Byzantine Periods

Table I lists the 31 shards used in this study. Their fragmentary state made typological identification difficult and close dating impossible. According to Wolff (10), seven of the shards date to the Byzantine period (4th-7th centuries A.D.), one is Roman (lst-4th centuries A.D.), and the remaining 23 represent Punic, Greek, Graeco-Italic, Corinthian, and unidentified types, ranging in date from the 4th century B.C, to the end of the third Punic War in 146 B.C. As a group, the shards span more than a millennium.

We cannot determine whether the abietic acid was lost during the manufacture of the pine pitch or during its depositional history. Loss during deposition is less likely, because almost all (six of seven) of the most recent samples (from the Byzantine period) were devoid of abietic acid. Of the five samples that showed neither of the resin acids by TLC (samples 5, 13, 23, 26, and 27), three (5,13, and 23) yielded IR spectra that revealed no isopropyl group. 

Gavrilovic P, Ginell W, Shendova V et al (1991-1995) Seismic strengthening, conservation and restoration of churches dating from Byzantine Period in Macedonia. Joint research project, IZIIS - Skopje, RZZSK - Skopje, GCI -LA. Reports IZllS 500-76-91, vol 1-12... 

The story of how mothers came to exercise the rights of guardianship over their own children represents a key element in the unfolding of the Byzantine approach to child welfare. It also forms part of the process whereby the Christian emperors removed one by one the legal liabilities that women had suffered under the classical Roman legal system and the earlier laws of the individual Greek poleis. Moreover, it explains how, during the early Byzantine period, the term orphanos came to mean primarily children who had lost both parents. 

Beyond these explicit references to abandoned infants, there have survived a number of sources that mention programs established by local churches and especially by monasteries to care for abandoned infants—additional proof that abandonment continued throughout the Byzantine period. These passages are especially valuable in supplementing the lack of information regarding exposure in the years after 600. We shall present this evidence not only to confirm that abandonment continued throughout Byzantine times, but also to explore some of the institutions the Christian Church evolved to provide care for the victims of exposure. 

A speech by the fourteenth-century patriarch Philotheos, however, recorded an example of a baby not presented to the monastery as an oblate, but abandoned outright. According to Philotheos, one of the women at the monastery of Saint Theodora in Thessalonike rescued a baby girl whose mother had exposed her. Unfortunately, Philotheos did not indicate where the baby had been found. The nun decided to nurture the infant in the hope that the girl would remain a servant of the monastery. So far in my research regarding orphan care, this is the only specific case 1 have found of infant abandonment in the later Byzantine period. 

During the construction of a shaft in Sirkeci, a 13 m (42.6 ft) cultural fill layer was encountered and excavated by archaeologists. In the upper layers are architectural findings from the Ottoman period were encountered. The subsequent layer contained structures and small artifacts from the Byzantine period. Underneath of this layer Roman architecture and artifacts were also unearthed. 

Monument Saint Nicholaos Church, Aiges, Sparti (Post Byzantine period)... 

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