Vincent van der Veen:
Women in Roman Military Bases: Gendered Brooches from the Augustan Military Base and Flavio-Trajanic Fortress at Nijmegen, the Netherlands. Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 October 2021
For the Museum Kamstraat cemetery on the Hunerberg [...], anthropological evidence is available regarding the sex and age of many of the cremation burials. The same is true for the cemetery at Krefeld-Gellep. In the following sections,
I critically discuss those brooch types that are most commonly cited in the literature as female. These are the thistle-shaped brooch, collared brooch, the wire brooches Almgren 15 and 16
and the Langton-Down brooch. The quality of the arguments to label them as female dress accessories will be considered and, whenever possible, these will be discussed in relation to the sexed grave evidence from the two cemeteries at Nijmegen and Krefeld-Gellep. The results are summarised in
table 1.
[...]
Langton-Down brooches are also often, although not exclusively, found in female burials. In the Museum Kamstraat cemetery, three Langton-Down brooches were found with cremation remains that could be sexed. The first was found with the remains of a possible female aged between 23 and 40. This burial contained only one brooch, rather than the expected two or three. Two other Langton-Down brooches were found, along with an eye brooch (Augenfibel) and a Hod-Hill brooch (Scharnierfibel mit ungeteiltem Bügel), in a double burial belonging to a certain male of 20–30 years and a possible female of 19–28 years. It is tempting to attribute the two Langton-Down brooches to the female, although this cannot be said with certainty. No Langton-Down brooches were found at Krefeld-Gellep.
At the King Harry Lane cemetery at Verulanium (St Albans), the numbers seem fairly evenly split. Four burials containing Langton-Down brooches were found with human remains that could be sexed. One burial of a possible female contained three Langton-Down brooches,while another burial of a possible female contained a single brooch of this type. One burial of a certain male contained one Langton-Down brooch,while a burial of a possible male contained two.
Of special note in this discussion is an inhumation burial from West Thurrock of a certain male aged over 50 which contained an uncommon variant of the Langton-Down brooch similar to the Feugère 14b1a, together with four other brooches. The Langton-Down brooch had been placed, open and upside down, on a terra sigillata platter together with two other brooches treated in the same way. They had probably been stuck into a piece or bundle of fabric/garment which had then been placed on the platter in this way.
In conclusion, the evidence suggests that the Langton-Down brooch was worn by women and men alike. For the same reasons as for the Almgren 15 brooch discussed above, I have chosen not to discard it from the analysis, but to label it as ‘unisex’.
Zusammenfassung des englischen Textes: Langton-Down-Fibeln werden zwar oft in als Frauengräbern angesprochenen Bestattungen gefunden, aber auch oft in als Männergräbern angesprochenen Gräbern. Vincent van der Veen stellt also fest, dass diese Fibeln von Frauen wie Männern getrafen wurden und daher als 'unisex' anzusprechen sind. Demnach wäre Derks' Zuordnung der Langton-Down-Fibel in Kalkriese zu einer Frau hinfällig und es wäre festzuhalten, dass die Wahrscheinlichkeit, dass sie einem Mann gehörte 50:50 ist.
(Im Originaltext sind Fußnoten, die ich hier entfernt habe.)
selbst wenn es sich kleinkariert anhört:was beweist ein weiblicher Beckenknochen?
Argumentieren könnte man, daß aus der Menge der Zugbegleiterinnen tatsächlich noch ein Knochen geborgen werden konnte.
Damit möchte ich aber nicht die Diskussion eingreifen, weil ich Heidrun Derks noch nicht überflogen habe.
Bei 17 nachgewiesenen Individuen wäre der Nachweis davon, dass mindestens eines dieser Individuen eine Frau war - die anderen waren ja nicht zwangsläufig alle männlich - schon signifikant.
