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The Judean Desert Monasteries in the Byzantine Period

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... While the majority of historical records detailing the consumption patterns of Byzantine monks focus primarily on rural rather than urban monastic life, a handful of sources more critically examine the lives of monks residing in urban environments such as St Stephen's (Goldfus 2003;Hatlie 2007;Caner 2008;Gregoricka and Sheridan 2013). Bread represented the most important component of urban and rural monastic diets; this importance is perhaps best reflected archaeologically in the granaries and bakeries constructed in most monastic grounds, suggestive of the central dietary role that this staple played (Hirschfeld 1996;Rautman 2006;Talbot 2007). Monasteries in the region, as well as the larger lay community, relied on C 3 -based cereals such as wheat-and to a lesser extent, barley-to bake bread, and not on C 4 grasses such as sorghum or millet (Weingarten 2007). ...
... On the other hand, Byzantine typika-providing meticulous instructions for the types of foods permitted as part of monastic life-generally prohibited the consumption of meat (Hirschfeld 1992;Patrich 1995;Thomas and Hero 2000), and instead espoused an ascetic diet consisting of modest amounts of bread, olive oil, fruits, vegetables and legumes (Patrich 1995;Rautman 2006;Talbot 2007). The ingestion of meat was associated by some clergy with animalistic and immoral tendencies capable of being passed to the human consumer, views that may have played a role in reinforcing its prohibition (Leyerle 2005). ...
... ± 0.5‰) from a previous study (Gregoricka and Sheridan 2013), although due to the commingled nature of the collection, mandible-femur samples cannot be paired. These results fit with historical descriptions of monastic diet, which highlight the consumption of bread made with C 3 grains such as wheat or barley, as well as legumes, fruits and vegetables (Hirschfeld 1996;Rautman 2006;Talbot 2007). Local faunal δ 13 C co ratios (n = 13; x = -19.3 ...
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The examination of isotope ratios from multiple tissues offers new life to interpretations of commingled assemblages where information regarding individual biological history has been lost. Here, life histories from a commingled sample of Byzantine monks were reconstructed using enamel and bone δ13C and δ15N values. The δ13C values suggest a diet dominated by C3 products, while the δ15N ratios indicate variable contributions of animal protein. After correcting for tissue-specific enrichment factors, bone δ13C values were significantly enriched over enamel; this may be due to an increase in protein consumption, but could also reflect structural differences between tissues or correction factors used to compare these data.
... Animals such as cattle, sheep, and goats were kept primarily for labor, wool, milk, and milk products, with the consumption of meat occurring only after these secondary products were utilized to their full extent . Historical records also emphasize stringent regulations regarding monastic abstinence from this luxury item (Hirschfeld, 1992; Patrich, 1995; Thomas and Hero, 2000). Monks were prohibited from eating meat, one of many characteristics that set these men apart from the general populace. ...
... These rules may have served to augment the reputation and status of a monastery (Patrich, 1995). Hirschfeld (1992) speculated that poor monasteries could not afford the high costs of animal protein, and that this, rather than specific regulations against its consumption, accounted for its absence in monastic diets, particularly in the Judean desert. Consequently , while dietary rules pervaded monastic life according to historical texts, they more likely represent an idealized model of dietary intake rather than the reality of day-to-day consumption. ...
... Textual evidence suggests that marine fish became an increasingly important component of Byzantine diet, and for the inhabitants of Jerusalem, could have been obtained from the Mediterranean coast or the port of Aila (modern-day Aqaba, Jordan) on the Red Sea (Dar, 1995; Dauphin, 1999). Nevertheless, in accordance with historical texts, fish, like meat, appear to have been a restricted food item for the desert monks, except in circumstances of illness or on select liturgical feast days (Hirschfeld, 1992; ...
Article
Stable carbon and nitrogen isotope ratios from bone collagen in skeletons from the Byzantine (5th–7th century AD) monastery of St. Stephen's in Jerusalem were examined in conjunction with a review of his-torical sources detailing dietary practices during this period in the Levant. Relatively low d 13 C ratios (À19.0 ± 0.5‰, 1r) indicate a diet consisting primarily of C 3 sources and display continuity with textual records describing monastic daily life. Conversely, human d 15 N values (9.6 ± 1.2‰, 1r) are enriched in 15 N relative to local fauna (7.3 ± 1.1‰, 1r) and point to the contribution of animal protein to the diet, an unexpected result based on both the rarity and expense of these luxury food items as well as dietary pro-hibitions associated with an ascetic monastic lifestyle. No sex-based differences in diet were detected for either d 13 C or d 15 N values, suggesting that men and women consumed isotopically similar foods. As the vast majority of monastic communities in the ancient Near East were located in the desert, the urban set-ting of St. Stephen's monastery allows for a unique glimpse into a rarely-explored facet of Byzantine life.
