How the Skeletal Remains of Romanian Reflect the Culture and Daily Life of the Medieval Period

Summary

This is an abstract from the "SAA 2024: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

Medieval Romania’s history is riddled with gaps caused by destructive invasions against the Ottoman Empire, among others. With a fractured and understudied history, bioarchaeology emerges as a potent tool to unveil the concealed facets of this era, ranging from dietary habits and religious inclinations to vocational pursuits, physical traumas, and burial customs. Existing literature on Romanian excavations and osteological analysis indicates trends such as grain-rich diets, livelihoods in farming, blacksmithing, and craftsmanship, invasion-related trauma, and Christian Orthodox burial norms (such as heads facing west and feet toward the east), and social stature dictating burial proximity to churches. An analysis of a burial excavated at the site of Papdomb in Valeni, Romania reveals congruence with these anticipated religious burial practices. However, intriguingly, our excavations unveiled an unexpected facet: the prevalence of familial or multi-individual burials when single burials have been highlighted in the academic literature as the norm. This poster will examine the practice of multi-individual burials, and what this tradition reveals about life and death in Medieval Romania.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• SAA 2024: Individual Abstracts   •
• Society for American Archaeology 89th Annual Meeting, New Orleans, LA (2024)

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 38024.0