A conversation with Chryssa Bourbou (Hellenic Ministry of Culture) on what we learn from health and society in Byzantium from the study of skeletal remains. What infectious conditions or effects of accidents can we detect? What can we learn about the lives of children (apart, grimly, from the fact that they were all too often short)? How are human remains handled? The conversation is based on Chryssa's many publications, including Health and Disease in Byzantine Crete (7th-12th Centuries AD) (Ashgate 2010).