Life and Death in Asia Minor in Hellenistic, Roman and Byzantine Times : Studies in Archaeology and Bioarchaeology

Life and Death in Asia Minor combines contributions in both archaeology and bioarchaeology in Asia Minor in the period ca. 200 BC – AD 1300 for the first time. The archaeology topics are wide-ranging including death and territory, death and landscape perception, death and urban transformations from pagan to Christian topography, changing tomb typologies, funerary costs, family organization, funerary rights, rituals and practices among pagans, Jews, and Christians, inhumation and Early Byzantine cremations and use and reuse of tombs. The bioarchaeology chapters use DNA, isotope and osteological analyses to discuss, both among children and adults, questions such as demography and death rates, pathology and nutrition, body actions, genetics, osteobiography, and mobility patterns and diet. The areas covered in Asia Minor include the sites of Hierapolis, Laodikeia, Aphrodisias, Tlos, Ephesos, Priene, Kyme, Pergamon, Amorion, Gordion, Boğazkale, and Arslantepe.

The theoretical and methodological approaches used make it highly relevant for people working in other geographical areas and time periods. Many of the articles could be used as case studies in teaching at schools and universities. An important objective of the publication has been to see how the different types of results emerging from archaeological and natural science studies respectively could be integrated with each other and pose new questions on ancient societies, which were far more complex than historical and social studies of the past often manage to transmit.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements vii

Authors and Addresses ix

Introduction. Dead bodies – Live data: Some reflections from the sideline xiii

J. Rasmus Brandt



PART I: From life to death. Death and the social and funerary setting



The Sanctuary of St Philip in Hierapolis and the tombs of saints in Anatolian cities

Francesco D’Andria



2. Necropoleis from the territory of Hierapolis in Phrygia: New data from archaeological surveys

Giuseppe Scardozzi



3. The South-East Necropolis of Hierapolis of Phrygia: Planning, typologies and construction techniques

Donatella Ronchetta



4. Tomb 163d in the North Necropolis of Hierapolis of Phrygia. An insight into the funerary gestures and practices of the Jewish Diaspora in Asia Minor in Late Antiquity and the Proto-Byzantine period

Caroline Laforest, Dominique Castex, and Frédérique Blaizot



5. Tomb ownership in Lycia; site selection and burial rights with selected rock tombs and epigraphical material from Tlos

Gül Işın and Ertan Yıldız



6. The sarcophagus of Alexandros, son of Philippos. An important discovery in the Lycian city of Tlos

Taner Korkut and Çilem Uygun



7. ‘Till death do them part’: Reconstructing Graeco-Roman family life from funerary inscriptions of Aphrodisias

Esen Öğüş



8. Social status and tomb monuments in Hierapolis and Roman Asia Minor

Sven Ahrens



9. New evidence for non-elite burial patterns in central Turkey

Andrew L. Goldman



10. Reflections on the mortuary landscape of Ephesus. The archaeology of death in a Roman Metropolis

Martin Steskal



11. Christian burials in a pagan context at Amorium

Christopher S. Lightfoot



12. Romans, Christians, and pilgrims at Hierapolis in Phrygia. A funerary journey of mental changes

Camilla Cecilie Wenn, Sven Ahrens, and J. Rasmus Brandt









PART II: From death to life. Man and ancient life conditions



13. Analysis of DNA in human skeletal material from Hierapolis

Gro Bjørnstad and Erika Hagelberg



14. Isotopic investigations of human diet and mobility at the site of Hierapolis, Turkey

Megan Wong, Elise Naumann, Klervia Jaouen, and Michael Richards



15. Diet in Roman Pergamon using stable isotope (C, N, S), osteoarchaeological and historical data – preliminary results

Johanna Propstmeier, Olaf Nehlich, Michael Richards, Gisela Grupe, Gundula H. Müldner, and Wolf-Rüdiger Teegen



16. Pergamon – Kyme – Priene: Health and disease from the Roman to the Late Byzantine period in different locations of Asia Minor

Wolf-Rüdiger Teegen



17. Toothache, back pain, and fatal injuries – what skeletons tell about life and death at Roman and Byzantine Hierapolis

Henrike Kiesewetter



18. Health and disease of infants and children in Byzantine Anatolia between AD 600 and 1350

Michael Schultz and Tyede H. Schmidt-Schultz



19. Infant and child skeletons from the Lower City Church at Byzantine Amorium

F. Arzu Demirel



20. The wrestler from Ephesus: Osteobiography of a man from the Roman period based on his anthropological and palaeopathological record

Jan Nováček, Kristina Scheelen, and Michael Schultz



General Index

J. Rasmus Brandt is Professor Emeritus of Classical Archaeology at the Institute of Archaeology, Conservation, and History, University of Oslo. Erika Hagelberg is Professor of Evolutionary Biology, University of Oslo. Gro Bjornstad is Divisional Engineer at the Department of Forensic Biology, Norwegian Institute of Public Health. Sven Ahrens is a classical archaeologists and Senior Curator at the Norwegian Maritime Museum.