First bioarchaeological insights to living conditions in Cyprus from Venetian to Ottoman times

Abstract

The current paper presents one of the first bioarchaeological studies on living conditions in Venetian and Ottoman Cyprus, focusing on two largely contemporary and geographically proximal assemblages: Ayia Napa Monastery and Panagia Panagiotissa chapel. Both assemblages exhibited high infant mortality and small life span; however, the Panagia Panagiotissa assemblage showed a greater frequency of palaeopathological lesions and nonspecific stress markers, suggesting greater hardship in this rural group. This pattern supports that living conditions may have been more heterogeneous than one would assume in rural Cyprus. Further research is required, encompassing more assemblages across the island and addressing issues regarding the degree to which these groups may not represent exclusively members of the rural Cypriot community, before these results can be generalized. Nonetheless, the patterns revealed from this study set an important background on which to build our knowledge regarding living conditions in a little studied transitional period of the Cypriot history.