AUDITORY EXOSTOSES, INFRACRANIAL SKELETO‐ MUSCULAR CHANGES AND MARITIME ACTIVITIES IN CLASSICAL PERIOD THASOS ISLAND

Abstract

Acquired external ear exostoses are an auditory disorder presumably associated with prolonged or repeated exposure to cold aquatic activities.  At the ancient necropolis of Thasos, Greece, a low prevalence of auditory exostoses has been documented in one adult male out of an initially larger number of individuals from the ancient necropolis of Thasos, although the city‐state was renowned in antiquity for the strength and dependency on its fleet and its seafaring activities in the Aegean and the Black Sea as supported by historical and archaeological records.  In addition to auditory exostoses, this individual showed distinct similarities of infracranial axial and appendicular skeletal changes of skeleto‐muscular robustness, trauma, and degenerative manifestations to a select sample of 16 males out of 57 individuals interred in proximal contextual associations near the shoreline which may comprise a pattern of occupational conditions when juxtaposed to the context of the larger skeletal population studied at Thasos so far. This study also presents comparative ethnographic information relative to occupational changes documented among a surviving group of wooden boat craftsmen on Thasos, comprising nine male individuals of diverse age‐subgroups and intra‐trade specializations.  It is proposed that the low incidence of external auditory exostoses from ancient Thasos may not necessarily reflect issues of preservation or population sample, but rather the specificity of activities within the domain of specific maritime occupations.