Discovering Ierapetra: Arthritis in Roman Crete
Primary Investigator (PI) Name
Dr. Susan Kirkpatrick Smith
Department
RCHSS - Geography & Anthropology
Abstract
Alexandra Beckett abecket1@students.kennesaw.edu
Dr. Smith
3/17/2018
Discovering Ierapetra: Arthritis in Roman Crete
Ierapetra is a town on the southeastern side of the Greek island of Crete. Starting in 2013 and to present day, archaeologists and physical anthropologists have been working through burial research in Ierapetra to find answers to the unknowns regarding the ancient people that resided there between approximately the 1st - 3rd centuries AD. Among these discoveries are the pathologies that plagued these ancient people, and what these pathologies could have meant for the daily lives of the people in Crete. This research, which focuses on three main excavation sites, Dialektaki, Petrantonaki, and Maliotaki, has uncovered that many of those living between the 1st - 3rd centuries AD lived with arthritis. Throughout the semester, I examined Dr. Susan Kirkpatrick Smith's fieldnotes on the Ierapetra excavation sites and placed them in an excel spreadsheet. Through this deductive method of research, I was able to decipher which pathologies were the most common. The results have shown a complex mix of many pathologies throughout the bones of the ancient people of Ierapetra, with the most common pathology found being arthritis. The study of arthritis on the bones of the ancient people of Ierapetra living between the 1st - 3rd centuries AD opens doors for further research into their daily lives. I suspect through my analysis that I will be able to compare their lives to others found at other sites from Crete or Greece.
Keywords: Crete; Pathologies; Osteophytes; Arthritis; Physical Anthropology; Ierapetra
Disciplines
Archaeological Anthropology | Biological and Physical Anthropology | Social and Cultural Anthropology
Discovering Ierapetra: Arthritis in Roman Crete
Alexandra Beckett abecket1@students.kennesaw.edu
Dr. Smith
3/17/2018
Discovering Ierapetra: Arthritis in Roman Crete
Ierapetra is a town on the southeastern side of the Greek island of Crete. Starting in 2013 and to present day, archaeologists and physical anthropologists have been working through burial research in Ierapetra to find answers to the unknowns regarding the ancient people that resided there between approximately the 1st - 3rd centuries AD. Among these discoveries are the pathologies that plagued these ancient people, and what these pathologies could have meant for the daily lives of the people in Crete. This research, which focuses on three main excavation sites, Dialektaki, Petrantonaki, and Maliotaki, has uncovered that many of those living between the 1st - 3rd centuries AD lived with arthritis. Throughout the semester, I examined Dr. Susan Kirkpatrick Smith's fieldnotes on the Ierapetra excavation sites and placed them in an excel spreadsheet. Through this deductive method of research, I was able to decipher which pathologies were the most common. The results have shown a complex mix of many pathologies throughout the bones of the ancient people of Ierapetra, with the most common pathology found being arthritis. The study of arthritis on the bones of the ancient people of Ierapetra living between the 1st - 3rd centuries AD opens doors for further research into their daily lives. I suspect through my analysis that I will be able to compare their lives to others found at other sites from Crete or Greece.
Keywords: Crete; Pathologies; Osteophytes; Arthritis; Physical Anthropology; Ierapetra