... Jerusalem experienced its first "tourist boom" during the Byzantine period, as people flocked to the region to visit sites associated with early Christianity (Murphy-O'Connor, 2008). Archaeological evidence of infrastructural growth to support this influx is evident in the form of hostels, stables, roadways, and eulogia (religious souvenirs) (Hirschfeld, 1992;Cameron, 1993;Voltaggio, 2011). An abundance of written material from the period and region indicates that pilgrimage to the "Holy Land" was a major cultural phenomenon that saw its zenith during the 5th-7th centuries CE. ...
... It appears that many visitors chose to remain after arrival, taking up residence in religious communities and fundamentally altering the cultural and biological composition of the region (Binns, 1994;Tsafrir, 1996). An explosion in the number of monasteries at this time is also clearly evident in textual and archaeological records (Hirschfeld, 1992;Patrich, 1995). Buikstra et al. (1990:5) have argued that studies of population movement not firmly grounded in an evolutionary or historical framework are simply "tedious mechanical exercises." ...
Article
Written and archaeological evidence indicates that migration, in the form of pilgrimage to Byzantine Palestine, was a major social phenomenon between the 5th and 7th centuries CE. Monasteries saw record growth at this time as pilgrims chose to stay in the region and take up religious life. A major influx of people to the region, with a corresponding growth in monastic vocations that led travelers to stay in the area, is not in question; however, the distant origins of pilgrims reflected in surviving texts may be an artifact of preservation, biased towards an elite minority. The Byzantine monastery of St. Stephen's provides an opportunity to study this question from a bioarchaeological perspective, given the excellent preservation of the human skeletal assemblage, a wealth of written works about the community as well as daily life in Byzantine Palestine, and a rich archaeological record for the site and region. An analysis of radiogenic strontium isotope values from the third molars of 22 individuals recovered from the St. Stephen's crypt complex was conducted to test whether those interred at the monastery were of local origin. Of those examined ( x¯= 0.7084 ± 0.0007, 1σ), 8 out of 22 (36%) exhibited (87) Sr/(86) Sr ratios that fell outside of local ranges. These results confirmed the sizeable presence of nonlocals at St. Stephen's Monastery. While most of these migrants likely traveled to Jerusalem from different areas of the Levant as pilgrims, others may have hailed from further afield, including Europe. Am J Phys Anthropol, 2015. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
... Most of these studies are now regionally based (either modern countries or ancient provinces), with their goal the articulation of local church forms and liturgical habits. 9 The evolution and liturgical raison d'être of North Africa's striking double-apsed churches (Duval 1973); the square-ended, triple chancels of Hispania with their 'counter-choirs' (Godoy Fernández 1995) (Figure 7), so similar to their brethren in the far-off Syrian uplands with their ubiquitous tiny martyr shrines (Crosby Butler 1929; Tchalenko 1953 Tchalenko –1959 Lassus 1957; now Peña et al. 1987 now Peña et al. , 1990 now Peña et al. , 2003) (Figure 8); and the Judean desert monastic churches (Hirschfeld 1992Hirschfeld , 1993); comprise just some of the regional forms elaborated in these careful encyclopedic studies. Other recent collections of church architecture organized along these lines include catalogs of material from Tunisia, Dalmatia, France, and various Italian regions. ...
... In the Nile valley, however, cliff-sides and, above all, earlier Pharonic tombs were used for cells (O'Connell 2007). In Palestine, particularly in the Judean desert, cave and cliff-based structures are most common, consisting of more rudimentary, smaller habitations, and a cave church (Patrich 1995; Hirschfeld 1992). The archaeology of coenobitic sites is similarly varied: Palestinian coenobia tend to be built on flat ground, unlike the cliff-based lavras, but their plans varied from orthogonally planned sites like the monastery of Martyrius outside Jerusalem to the more irregular Judean desert monasteries. ...
