Paleonutrition and Paleopathology: Food and Disease at the Renaissance Courts of Naples and Florence

The study concerns 25 individuals from the Basilica of S. Domenico Maggiore in Naples (15th-17th centuries) and of 20 individuals from the Medici Chapels of the Basilica of S. Lorenzo in Florence (16th-17th centuries). The isotopes clearly reflect the large intake not only of meat but also of marine foods by the Italian aristocratic classes, especially from southern Italy, in the 15th-17th centuries. I present three important “clinical” cases. The left foot of Ferdinando I de’ Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany (15491609), shows, at the peri-articular and articular surface of the interphalangeal joint of the hallux dorsum a lesion typical of chronic gout. High values of δ15N demonstrate a diet very rich in meat from terrestrial animals. This isotopic profile well correlates with the frequent attacks of gout referred by court chroniclers and with the diagnosis of chronic gout of the left big toe revealed by the paleopathological study. The skull of Don Filippino de’ Medici (1577-1582) shows nonsevere external hydrocephaly. The δ15N isotope values of don Filippino reveal a diet very rich in proteins of animal origin. The hereditary prince, was a frail and sickly child, affected by rickets. Probably for this reason, his parents and the court doctors forced him to eat more meat, considered at that time “the first source of physical strength”. Autopsy of the mummy of Ferrante I d’Aragona, king of Naples (1431-1494), revealed a moderately differentiated colon adenocarcinoma extensively infiltrating the muscles of the small pelvis. Ancient DNA amplification of the neoplastic cells by PCR in the mummy of Ferrante I evidenced a typical point mutation of the K-ras gene codon. The portraits of Ferrante reveal growing obesity from youth to maturity. Examination of the mummy of Ferrante, confirms his obesity. The paleonutritional data, with their high level of δ15N, show a massive intake of animal proteins. The alimentary “environment” of the Neapolitan court of the XV century and the sovereign’s habits, with his abundance of natural endogenous alkylating agents, well explain the K-ras mutation causing the tumor which killed the Aragonese king over five centuries ago

Privileged burial in the Pava Pieve (Siena, 8th century AD)

During the 6th archaeological excavation campaign performed at the «Pieve di Pava» (San Giovanni d’Asso, Siena, Italy) in the summer of 2009, a stone-lined burial of a high-status single individual (US 2378) was discovered, covered by a monolithic slab and placed in front of the altar. The tomb is about 160 cm long, 40 cm wide and over 70 cm deep. The skeletal remains of a young male (18-20 years), not in anatomical connection, were found on the floor of the tomb. 14C dating revealed a period between 650 and 688 AD. Stable isotope analysis (18O, 13C, 15N) attested that he was a member of the local community, with a diet quite rich in animal proteins. We are in presence of the secondary burial of an eminent personage, perhaps a saint, likely to have been transported to the church in a sack of perishable material, possibly textile, which caused their alignment along a curved line, as clearly demonstrated by the circular delimitation of the bones. The body was probably used for the re-consecration of the church, following the restoration works of the 8th century. The paleopathological study diagnosed a case of acromesomelic dysplasia, a congenital anomaly with disproportionate limbs: short, enlarged distal segments (radius-ulna and tibia), almost normal proximal segments (humerus and femur), short stature of about 150 cm, and bilateral fibular agenesis. Tibiae malformation and fibulae agenesis led to bilateral talipes valgus, with major walking problems. Extensive enthesopathies in the upper limbs indicate the use of crutches

The Neapolitan Yellow Tuff caldera offshore the Campi Flegrei: Stratal architecture and kinematic reconstruction during the last 15 ky

In this study we integrate high-resolution swath bathymetry, single channel reflection seismic data and gravity core data, to provide new insights into the shallow structure and latest Quaternary to Holocene evolution of the submerged sector of the Neapolitan Yellow Tuff (NYT) caldera (Campi Flegrei) in the Pozzuoli Bay. The new data allow for a reconstruction of the offshore geometry of the NYT caldera collapse\u2013ring fault system, along with the style and timing of deformation of the inner caldera resurgence. Our interpretation shows that the NYT eruption (~15 ka BP) was associated with a caldera collapse bounded by an inward-dipping ring fault system. The ring fault system consists in a 1\u20132 km wide fault zone that encircles an inner caldera region ~5 km in diameter and is often marked by the occurrence of pore fluids ascending through the fault zone, up to the seafloor, particularly in the western sector of the bay. A shallow magmatic intrusion along the ring fault zone was also detected offshore Bagnoli in the eastern part of the Pozzuoli Bay. Following the NYT eruption, the inner caldera region underwent significant deformation and resurgence with a maximum cumulative uplift of the offshore structure in the order of 180 m. The net uplift rate of the caldera resurgent dome was ~9\u201312 mm/year during the period 15.0\u20136.6 ka BP. The style of deformation of the resurgent structure can be described in terms of a broad doming, accompanied by subordinate brittle deformation, mostly concentrated in a small apical graben at the summit of the resurgent dome. Chronostratigraphic calibration of seismic profiles obtained by three tephra layers cored in the Pozzuoli Bay indicates 5 to 25 m of post-Roman differential subsidence and tilting towards ESE of the inner caldera resurgence, as recorded by the drowning of the infralittoral prograding wedge below the present-day storm wave base

