2004 Summer NSF-REU Student Projects
Samantha Minnis [Central Michigan University] & Becky Brown [Univ. of Notre Dame]
SUMMARY  --  The purpose of this study was to reconstruct diet through examination of the dental caries in the adult population of Byzantine St. Stephen's.   By measuring the frequency of carious lesions and the location of carious lesions on the teeth, it is possible to make inferences about what type of diet was consumed.   The ideal monastic diet stressed simplicity and restraint above all else. With a diet consisting mainly of bread, a source of carbohydrate, a certain pattern of dental pathologies should arise.  However, there was some doubt as to whether these particular monks were conforming to a strict vegetarian diet because of their overall good health and robusticity.  Dental caries were therefore scored for both size and location. Attrition was also examined. Eighty out of 1,056 teeth examined were found to be carious. Attrition, which was mild to moderate, was found to have no significant relationship with the carious lesions in this particular study. Frequency of carious teeth was compared with frequencies from other populations in an attempt to reconstruct the diet of St. Stephen's monastery. The populations found to have the most statistically similar frequencies were those with a mixed diet of proteins and carbohydrates, indicating St. Stephen's may have had a similar diet. .
Melissa Regan & Lesley Gregoricka  [Univ. of Notre Dame]
SUMMARY --  Skeletal remains offer valuable insight into the diet of a given population. The skeletal remains from the Byzantine monastery of St. Stephen's in Jerusalem provide a large collection for such dietary examination.    Hirschfeld (1992) speculates that the scarcity of meat and not regulation against it may account for its absence in monastic diet, particularly in the Judean desert.  However, little information currently exists that delves into the daily existence of urban monasteries; while undoubtedly similar in many common practices, differences undoubtedly exist.  Previous studies have shown trends of general health and robusticity in the collection, including a lack of iron and zinc deficiency evident by the absence of cribra orbitalia and diploic thickening.  Moreover, deep muscle markings present on the bones point to a diet that had to support such a physical lifestyle.  Animal protein could account for the health, robusticity, and large muscles of these monks, although this evidence does not correlate with the ascetic diet documented in historical texts and calls into question the true diet of the monks.  Stable isotope analysis can be used to measure several different elements, including oxygen, hydrogen, carbon, and nitrogen.  This study concentrated on carbon and nitrogen, since these elements are most relevant to dietary reconstruction .
Matt Esposito [College of New Jersey] & Colleen O'Donnell [Univ. of Notre Dame]
SUMMARY --  The Byzantine St. Stephen's collection was discovered in a repository at the St. Stephen's monastery just outside of modern day Jerusalem.  The goals of this and previous studies were to take a Biocultural approach in order to reconstruct the daily life of the urban Byzantine St. Stephen's monastic community.  This study focused on indication of diet from dental calculus frequencies.  Frequencies of calculus deposition were observed at 42.4% and were classified as slight.  Comparisons to Mesolithic and Neolithic Ukraine, Neolithic Chinese, Imperial and Middle Age Roman, and Arabian Gulf populations were made.  The results of these comparisons and historical information available from the area suggested that the Byzantine St. Stephen's monastic community consumed high levels of carbohydrates in the form of bread, dates, figs, carobs, vegetables, wild greens, and honey.  A full dental pathology profile is necessary to compile a more accurate picture of the diet of St. Stephen's.   .
Erin Willman [Indiana State University] & Kim Forrest [Whitman College]
SUMMARY --  A previous study of distal femora found that many of the individuals in the collection suffered from severe pathologies that may have caused chronic pain in the knee joint.  Because previous research, such as the presence of sub-adult bones, could be interpreted to suggest that St. Stephen's may have served as a hospital, it would be logical to speculate that the monks condoned secular medicine and used it to ease the pain of their own pathologies.  If so, the monks would have employed the Galenic medical practices that predominated in Byzantine pharmacology studies by the 3rd century AD.   THC and opium were extracted from 64 left distal femora with varying degrees of pathology. The chemical spot tests performed on these samples include the Duquenois-Levine test for THC, and the Mecke, Mandelin, and Froehde tests for opiates.  The spot tests for opium and hashish were negative; thus, it was concluded that the monks did not use these substances.  .
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