Brother-sister marriage in Roman Egypt

J Biosoc Sci. 1997 Jul;29(3):361-71. doi: 10.1017/s0021932097003611.

Abstract

According to official census returns from Roman Egypt (first to third centuries CE) preserved on papyrus, 23.5% of all documented marriages in the Arsinoites district in the Fayum (n = 102) were between brothers and sisters. In the second century CE, the rates were 37% in the city of Arsinoe and 18.9% in the surrounding villages. Documented pedigrees suggest a minimum mean level of inbreeding equivalent to a coefficient of inbreeding of 0.0975 in second century CE Arsinoe. Undocumented sources of inbreeding and an estimate based on the frequency of close-kin unions (corrected downwards to 30% for Arsinoe) indicate a mean coefficient of inbreeding of F = 0.15-0.20 in Arsinoe and of F = 0.10-0.15 in the villages at the end of the second century CE. These values are several times as high as any other documented levels of inbreeding. A schematic estimate of inbreeding depression in the offspring of full sibling couples indicates that fertility in these families had to be 20-50% above average to attain reproduction at replacement level. In the absence of information on the amount of genetic load in this population, this estimate may be too high.

Publication types

  • Historical Article

MeSH terms

  • Censuses / history
  • Consanguinity*
  • Egypt, Ancient / epidemiology
  • Female
  • History, Ancient
  • Humans
  • Infant
  • Infant Mortality
  • Male
  • Marriage / history*
  • Nuclear Family*
  • Pedigree
  • Roman World / history*