A Comparative Elemental Analysis on Human Skeletal Remains from Iasos (Early Byzantine) and Camihöyük (Hellenistic-Roman)

Abstract

Elemental analyses on skeletal remains provide nutrition models for ancient people and the ecological environment they live in, as well as the information on a variety of social issues. In this study conducted on Early Byzantine Iasos samples, it is aimed to discover differences such as diet, health, environmental features, economic structure and cultural patterns between diverse populations with element analysis method. For this purpose, the iron (Fe), copper (Cu), magnesium (Mg), manganese (Mn), molybdenum (Mo), lead (Pb), zinc (Zn) and nickel (Ni) levels were measured by Atomic Absorption Spectroscopy (AAS) in the ribs of 36 individuals from Iasos. The data provided are compared with the Camihöyük findings from the Hellenistic-Roman period, which was published in a separate study. The evaluations on the measured element levels of the skeletal remains from the two two communities, where one is from a marine and the other is from a continental climate, have shown that Iasos people had a seafood-based, while Camihoyuk people had a cereal-based nutrition model. The accumulation of heavy metals such as lead in the bones is linked to the ecological environment and the cultural characteristics of the societies, such as the way they prepare food.