Saturday 15 November 2025 1400 UK Time:
Sonia Zakrzewski: 'Disability, Eunuchism and the Use of Fictive Narrative in Ptolemaic Roman Egypt.'
Outline: With notable exceptions, bioarchaeology in Egypt has tended to focus upon one site or one aspect of health and disease, rather than the interrelationships between peoples, pathology and places. This talk tries to develop current ideas as to social identities within Egypt, and debates the theoretical aspects of archaeological identity and disability. Using a specific skeletal example from Egypt, potential eunuchism at the Greco-Roman site of Quesna in the Egyptian Delta, biological expressions of identity are considered in relation to disability. If disability is employed as a framework for analysis, which focuses on the positive ability to undertake actions rather than physical or other limitations, a fluid boundary exists between disabled and able-bodied. Given that people experience physical impairments differently, a continuum of disability exists that depends on the actions and activities of those very individuals involved, with some being disabled by their impairments but others viewed as ‘normal.’
Using fictive narratives (so-called “faction”), we explore the lives of people with above average stature but completely unfused bony epiphyses from the Greco-Roman site of Quesna. One such individual was interred in a mudbrick tomb containing additional, non-affected decedents. Another was buried in a nearby simple sand-dug pit with many funerary amulets. These tall and yet apparently still growing individuals would likely have appeared different in life from their peers, and so their ‘difference' might have had implications on their identity and funerary treatments. This talk thus moves from this specific example to consider how disability interacts with other aspects of identity in ancient Egyptian contexts.
This talk will also explore the use of fictive narrative to aid in understanding and comprehension. Such forms of writing, also called faction, place focus on the personal response as well as the bodily condition.
Sonia Zakrzewski is a bioarchaeologist, focusing on human skeletons. Her interests are in race, human diversity and variability, and the study of the human body to understand aspects of migration and mobility, diet, identity, disease, religious practice and social organisation in past populations. She has recently been working on understanding constructions and recognition of disability in past groups. Her bioarchaeological work in Egypt has ranged from the Badarian period through to the Ptolemaic and Roman periods, and she has worked several seasons at the site of Quesna in the Delta.
The waiting room will open about 13.45 for a 14.00 start UK time.
Zoom Meeting Joining Instructions
To join the meeting on 15 November 2025 all you have to do is follow these steps:
1: Click/tap on the registration link you have been sent. You will be asked to enter your name and email address to register for the meeting. Visitors please contact the Secretary at saesinfo55@gmail.com to obtain links.
2: If you have not already paid the meeting fee in advance, contact the Secretary at saesinfo55@gmail.com to arrange payment. Payments can be made by BACS transfer, through PayPal, or by cheque. Details on the website 'Join Us' page.
3: Look out for the meeting link which will be sent during the week before the talk. You may need to check your junk or spam folders in case they go astray. If you have not received the link by the day before the meeting please try registering again or contact the Secretary. For reasons of security and copyright the meeting link should not be shared with anyone else.
Remember, the registration link you will be given are specific to the meeting on 15 November 2025. THE LINK ONLY WORKS FOR THIS EVENT. A new registration link will be issued for each future meeting.
Registration for the meeting will open in October 2025.
