Comp. by: Amoudha Stage: Proof Chapter No.: 3 Title Name: HuebnerLaes Date:21/9/18 Time:20:29:31 Page Number: 57 Looking for Singles in the Archaeological Record of Roman Egypt Anna Boozer Archaeology and Singles While literary and documentary source material have long been used for family and demographic studies of the ancient world, the surviving mater- ial culture continues to be perceived as too epistemologically ambiguous for shedding light on the ancient family. In spite of such skepticism, both the abundance and the variety of archaeological material make it indis- pensible for studies of the ancient family, and in this case, the ancient single life. In contextualizing distinct temporal and geographical loci, archaeology serves not only to reconstruct a broad pattern of household materialities, but also to discern what factors led to particular household formations. This ability to provide both breadth and detail demonstrates how archaeology might contribute to ongoing discussions of singles in Antiquity. This article looks for singles in the archaeological record of Roman Egypt. In doing so, there are four important considerations to keep in mind. First, identifying singles purely on the basis of material evidence and without any sort of written testimony is, to put it simply, not possible. The most critical issue with the archaeological data is ambiguity; what archaeological signatures suggest a single person? Even among documen- tary sources, questions of defining single-ness are fraught issues, particu- larly given the flux evident in all family forms. This issue is even more difficult for archaeologists, who often struggle to define single event horizons in the archaeological record, much less distinguish individual persons. Additional problems plague archaeological interpretations of the single life. Disparate qualities of data collection can significantly impact Nevett :–. See also Jameson . See Laes, in this volume . See also DePaulo and Morris a, b.