has tended to marginalise the study of care, and debates surrounding our ability to recognise it within the archaeological record have often remained implicit rather than a focus of discussion. These 12 papers examine the topic of care in past societies and specifically how we might recognise the provision of care in archaeological contexts and to open up an inter-disciplinary conversation, including historical, bioarchaeological, faunal and philosophical perspectives. The topic of ‘care’ is examined through three different the provision of care throughout the life course, namely that provided to the youngest and oldest members of a society; care-giving and attitudes towards impairment and disability in prehistoric and historic contexts, and the role of animals as both recipients of care and as tools for its provision.

Table of Contents

Preface – Charlotte Roberts



1. Introduction

William Southwell-Wright, Rebecca Gowland and Lindsay Powell



Section 1: Care and the Life Course

2. Childcare in the Past

Mary Lewis



3. The “Terrible Tyranny of the Majority”: Recognising Population Variability and Individual Agency in Past Infant Feeding Practices

Ellen Kendall



4.–Precious Examining the Status and Care of Children in Late Medieval England Through the analysis of Cultural and Biological Markers

Heidi Dawson

5. “That Tattered Coat Upon a Stick the Ageing Body”: Evidence for Elder Marginalisation and Abuse in Roman Britain

Rebecca L. Gowland



Section 2: Care Impairment and Disability

6. The Palaeolithic Compassion Debate – Alternative Projections of Modern Day Disability into the Distant Past

Nick Thorpe



7. Setting the Scene for an Evolutionary Approach to Care in A Historical and Philosophical Journey

David Doat



8. “A Long Waiting for Death”: Dependency and the Care of the Disabled in a Nineteenth Century Asylum

Shawn Phillips



9 Prayers and Medieval Health Care at the Isle of May, Scotland. C. AD 430-1580

Marlo Willows



Section 3: Animal and Plant Evidence for Care

10. Towards a Zooarchaeology of Animal ‘Care’

Richard Thomas

11. Rare Secrets of Insect Medicaments in Historical Western Society

Gary King

12. Conclusion

Lindsay Powell, William Southwell-Wright, Rebecca Gowland

208 pages, Paperback

Published December 27, 2016

About the author

LINDSAY POWELL is a historical detective. He is motivated to tell the stories of the under-reported personalities and events of history in the belief that they deserve to be told to complete our understanding of the past.

A historian and writer, Lindsay has a particular passion for the military history of the Roman Empire. He scours ancient documents, inscriptions, coins and museums for stories, and archaeological, engineering, medical and scientific reports to reveal deeper truths.

He was news editor of Ancient Warfare (2011-2016) and continues to contribute to the magazine. He has written for Military Heritage, Desperta Ferro and Strategy & Tactics magazines, as well as Pen and Sword Books, Osprey Publishing, The History Network and UNRV.com. Lindsay is a veteran of the world renowned Ermine Street Guard. His appearances include BBC Radio and The History Channel,

He divides his time between Austin, Texas and Wokingham, England.