Invisibility, Erasure, and a Jewish Tombstone in Roman Britain

Abstract

Rigorous scholarship relies on evidence. But in the case of Jews in antiquity, absence of evidence has often been taken to be evidence of absence. An abundance of caution has frequently meant the erasure of Jews from antiquity. Using the test case of a tombstone from Roman Britain, I suggest that a methodology of imagination can be helpful in making sure Jews in antiquity are not invisible.