For some early monks, impaired hearing amplified sounds of silence
Crypt excavation at Byzantine-era monastery finds evidence of damaged ear bones
![Monk remains](https://i0.wp.com/www.sciencenews.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/112116_BB_monks_main_free.jpg?fit=860%2C460&ssl=1)
SOUNDS OFF An analysis of early Christian monks’ skulls and middle ear bones found in a communal crypt, including those mixed among remains shown here, indicates that a substantial minority suffered mild to severe hearing loss.
M. Judd