What did the citizens of ancient Sagalassos look like?

Talking about Sagalassos or any city from antiquity, it merely comes down to buildings and stones. So, it is gratifying to find archaeologists trying to give the people who lived so many centuries ago a face.

We owe it to the Belgian researchers Jeroen Poblome (director of the Sagalassos ArchaeologicalResearch Project) and Sam Cleymans (postdoctoral researcher), who – together with the University of Burdur in Turkey – managed to reconstruct two human faces from that remote past.

[Credit: Bruno Vandermeulen & Danny Veys/Sagalassos Archaeological Research Project]

To that purpose, they used a female skeleton that was retrieved from a graveyard in 1995 and dated to the Middle-Byzantine era (11^th-13^th century AD), which they called Eirènè, as well as the remains of a Roman man who lived early 3^rd century AD found in 2016 and which they baptized Rhodon. Both skeletons were in a good state of conservation and almost complete. Of course, their real names are unknown, but putting a name on a face makes them indeed come alive.

Rhodon is estimated to be older than fifty and must have belonged to the middle class. He was interred with beautiful gifts, among which they found an epistomion (a golden leaf covering the mouth of the deceased) that carried the picture of a bee and a gilded bronze ring. It has been established that Rhodon led a hard life full of physical labor in this challenging landscape surrounding Sagalassos even today.

Eirènè has been estimated to have been between 30 and 50 years old at the time of her death, and her burial was more sober, following the traditions of her time.

As usual with facial reconstructions, the research team started making a 3D scan of the skulls, and layer after layer, the face was created, calculating the shape of the nose, the ears, and the eyes. To determine the color of the eyes and the hair, they observed today’s people of nearby Ağlasun, who have relatively light skin but brown eyes and hair.

Since Rhodon lived in the 2^nd century AD, they sought inspiration from the portraits of Emperor Hadrian and gave him short hair and a carefully trimmed beard. The appearance of Eirènè is more austere, as was customary In Byzantine times, and, as a result, she got loose hair with a thin braid.

This is a very rewarding tentative to give us a look into the past. One thing is sure, these are people we easily could encounter today!