198 • Joseph Zias 



Figure 2. Hyena feces showing textiles and human bone. (Courtesy of Department 

 of Antiquities, Ministry of Education and Culture, State of Israel — T. Sagiv) 



1985). Since psoriatic arthritis affects 

 both the skeleton and the skin of the 

 individual, it mimics to a certain extent 

 those changes usually associated with 

 leprosy, which may have been the rea- 

 son for inclusion in the Byzantine mon- 

 astery. Literary evidence from the Med- 

 iterranean area indicates that the Early 

 Church established hospitals for the 

 care of those suffering from leprosy as 

 early as the fourth century a.d. (Avi- 

 Yona 1963). Therefore it seems entirely 

 plausible that these four individuals 

 may have been mistaken as suffering 

 from leprosy and sought refuge in the 

 desert monastery of Saint Martyrius. 



Following this discovery, we ob- 

 tained permission from the Greek Pa- 

 triarch to survey the few Byzantine 

 monasteries possessing skeletal collec- 

 tions dating from the Persian massacres 

 of A.D. 614. This survey, however, did 

 provide evidence of leprosy in the Holy 

 Land during the seventh century and 

 earlier. 



In the summer of 1983 we were noti- 

 fied of the accidental discovery of a 

 mass grave at the Monastery of John the 



Baptist near the Jordan River where, 

 according to Christian tradition, the 

 "washing of the lepers" took place 

 (Hoade 1981). Most of the grave had 

 been destroyed by a bulldozer; how- 

 ever, we managed to retrieve 34 skel- 

 etons which were dated by ''*C to ap- 

 proximately A.D. 600. Owing to the 

 unique environmental conditions (400 

 meters below sea level, minimal hu- 

 midity and rainfall), preservation was 

 excellent. One interesting aspect of this 

 find is that some of the burial customs, 

 such as placing seeds from the tree Bal- 

 anites aegyptiaca in the hands of the 

 deceased, conform to ancient Egyptian 

 traditions, suggesting that these indi- 

 viduals had traveled for some consider- 

 able distance prior to their deaths. 

 Among the human remains were feces 

 (subsequently identified as those of a 

 hyena) which contained fragments of 

 human hair, bone, and remnants of the 

 same cloth found in the grave, suggest- 

 ing that those buried here had been 

 killed in the Persian massacre of a.d. 

 614 and had been buried only hours or 

 days later (Figure 2). 



Anthropological analysis of the skel- 

 etal material showed those specific de- 

 structive and erosive changes known to 

 be caused by Mycobacterium leprae in 

 the hands, feet and lower extremities. 

 Evidence of tuberculosis, in the form of 

 pleural calcification, was also noted in 

 this collection (Figure 3). 



The appearance of tuberculosis and 

 leprosy, both of which are rare in the 

 Holy Land, raises important questions 

 about this site. Although hospitals were 

 frequently associated with monas- 

 teries, no literary evidence from this 

 period attests to the existence of a hos- 

 pital at the Monastery of Saint John. 

 However, the high incidence of patho- 

 logical material found here suggests 

 that these buried here were seriously 

 ill, perhaps members of a hospital pop- 

 ulation who may have been banished to 

 the desert. This tradition of banishment 

 is apparently an ancient one, in that the 

 first archeological evidence of leprosy 

 comes from the Dakleh oasis in the 

 Egyptian desert. Here, interred in a 

 Sudanese cemetery dated to about 200 

 B.C., were the remains of four Cauca- 

 sian males, all of whom showed stig- 

 mata of leprosy (Dzierzykray-Rogalski 

 1980). 



Further survey and research in the Ju- 

 dean Desert monasteries, which pre- 

 date the Danish leprosaria by some 600 

 years, should provide an answer to the 

 much-debated question of which dis- 

 eases in antiquity were included in the 

 generic category leprosy. For example, 

 talmudic evidence of the postbiblical 

 and Byzantine periods suggests that se- 

 vere nasal disfigurement was con- 

 sidered one of the stigmata of leprosy 

 (Rosen 1982); at this site, 2 of the 34 

 skeletons showed nasal abnormalities 

 characteristic of neither tuberculosis 

 nor leprosy. The cotton textiles re- 

 covered from this site may also shed 

 light on whether those buried here, ap- 

 parently seriously ill and banished to 

 the desert, had been required to wear 

 distinctive clothing indicative of their 

 health status. 



Finally, one of the more intriguing 

 medical questions that may be an- 

 swered by further study of these monas- 



Atfirfh l*aleopatholof>\ Sytnp. 19HH 



