New insight into mid-Byzantine burial practices: bioarchaeological implications from the North Cemetery infant remains of the Lower City Church of Amorium (Afyonkarahisar, Turkey) (10th-11th centuries AD).

Abstract

Amorium is a Byzantine city located in the province of Afyonkarahisar, Turkey. Excavations in the 2007, 2008 and 2009 seasons yielded many tombs containing non-adults, mostly infant burials, located to the north of the Lower City Church while the south of the Church was reserved for family and adult tombs. Among the excavated trenches A20 is the largest area and located immediately to the east of the baptistery, other trenches in the Lower City Church (A17, A19, A22, A35, A36, and A38) are located further away from the baptistery and consist of smaller rooms. Skeletal remains of 280 individuals from these trenches dating to 10th to 11th centuries AD were analysed in order to find out if there are any indications for differences in their social status, preferential choices for the burial places, or age-related distribution of the burials of the non-adults in the North Cemetery. This study, together with the baptism traditions and social hierarchy of the Mid-Byzantine era, tentatively suggests that the A20 area might have been reserved for children of families of higher rank in society as it was the closest area to the baptistery (presumably some of the infants had not lived long enough to be baptised), whereas infants and some older children of lower rank in the society were buried in outlying areas. Hence, this study attempts to offer a new insight into burial practices in mid-Byzantine Amorium.