Panel 1.1 – Economy, society and health-related quality of life in the ancient world: Bioarchaeological perspectives from the Eastern Mediterranean


Organisation/Vorsitz:

  • Sofia Voutsaki (University of Groningen)
  • Anna Lagia (Albert-Ludwigs-Universität Freiburg)

Externer Diskutant:

  • Geoffrey Kron (University of Victoria)

Vortragende:

Panel abstract

In recent years scholars studying the ancient economy have often claimed that the Greco-Roman world was characterized by prosperity and increasing economic growth. To support this claim, data from diverse sources are used, including those which describe the quality of life in relation to health, assessed through the use of biological measures such as longevity, stature, mortality, morbidity and diet within clearly defined contexts.

The main aim of the panel is to explore the concept of health-related quality of life vis-à-vis the ancient economy and society. Our interest arises from two different, though related developments: On the one hand, the study of modern-day and archaeological contexts from a multitude of sites reveals a close correlation between health and socioeconomic status. On the other hand, there is a growing interest in the integration of mortuary (archaeological, epigraphic, prosopographical) and bioarchaeological data, and an increasing number of bioarchaeological studies of eastern Mediterranean necropoleis, or other burial contexts.

Our main questions are: How should we explore the correlation between socioeconomic status and health-related quality of life? Which methodological and interpretive tools should we use? How can contextual information help us consider the socioeconomic status of the deceased? Is comparability of health data feasible across time and space and what are the pitfalls? Can health-related quality of life be used to infer socioeconomic inequalities in terms of status, gender, or age, or sociocultural phenomena such as deviance? Is it possible to understand differences among cities, or between urban and rural populations? In this panel we will discuss examples from Athens, Phaleron, Chania, Sagalassos and other sites in the eastern Mediterranean dating from the Early Iron Age to the Roman period.

We hope that the panel will provide the opportunity for an interdisciplinary discussion and a more nuanced understanding of the relation between socioeconomic differentiation and health-related quality of life in the ancient world. We also hope that this discussion will contribute towards a closer dialogue between archaeology, bioarchaeology and socioeconomic history.

Paper abstracts

1. Ursula Wittwer-Backofen (Albert-Ludwigs-Universität Freiburg) / Anastasia Papathanasiou (Hellenic Ministry of Culture and Sports, Ephorate of Palaeoanthropology and Speleology)

Assessing long-term change in human health: perspectives from the Global History of Health Project
The need to trace change temporally and across space has for some time now been addressed through bioarchaeology. Two global projects, one concerning the Americas and another Europe, have been launched in this effort. In this paper the basic concepts of this endeavor, along with methodological issues on the effects of sample quality as well as the quantification and comparability of data across space and time are presented and data concerning historic Europe through modern times are discussed. The unprecedented for European populations sample size that was generated in this effort was clustered according to time periods taking into account a number of contextual variables such as elevation, topography, socioeconomic status, and settlement patterns. The implementation of this approach on skeletal assemblages from the Greek mainland is discussed along with recent data concerning diet in conjunction with documented cultural changes and bioarchaeological data from fully studied contexts.

 

2. Sherry Fox (Eastern Michigan University)

The economic implications of zoonoses in the paleopathological analyses of human skeletal remains from the eastern Mediterranean in classical antiquity
Zoonoses or diseases that are spread from animals to humans have afflicted human populations, in particular, since the domestication of animals, as people have been able to live both in greater numbers and in closer contact with animals. The economic implications of zoonotic diseases have been profound due often to the limited productivity of those burdened with zoonoses. This paper focuses upon zoonoses that have affected ancient populations in the eastern Mediterranean based upon the study of human remains from classical antiquity. Included among the zoonoses that have afflicted populations in classical antiquity in the region are malaria, brucellosis, and echinococcosis. Discussion of these zoonotic diseases involves the environmental and social factors implicated in the spread of these diseases within their archaeological contexts. In addition to paleopathological analyses, data are derived from ancient sources, early traveler accounts, premodern practices in the region, as well as from the results of modern, cutting-edge scientific analyses with aims to provide a rich portrayal of how zoonoses have affected the ancient economy of the eastern Mediterranean in classical antiquity.

 

3. Eleanna Prevedorou (Wiener Laboratory & Arizona State University) / Jane Buikstra (Arizona State University)

Politics, power, and production in ancient Athens: the people of the Phaleron cemetery
The polis of Athens has been one of the largest, wealthiest, and most influential city-states in the ancient Greek world. During the Archaic period (ca. 700-480 BC), Athens experienced major socio-political and religious changes, including the first governmental institutions, formal laws, citizenship formalization, evidence for chattel slavery, marked socio-political stratification, and conflict among the aristocratic families, ultimately leading to the rise of democracy. To date, such complex processes are mainly known to us through texts and artistic representations. The extensive cemetery excavated at Phaleron (ca. 8th-4th centuries BC) by the Ephorate of Antiquities of Western Attica, Piraeus, and the Islands during the construction of the Stavros Niarchos Foundation Cultural Center offers us an unparalleled view of everyday life in antiquity, as it appears to represent largely non-elite and potentially diverse strata. By integrating multiple lines of evidence ranging from archaeological science to historic records, the Phaleron Bioarchaeological Project aims to reconstruct the ancient lives of the non-elites, the commoners, and the marginalized that remain largely unexplored or silenced, in order to address archaeological questions regarding the interplay between residence, community membership, citizenship, and burial in Archaic Athens.