Article
This article considers the history and trajectory of early Christian archaeology. Focusing principally on the built environment, it addresses the status of research on third-century Christian domus ecclesiae or house churches, urban topography, Christian euergetism, pagan/Christian temple conversion, monasticism and pilgrimage, parish churches, and rural Christianity. It suggests that this largely conservative field continues to wrestle with its relationship with Christian texts, and remains dominated by formalist and positivist paradigms. The expansion of the discipline into adjacent fields in recent years signals something of a shift, but more holistic studies are needed that contextualize Christian remains within their local topographic, social, ecclesiastical, and, above all, economic circumstances.
... (iv) El (Lasr. Impressive remains of a Byzantine monastery that include a chapel, crypt, rooms and a cistern (Hirschfeld 1988/9: 149-150; Hirschfeld 1992; Finkelstein et al.: 744). ...
... The role of fish in monastic diet has been discussed at great length, and has been verified archaeologically – most recently in comparative isotopic studies in England (Mays 1997; Muïdner and Richards 2005) and Belgium (Polet and Katzenburg 2003). Early monastic self-sufficiency depended on locally available animals; in the Scottish isles monks procured a range of marine mammals alongside fish and shellfish (Murray et al. 2004), whereas monastic communities in the Judean desert had relatively little access to fish and little chance of preserving any; it is mentioned as a food for the infirm (along with eggs and occasionally meat) and a delicacy in written sources (Hirschfeld 1992: 88, 91). North European technological innovations enabled herring and cod to be cured and widely traded by the twelfth century (Barrett et al. 2004); monasteries took advantage of and provided a major market for commercial marine fishing, with freshwater species forming a relatively small component of their diet (Bond 2001: 72–3). ...
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The formation of Christendom – of Europe – was associated with a standardized worldview expressing dominion over the natural world. While some sections of medieval society, specifically monasteries and the aristocratic class, appear to have developed this paradigm, there is also evidence for heterogeneity in practice and belief. Zooarchaeologists have accumulated vast quantities of data from medieval contexts which has enabled the ecological signatures of specific social groups to be identified, and how these developed from the latter centuries of the first millennium ad. It is possible from this to consider whether trends in animal exploitation can be associated with the Christian world view of dominion, and with the very idea of what it meant to be Christian. This may enable zooarchaeologists to situate the ecological trends of the Middle Ages within the context of Europeanization, and the consolidation of a Christian society.
... It certainly seems to have been the impression of many early Christian writers, but may not have been the reality. Hirschfeld's (1992) groundbreaking study on Judaean desert monasteries gives the reader an intricately detailed view on the monastic livelihoods in the Judaean desert near Jerusalem. The work is based on years of field survey and several excavations in the region with more than 70 monasteries. ...
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The authors present their historical and anthropological observations concerning bone fragments belonging to a person buried in the 4th century AD in the monastical rupestral complex in Dumbraveni, Constanta county, in Dobruja (4th-6th century AD). It is believed that this person, buried inside the rupestral monastery is marked from an anthropological point of view by his natural and social environment. There are obvious resemblances with the burial rituals practiced in the Judaic desert.
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Recent archeological survey and excavations conducted in Tel Mar Elyas (Bethany Beyond the Jordan) confidently provide explicit answers about early ecology and history of Christian community east of Jordan. Churches, caves, prayer halls and water system installations were recovered in and around Tel Mar Elyas. The discovered remains of elaborate water system include pools, cisterns, wells and aqueducts refer to skilled engineering water system built during the Byzantine period. The author of this paper with his team systematically surveyed and excavated some 20 sites along both banks of the perennial Wadi Kharrar, covering an area of several square kilometers east of the Jordan River. This work has confirmed the location of the main settlement of Bethany at the head of the Wadi Kharrar, about 1.5 kilometers east of the river. Here, the team uncovered a 1st century AD settlement with plastered pools and water systems that were almost certainly used for baptism, and a late Byzantine settlement (5th-6th century AD) with churches, a monastery and other structures that probably catered to religious pilgrims. The present study includes also the results of field survey which has documented the ancient pilgrimage route that linked Jerusalem, via the Jordan River and Bethany in Jordan, to Mt. Nebo. Several Byzantine churches and other structures have been identified between the river and Bethany and are under publication. Some of them commemorate Jesus’ baptism while other structures were monasteries for ascetic monks. The paper concluded with conclusion and recommendations aiming to preserve the remaining fragile water system installations.
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