Dr Jane Draycott

Dr Jane Draycott is a Roman historian and archaeologist, and the author of Cleopatra’s Daughter: Egyptian Princess, Roman Prisoner, African Queen.

She investigates science, technology, and medicine in the ancient world, and is particularly interested in the history and archaeology of medicine; impairment, disability, and prostheses; and botany and horticulture. Recently, she has begun exploring the use (and abuse) of history and archaeology in video games, particularly those set in classical antiquity. She has also long had a special interest in Graeco-Roman Egypt and the Roman client kingdom of Mauretania.

She was awarded a BA (Hons) in Archaeology and Ancient History and an MA in Ancient History from Cardiff University, an MSc in Forensic Archaeology and Anthropology from Cranfield University, and a PhD in Classics from the University of Nottingham. Following the completion of her doctorate, she was awarded two postdoctoral fellowships: Rome Fellow at the British School at Rome and Lord Kelvin Adam Smith Research Fellow in Classics at the University of Glasgow. Over the last decade, she has worked in academic institutions in the UK and Italy, and excavated sites ranging from Bronze Age villages to First World War trenches across the UK and Europe. She is currently Lecturer in Ancient History at the University of Glasgow and co-director of the University of Glasgow’s Games and Gaming Lab.

Her research has been funded by organisations including the AHRC, the Wellcome Trust, and the Royal Society of Edinburgh. She has written books, book chapters, and articles on a range of subjects related to ancient history and archaeology for both specialist and non-specialist readership. Her academic publications include the monographs Prosthetics and Assistive Technology in Ancient Greece and Rome, Approaches to Healing in Roman Egypt and Roman Domestic Medical Practice in Central Italy from the Middle Republic to the Early Empire, and the edited volumes Bodies of Evidence: Ancient Anatomical Votives Past, Present and Future, Prostheses in Antiquity, Women in Historical and Archaeological Video Games, and Women in Classical Video Games. She has discussed aspects of her research on television and radio, in vidcasts, and in podcasts.

When she is not reading, writing, or thinking about Roman history and archaeology, she enjoys indulging her wanderlust by travelling to interesting places, playing computer games, cooking vegan food, practising yoga and hooping. She lives in Glasgow with a tyrannical Norwegian Forest Cat named Magnus, and is currently renovating a dilapidated Victorian house.

You can find her on Twitter as @JLDraycott, Bluesky as @jldraycott.bsky.social, and Instagram as jane.draycott.