Amorium Asağı Sehir Kilisesi bebek ve çocuk iskeletleri

Abstract

Amorium is a Byzantine city situated within the Emirdag district of the province of Afyonkarahisar. Excavations in the 2007, 2008, and 2009 seasons yielded many tombs containing infant and child skeletons forming part of a cemetery datable to the 10th and 11th centuries. Many are multiple burials and were located principally to the north of the main church in an area called A20 situated to the east of the baptistery. Skeletal remains of 128 individuals from 36 tombs were analysed to reveal the demography and health status of the population. Among them 42,9% of the individuals died prenatally, at birth, or soon after birth. The results of this study indicate that the unfavourable geographic conditions of Amorium’s location might have produced inadequate hygienic conditions and the malnourishment of the mothers which in turn caused infections and complications during birth, leading to premature and stillbirths. Those infants that did survive the critical neonatal and postnatal periods were generally able carry on their lives into puberty and adulthood.