Naslov
Health, diet and lifestyles of early medieval (6th-12th c. CE) populations from the eastern Adriatic

Autori
Novak, Mario

Vrsta, podvrsta i kategorija rada
Sažeci sa skupova, neobjavljeni rad, znanstveni

Skup
52nd International Congress on Medieval Studies

Mjesto i datum
Kalamazoo (MI), Sjedinjene Američke Države, 11.05.2017. - 14.05.2017

Vrsta sudjelovanja
Predavanje

Vrsta recenzije
Međunarodna recenzija

Ključne riječi
bioarchaeology ; skeletal remains ; eastern Adriatic ; early medieval period

Sažetak
Due to almost complete absence of written historic sources about the everyday life of populations inhabiting eastern Adriatic coast during the early Middle Ages we know very little about their lifestyles, health and diet. In this context, a comprehensive bioarchaeological analysis of human skeletal and dental remains proved to be the best source of information. Therefore, the aim of this paper is to present the results of a multidisciplinary study of 250 skeletons from six early medieval sites (6th-12th c. CE) from eastern Adriatic coast and its hinterland combining a conventional bioarchaeological approach and stable isotopes analysis with a particular focus placed on the region’s ecological and climatic settings. The bioarchaeological analysis included a study of the frequency and distribution of various health markers such as dento-alveolar pathologies, indicators of subadult stress, and skeletal trauma revealing which pathogens affected analyzed populations and how individuals or specific subgroups in the population (social, sexual) reacted to them. Furthermore, the stable isotopes analysis (carbon and nitrogen) will provide more information on everyday diet of the analyzed individuals and will show if there were any differences in diet between the analyzed sites, sexes and age groups. In order to get a better insight into general health, lifestyle and diet of early medieval populations from the region the obtained results will be compared with the available medieval written sources but also with similar data from other contemporaneous European sites. The biocultural approach used in this study will considerably increase our present knowledge of early medieval populations from Europe, and confirm the importance of bioarchaeological analyses in an attempt to get a better insight into the lives of our distant ancestors.

Izvorni jezik
Engleski

Znanstvena područja
Arheologija

POVEZANOST RADA