Eastern Roman Mounted Archers and Extraordinary Medico-Surgical Interventions at Paliokastro in Thasos Island during the ProtoByzantine Period : The ... Evidence (Access Archaeology)

Procopius’ History of the Wars, and the Strategikon offer important aspects of Eastern Roman military tactical changes adopted against their enemies that brought the mounted archer-lancer to domineer in the synthesis of the army, along with concise descriptions of their training, panoply, and effectiveness in the battlefield during the later ProtoByzantine period.Yet, evidence in the archaeo-anthropological records of these highly specialized military members has remained elusive. A recent archaeological discovery at the strategically positioned, upland, site of Paliokastro in Thasos island, Greece, and the subsequent study of the human skeletal remains interred in four monumental funerary contexts, in a dedicated naiskos building, provide for the first time through the archaeological record of the region a unique insight of the mounted archers and their female kin during the turbulent ProtoByzantine period.The interdisciplinary study of the anthropological materials focusing on skelet