 

4. Anna Lagia (Albert-Ludwigs-Universität Freiburg) / Andreas Kapetanios (Ionian University)

Factors affecting health-related quality of life in classical contexts: bioarchaeological evidence from the Athenian Asty and the region of Laurion in SE Attica
Today, a multitude of studies exploring plasticity in human physiology, already before birth, argue convincingly for a correlation between socioeconomic status and human health. Is such a correlation relevant to past populations and to what extent can it be traced by bioarchaeological studies? Systematic analyses of skeletal material deriving from numerous sites across Europe, dated from Classical Antiquity to the modern period, have identified differences attributed to topography, settlement pattern, socioeconomic organization, gendered division of labor and physical activity. In this paper we explore whether such differences can be identified in skeletal material deriving from cemeteries in the Athenian Asty - i.e. the centripetally structured part of the Classical Athens Polis and its political center - and from tombs excavated in the rural region of Laurion in SE Attica that comprised a center of production and distribution of metals since prehistory. In this vein, we try to contrast bioarchaeologically identifiable parameters related to health, diet, activities, and socioeconomic status, investigate potential differentiation in time and search for correlations. Excavational, historical and bio-archaeological data are employed to stimulate a discussion on the delineation of socioeconomic differentials in classical contexts and their impact on living experiences.

 

5. Chelsey Schrock (University of Sheffield) / Victoria Sabetai (Academy of Athens) / Efthymia Nikita (The Cyprus Institute, Nicosia)

Humanizing Antiquity: Biocultural Approaches to Identity Formation in Ancient Boeotia, central Greece
This paper presents the preliminary results of a Marie Skłodowska-Curie funded project focused on the bioarchaeological dimensions of kinship and social stratification in Archaic to Roman-era Boeotia (central Greece). In particular, our research explored genetic kinship and life quality markers in ancient Acraiphia to assess how clearly familial patterns and social divisions are visible in the skeletal record. Over 250 adult and juvenile skeletons have been analyzed. The very partially preserved nature of a large part of the assemblage necessitated the combination of diverse macroscopic and microscopic osteoarchaeological methods in order to effectively explore the aforementioned research questions. As such, palaeodemographic and palaeopathological markers have been recorded along with activity, dietary and biodistance indicators. The combination of the osteological information with funerary data pertaining to the organization of the cemetery and tomb typologies has provided interesting insights to the extent of intermarriage and differential social status in ancient central Greece. Even though our research is currently restricted to the cemetery of ancient Acraiphia, it will soon be expanded to other Boeotian necropoleis, in order to explore patterns of human mobility and life quality in a broader context.

 

6. Chryssa Bourbou (University of Fribourg)

Living and Dying at the Periphery of the Society? First insights into a Classical-Hellenistic burial ground from Chania (Crete, Greece)
During construction works at the modern national stadium of Chania (Crete, Greece) a rescue excavation revealed an extended burial ground. A part of this burial ground, dating to the second half of the 4th-middle of the 3rd c. BC., developed alongside a road, which probably led to it or provided a gate for the city, included ca. 70 pot burials, 43 pit graves (some with multiple inhumations), and 2 tile graves, without specific spatial organization. The location, high concentration of pot burials, mingled with pit graves of multiple inhumations, the discovery of a shackled individual and the preliminary results of the associated human skeletal remains, including two cases of trepanations, suggest a possible “atypical” burial ground -compared to current funerary data for the era. Did this burial ground serve for the “special dead”, those who presumably failed to meet distinguished rites of passages (fetuses buried in pots), or lived at the periphery of the society? Could it be related to the turbulences documented in the island during this period, few of such traces depicted so far in the bioarchaeological record? Generating a synthesis of documentary, archaeological and biological evidence an attempt will be made to reconstruct the osteobiographies of the individuals buried, the sociocultural choices behind their interment and how these regulations are possibly related to phenomena of marginality in terms of health-related issues, status or age.

