BROTHER-SISTER MARRIAGE IN ROMAN EGYPT

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 brother s and sisters. In the second century CE, the rates were 37% in the cit y of Arsinoe and 18.9% in the surrounding villages. Documented pedigre es suggest a minimum mean level of inbreeding equivalent to a coeffici ent 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 c oefficient 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 fu ll sibling couples indicates that fertility in these families had to b e 20-50% above average to attain reproduction at replacement level. In the absence of information on the amount of genetic load in this popu lation, this estimate may be too high.