Women are present in the Roman fort

Women used to live and work in Roman military fortresses. The discovery overthrew the notion that the fortress was occupied only by men, said archaeologist Penelope Allison at the Australian National University.

" They do not live in isolated communities ," said Allison, who studied traces from 1-2 century fortresses on the western front of the Roman Empire.

" There are a lot of women living in the fortress, maybe wives, looking after the shops, doing crafts, trading ."

Ordinary Roman soldiers, who were not allowed to have wives, had long believed that only high-ranking officers could bring their wives into the fortress. " Any other woman, whether a wife, a concubine or a prostitute, is not allowed to live in the fortress, because people worry that women will ruin military discipline ," Allison said.

But although Rome forbade civilian soldiers from getting married, the truth was very different from the front. In a separate study, Allison analyzed the specimens found at the fortress that demonstrate the appearance of women.

" The presence of discarded objects speaks a lot about the places where people used to go and operate, " Allison said. By computer software, she mapped the distribution of more than 30,000 artifacts.

She found women's used items, such as hairpins, rosaries, perfume bottles and spinning wheels scattered throughout the buildings and along the road in the fortress. " They often gather in different areas in the fortress, " Allison said.

The location of these items shows that women have an active life in the city, which is considered a more bustling town than a fortress full of men.

" Women have really participated in life in the fortress, playing a useful role like wife, mother, craftsman and merchant ," Allison concluded.

MT