Byzantine Warriors in Nicaea: A Bio-archeological Study
Yılmaz Selim Erdal (Hacettepe University)
Respondent: Jorge Lopez Quiroga (Universidad Autonoma de Madrid)
Tuesday 9 May
h. 17.30
H-132
This is also an online seminar. To obtain event details please send a message to department.
Medieval Anatolia, especially after the 8th century, experienced increased population mobility, encounters between different ethnic groups (such as Arabs, Turks, and Byzantines), and severe conflicts. In this respect, Anatolia is perhaps the region where the first large-scale warfare took place. However, there is almost no data from the warriors about these encounters and conflicts, as this kind of information is provided mainly by written texts and narratives. As excavations of the Roman Theater in Nicaea yielded about 1000 human skeletons, this seminar will present the preliminary results of a project on the Medieval population and Byzantine warriors of Nicaea, focusing on the bioarcheological analysis of the skeletons. They will allow us to shed light on population patterns, dietary habits, skeletal wounds, and activity-induced markers. Indeed, osteological data may also help us to answer questions related to the ethnic provenance of the warriors, the structure of the Byzantine army, the fate of prisoners of war, and injuries related to the warfare.