Medieval Anthropology

The Talpalari Church in Iasi, dedicated to "Nativity of the Virgin", was built, according to the existing documents,
in the middle of 17th century, by the great vistiernic (treasurer) Iordache Cantacuzino, the brother-in-law of prince
Vasile Lupu. There was a cemetery around it, about which we also have information from contemporary sources.
In view of the consolidation works to be carried out on "Milescu" House, a heritage building, the Institute of
Archeology in Iasi provided the archaeological assistance. The excavations near the Talpalari church, conducted
in 2016 and 2017, led to the identification of the skeletal remains of 14 individuals in relatively certain funerary
contexts. It was also possible to estimate, based on minimum number of individuals calculation method, the
presence of 11 other individuals from which we have only disparate fragments due to repeated disturbance events.
The present paper presents a detailed analysis of the funerary features, from historical, archaeological and
anthropological points of view. The research focuses on both elements of funerary inventory (including potsherds),
and animal osteological remains identified in a secondary context.
Six coins have been identified as a grave goods. The excavation of the features has led to the finding of several
buttons and hook-eye fasteners. In particular, based on the interpretation of the numismatic material, we could see
that the graves corresponding to this level in the cemetery of the Talpalari church can be chronologically framed
between the last decades of the sixteenth century and the first decades of the next.
Therefore, the written sources of the time argue for the existence of Talpalari church in the seventeenth century,
however, the field research leads us to the hypothesis that this place of worship was preceded by another one that
operated in the previous century and which hosted the cemetery of that neighborhood.
Keywords: Iaşi, Talpalari church, medieval cemetery, anthropological analysis, grave goods.

Medieval theologians and artists wrestled with the dual "natures" of the human form: the soul, whose indefinite substance is connected with ideas of the animate, and the body, visible and mortal. Monastic life (supposed to be essentially spiritual) was organized, according to Byzantine typika and Western monastic rules, as a way to control the passions and to master the body by regulating the most pragmatic aspects of daily life so that monks could focus on tending the soul through prayer. Medieval artists responded to this tension between the spiritual and the corporeal in various ways in the visual arts of the Greek East and the Latin West. In Genesis cycles, for example, the animation of Adam and Eve expressed this duality without picturing the soul itself, while in representations of the Dormition of the Virgin, the soul of the Mother of God was typically presented in the form of an infant or small, pale body. Those sessions aim explore the range of ways in which medieval artists responded to the anthropological duality of body and soul in the visual arts of the Byzantine and Western medieval worlds.