MARONEIA - 2006

Maroneia. P. Tritsaroli (ASCSA, Wiener Laboratory) reports on analysis of the human skeletal remains from the extra-mural cemetery at ECh/Byz Maroneia (theatre area, Kabana region). The sample of 36 individuals included 32 adults of advanced age and 4 children (3 over the age of 4); different nutritional habits were traced according to age and sex. Attention focused on the discovery in tomb 5 (W parados of the theatre) of the cranium of a mature woman (over 30 years of age) which had been artificially deformed, probably by binding: the woman had also suffered multiple fractures of other bones. The tomb itself was archaeologically indistinguishable from the rest, but cranial deformation is not generally attested in Gr lands nor does it fit Ch tradition. The deceased may therefore have retained customs from her homeland − perhaps adding evidence for the arrival of immigrants from the Caucasus or the Balkans (or W Europe) during the migration period (5th Ct AD onwards) as part of the mixed population of this major Byz trading centre.