Death in the Ottoman Empire: A multimethod bioarchaeological analysis of a Muslim necropolis discovered in Constanta, Romania

This project will undertake the first analysis of c. 314 graves from a Romanian Ottoman cemetery (18th-19th CE). Extensive osteological analysis will establish the demographic profile (distribution by sex and age groups, life expectancy at birth), population variation (metric and non-metric characteristics), pathologies, activity patterns (biomechanical stress), diet and mobility (isotope analysis). The data will be compared with Muslim cemeteries from Anatolia to describe the lifeways of a marginal community within the Ottoman Empire during its fall, revealing an unexplored part of the history brimming with struggle and violent contestation.