Premium
Monks on the move: Evaluating pilgrimage to byzantine St. Stephen's monastery using strontium isotopes
Author(s) -
Sheridan Susan Guise,
Gregoricka Lesley A.
Publication year - 2015
Publication title -
american journal of physical anthropology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.146
H-Index - 119
eISSN - 1096-8644
pISSN - 0002-9483
DOI - 10.1002/ajpa.22827
Subject(s) - byzantine architecture , pilgrimage , archaeology , ancient history , grave goods , history , isotopes of strontium , geography , strontium , physics , nuclear physics
Objectives Written and archaeological evidence indicates that migration, in the form of pilgrimage to Byzantine Palestine, was a major social phenomenon between the 5th and 7th centuries CE. Monasteries saw record growth at this time as pilgrims chose to stay in the region and take up religious life. A major influx of people to the region, with a corresponding growth in monastic vocations that led travelers to stay in the area, is not in question; however, the distant origins of pilgrims reflected in surviving texts may be an artifact of preservation, biased towards an elite minority. The Byzantine monastery of St. Stephen's provides an opportunity to study this question from a bioarchaeological perspective, given the excellent preservation of the human skeletal assemblage, a wealth of written works about the community as well as daily life in Byzantine Palestine, and a rich archaeological record for the site and region. Materials and Methods: An analysis of radiogenic strontium isotope values from the third molars of 22 individuals recovered from the St. Stephen's crypt complex was conducted to test whether those interred at the monastery were of local origin. Results: Of those examined ( x ¯ = 0.7084 ± 0.0007, 1 σ ), 8 out of 22 (36%) exhibited 87 Sr/ 86 Sr ratios that fell outside of local ranges. Discussion: These results confirmed the sizeable presence of nonlocals at St. Stephen's Monastery. While most of these migrants likely traveled to Jerusalem from different areas of the Levant as pilgrims, others may have hailed from further afield, including Europe. Am J Phys Anthropol, 2015. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Am J Phys Anthropol 158:581–591, 2015. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.