The Impacts of Monastic Services on Juvenile Stress in the Byzantine Levant

This dissertation investigates the influence of monastic care on juvenile health in the Byzantine period southern Levant (4th-7th centuries CE) through a bioarchaeological lens. By analyzing skeletal remains from two monastic sites—St. Stephen’s in Jerusalem and Deir ‘Ain ‘Abata near the Southern Dead Sea—and a non-monastic townsite, Umm al-Jimal in Northern Jordan, the study explores physiological stress indicators to assess the relationship between monastic services and juvenile health outcomes. First, this research examines the correlation between proximity to monastic complexes and physiological stress using multiple skeletal stress indicators. Second, it expands on existing bioarchaeological models of care to better encompass the care of juveniles, with a focus on the role of monasteries. Third, it contextualizes these findings with broader socio-economic and religious patterns. Two main hypotheses are tested. The first posits that proximity to monastic services reduces stress and disease indicators and improved healing due to access to balanced nutrition, sanitary environments, and/or medical care. The second hypothesis suggests that the socio-cultural and economic context of each monastery affects the quality and type of care provided, thereby influencing stress patterns. Across the sites, young children around the age of weaning were particularly vulnerable. Overall, juveniles at St. Stephen’s exhibited fewer stress indicators, while those at Deir ‘Ain ‘Abata showed higher prevalence and severity, suggesting variability in monastic care, while Umm al-Jimal seems to reflect broader health trends with frequent but typically healed stress episodes. Most critically, the differing roles of the monasteries in Byzantine juveniles’ care networks is analyzed in an expanded bioarchaeology of care model, which highlights their very different positions, as well as their overlap in the realm of spiritual care. This research contributes to understanding how early welfare services impacted juvenile health and highlights the significant but varying positions of monasteries in Byzantine era.