THURSDAY 6 June 2024, 4 PM CET (Hybrid Webinar)
Dr. Dimitra Ermioni Michael
Marie Sklodowska-Curie postdoctoral fellow
School of History and Archaeology, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki
Coordinator of the REA funded project "BIOSOCIOPOLIS"
Abstract:
Human history is characterized by repetitive cycles of socio-political changes. Diachronically and globally societies have been transitioning between political systems, such as oligarchy, monarchy or democracy, to name a few. Such status-quo changes often have significant implications for human health, dietary patterns, mobility/migration, physical activity, social organization, gender relations and mortuary practices. A core question involves the level of impact of such transitions on social inequalities; inequalities related primarily to socio-economic status, but also to sex, age, or even locality. Bioarchaeologists are uniquely equipped to examine such impacts by placing the human body and the burial environment at the center of enquiry. This approach lies at the heart of the BIOSOCIOPOLIS project (Marie Sklodowska-Curie postdoctoral fellowship), which aims to develop a new interpretive model to reveal the extent to which multiple socio-political transitions, affect human lifeways and deathways, in a diachronic perspective, from the “rich” to the “poor”, using Amphipolis as a model case study.
Amphipolis in northern Greece, experienced many different political models, including colonization, political autonomy, consolidation and imperialization (5th c. BC-2nd c. AD). Primary results of a well-contextualized sample from the inhumation burials of the Eastern cemetery of Amphipolis on the basis of representation for the time period as well as for the diverse mortuary evidence linked to ‘‘elaborate” and “modest” burial features, will be presented at the AMGC seminar.