Towards a historical bioarchaeology: The use of textual sources in research on human remains from the Near East and Eastern Mediterranean

Abstract

The Near East and Eastern Mediterranean are regions where textual sources appeared much earlier than elsewhere, with the first logographic writing systems invented already in the 4th millennium BCE. Although for some places and for some periods written sources are abundant, the combination of research on ancient texts and archaeological human remains is still relatively rare and often superficial. Some popular research topics within historical bioarchaeology may be identified as studies that focus on ancient funeral rites, reconstructing biographies of people known from written sources whose skeletons have been discovered, research on the catastrophic mass burials, e.g. the results of epidemics or the acts of violence, human lifetime mobility, diet, subsistence, and finally, living conditions in general. Beyond reviewing representative past studies of these topics, this paper also identifies some new potential methods and objectives for regional historical bioarchaeology.