A female doctor (medica) at Augusta Emerita (Mérida)? Re-examining CIL II 497 from humanist readings to the latest digital epigraphy techniques

Abstract

This paper provides a critical re-examination of a funerary altar (CIL ii 497) from Augusta Emerita (Mérida, Spain). It explores the strengths and weaknesses of all previous editions of the text from its first publication in 1633 to the present day, providing a critical review of the development of epigraphic scholarship on Mérida during this long period. Given the problems of all previous editions, including CIL ii 497, it then re-examines the altar using traditional epigraphic methods alongside the latest digital techniques (especially Morphological Residual Modelling, M.R.M.) to provide a new edition of the text, while setting the presence of a female doctor at the provincial capital of Lusitania into the broader social context of medical practitioners in Rome’s western provinces.