 

7. Velissaria Vanna (UCL, London)

Socioeconomic differentiation, son preference and women’s status in Hellenistic mainland Greece (3rd – 1st century BC): Unlocking the evidence from the North Cemetery of Demetrias, the second capital of the Macedonian Kingdom
The present study offers an insight into socioeconomic variation in the most overlooked and controversial period in ancient Greek history focusing on bioarchaeological evidence from an area for which little information exists. Specifically, its aim is to address the issues of favourable treatment towards male children, the social position of women, and the differentiation between low- and high-status groups in Hellenistic Demetrias, through the study of oral pathology. Findings have revealed striking patterns discernable by both gender and socioeconomic status. Caries more frequently and severely affected socially privileged groups, namely high-status individuals and males. Interestingly, the exact opposite was the case for periodontal disease. In the high-status group, males had a higher proportion of hypoplastic teeth than females, whereas, in the low-status group, the opposite pattern was observed. Low-status individuals were affected by enamel defects twice as much as and three times more severely than their high-status counterparts. Demetrias appears to have been a strongly hierarchical society, in which men, particularly those that were members of the upper classes, were favoured over women. Moreover, male infants/children were given priority over female infants/children in terms of care and nutrition, although this behaviour most likely occurred only when there was a practical need for differential treatment.

 

8. Lynne Schepartz (University of the Witwatersrand)

Health-related quality of life in the Corinthian colony of Apollonia, Albania
The sociopolitical nature of ancient Greek colonization was complex, and the interactions between colonizers and local populations are poorly understood. Did local communities prosper from colonization, or were they subject to economic and social exploitation? One way to investigate the effects of colonization is to assess the health-related quality of life in the colonies relative to the pre-colonial period using skeletal indicators of dietary and disease stress.
The Greek mother-city of Corinth founded colonies in Illyria along the present-day Albanian coast, including the large settlement of Apollonia. A sample of tumuli from the necropolis, dating from the Bronze Age through to the Hellenistic colonial periods, has been investigated. Skeletal proxies of health (dental and bone pathology levels and morphological characteristics) for the colony are compared with data from Lofkënd, a pre-colonial Bronze Age-Iron Age tumulus situated 24 kilometers inland.
The health-related quality of life appears to have declined in the colonial period, but the trends in the skeletal proxies are not directly attributable to marked physical activity level or dietary changes. Considering the different microenvironments of the two localities along with their health profiles, the decline during the colonial times can be considered as reflecting the health costs of residing in an urbanized and malarial coastal setting.

 

9. Sam Cleymans (KU Leuven-Sagalassos Archaeological Research Project)

In Sickness and in Health: Diachronic Changes of Physical Health and Quality of Life at Sagalassos, SW Anatolia
Who were better off, the Romans or the Byzantines? This very simple question has led to a discussion in economic history with at least two opposing camps. On the one hand, scholars advocated Malthusian theory, claiming that, as Roman cities were more crowded, the Romans were less healthy than the Byzantines. Another group of scholars emphasized the investments by urban Roman imperial communities in infrastructure that improve hygiene and nutrition (e.g. sewers, public baths etc.). These historians therefore regard the Romans as more healthy than the Byzantines. Yet, both perspectives are hypothetical and often lack an encompassing theoretical framework and detailed data analysis. In this respect, Quality of Life (QoL) studies can be helpful. This framework allows for placing physical health in a broader context, and looks for the factors influencing the health of populations in the past and present. As a case study for data analysis the Pisidian town of Sagalassos is chosen. This archaeological site has yielded a large dataset of both Roman imperial to late Roman burials (1st-5th cent. AD), and Middle Byzantine graves (11th-13th cent. AD). Following a combination of paleopathology, stature, aDNA-analysis, diet reconstruction and mortality patterning, the physical health of these two populations can be contrasted. This health index allows for further comparison with QoL factors such as population density and available infrastructure. Most simple questions ask for a complex answer.

 

10. Maria Liston (University of Waterloo, Ontario)

Inferring the presence of a leprosarium or hospital from the pathologies in the cemetery: Interpreting burials from Byzantine Thebes
The history of the modern hospital in Greece begins in the early Byzantine period with the development of hospices organized by the Church. Often associated with monasteries, these provided food, shelter, and rudimentary care for the sick and dying. As leprosy (Hansen’s Disease) became widespread, debilitated patients often ended up in these facilities. Although the rigorous isolation of lepers was a later phenomenon, the frightening appearance and smell of patients with leprosy would have made them particularly unwelcome in communities. A recently excavated cemetery in Thebes, Greece appears to have been associated with one such hospital, although there is no historical documentation for its presence. The cemetery is located in the former Sanctuary of Ismenion Apollo, and the graves are clustered around the foundations of the temple of Apollo. Rectangular cuttings into the bedrock were used for multiple burials. In addition two mass graves with multiple simultaneous burials suggest a catastrophic event, probably a plague. There are multiple cases with definitive skeletal lesions that suggest advanced leprosy, and nearly every grave contains individuals with probable leprosy. In addition there are three individuals with advanced metastatic cancer, and an array of other tumors and infectious diseases. The concentration of severe pathologies is greater than would be found in an ordinary town cemetery, and we infer that an early Byzantine hospital was functioning in Thebe.