Paleopathological Analysis of the Early Byzantine Iasos Society in Türkiye

Abstract

The ancient city of Iasos, located in the Kıyıkışlacık district of Muğla province within the borders of Caria, has a very important place in illuminating the past of Anatolian societies. Paleopathological analysis was conducted on the skeletons of individuals belonging to the Early Byzantine community of Iasos to investigate the health problems of the society and to compare the society with other contemporary ancient Anatolian societies in terms of paleopathology. Lesion prevalence indicates that the Byzantine community of Iasos had a better quality of health than the other populations in the region. However, demographic analysis shows a different pattern, with higher than expected nonadult mortality rates. This could indicate the presence of diseases that affected its youngest members. However, the infants were found next to the sacred area of the Basilica, so they were buried in this area on purpose as they were considered to be sinless. In consequence, the apparently high infant mortality rate may just reflect that the areas excavated contained all the infants but not all the adults originally buried there. This study emphasizes that in paleopathological studies, data should be interpreted by considering multiple lines of evidence.