Kathryn Elaine Marklein

What happens to people and communities when empires “fall”? This project engages with anthropological frameworks of recuperation and resilience to understand how populations response to critical events. Specifically, it explores how the political transition from the Roman to Byzantine Empires impacted the sociobiological, cultural, and epidemiological landscape of ancient Syedra, Turkiye. A vital coastal economy in the Roman period (2nd-4th c. CE), this city diminished in regional prominence in the early Byzantine period (5th-7th c. CE). Implementing methods and datasets from ancient DNA, paleopathology, and mortuary archaeology, this research will identify: 1) (dis)continuity in population structure between periods, as assessed through genetic diversity and kinship; 2) transitions in cultural beliefs, as assessed spatially and materially in Roman and Byzantine period cemeteries; and 3) biological stress and resilience, as assessed in human skeletal remains (mortality and pathological conditions). Genetic relatedness and mortuary evidence reflect communal and individual choices at Syedra to maintain, replace, or re-create (through hybridity/creolization) relationships and beliefs. Consequently, observing evidence of resilience (or decline) through skeletal data (mortality and morbidity distributions), demonstrates the direct impacts of these recuperative decisions. Rooted in Syedra Archaeological Project’s mission, this project supports international collaborations, early career researchers, and local/regional community stakeholders.