Beached swords from Marano Lagoon (northern Adriatic) reveal ancient land-sea connections and recent coastal evolution

Depositional and erosional processes, subsidence and sea-level changes have strongly modified the coastal landscape of northern Adriatic lagoons. Such rapid transformations have induced significant consequences on human settlements and, thus, on the archaeological visibility of the area, still largely unexplored. We present here six metal swords fortuitously retrieved by fishermen over the last decades in front of the barrier islands of Marano Lagoon (north-eastern Italy). Multi-analytical analyses carried out on the artefacts (X-ray radiography and computed micro-tomography, radiocarbon dating and typo-chronology) combined with the study of the coastal paleo-environment (mainly based on historical cartography and remote sensing) allowed the items' main features to be defined, and highlighted both the historical importance of the area and the significant morphological changes that have occurred there over the last millennium. Data presented indicate that Marano Lagoon was a major hub in the northern Adriatic in the Late Middle Ages, during the crucial period of the Crusades, and in Early Modern times, connecting inland Europe with the Mediterranean Sea. Moreover, the research highlights the onset of coastal erosion that occurred in the last century after a phase of relatively geomorphic stability, possibly deriving from the intensification of human impact and climate change

Energy and environmental aspects of mobile communication systems

The reduction of the energy consumptions of a Telecommunication Power System represents one of the critical factors of the telecommunication technologies, both to allow a sizeable saving of economic resources and to realize "sustainable" development actions. The consumption of about one hundred base stations for mobile phones were monitored for a total of over one thousand days, in order to study the energy consumption in relation to the environmental, electric and logistics parameters of the stations themselves. It was possible to survey, then, the role of the mobile communication systems in the general national energy framework and to plot the best areas of intervention for saving energy and improving the environmental impact, showing the role played by air conditioning and transmission equipments. Finally, new transmission algorithms and the use of renewable energy based techniques have been tested.Comment: 9 pages, 6 figure

Dentoalveolar diseases and dietary habits in the social upper classes of the Italian Renaissance: the Guinigi family from Lucca

Teeth and their pathologies are very important when studying the life-style, social behaviour, health condition and diet of ancient populations. Many articles in paleoanthropological literature describe dentoalveolar diseases in the Antiquity, mainly in the low-class societies, and only a few reports regard the oral conditions of the social upper classes. The purpose of this research is to examine the dental condition in an upper-class family of the Italian Renaissance, in terms of dietary habits and food resources. The research was carried out on the skeletal remains of the Guinigi family from Lucca (Tuscany), dated back between the end of the 14th and first half of the 17th century. The study of dentoalveolar diseases was performed on 45 individuals and 325 teeth, equally distributed between males and females, and isotopic analysis of 13C and 15N was performed on 13 samples. The frequency of dentoalveolar diseases was very high in the upper class samples, and varied from 27% to 60% of the teeth/ alveoli affected, while the frequencies were lower (16-20%) in the rural samples. Caries was extraordinary frequent in the Guinigi family with a prevalence of 70.8% in females and 43.5% in males, while ante-mortem tooth loss and abscesses were more frequent in males, whose life span was higher. Different factors may promote tooth decay, but dietary habits, as well as physiological or behavioural factors, certainly play an important role in caries development, and may explain the differences observed between sexes. The results of isotopic analysis indicated a diet based on higher protein intake with respect to the lower social classes, with a good presence of vegetables, but gave no indication about cariogenic foods. A large consumption of not complex sugars may be responsible, at least in part, for the high frequency of caries among the wealthy classes and in particular in the Guinigi family. It is well known that expensive and elaborate foods, including sweets, sugar cane and honey, adorned the banquet tables of Renaissance Princes. Moreover, some members of the Guinigi family, in the middle of the 16th century, founded a company for sugar cane refining and trade, probably due to the consumption of very large quantities of this elitarian food. References Fornaciari G. Food and disease at the Renaissance courts of Naples and Florence: A paleonutritional study. Appetite 2008;51:10-4. Fornaciari G. “Tu sei quello che mangi”: le economie alimentari nelle analisi isotopiche di campioni medievali e post-medievali della Toscana. Centro Italiano di Studi sull’Alto Medioevo, LXIII Settimana di Studio (Spoleto, 9-14 aprile 2015). In press. Grieco AJ. Alimentazione e classi sociali nel tardo Medioevo e nel Rinascimento in Italia. In: Flandrin JL, Montanari M, Storia dell’alimentazione. Bari 2003, pp. 371-380

Persistent warm Mediterranean surface waters during the Roman period

Reconstruction of last millennia Sea Surface Temperature (SST) evolution is challenging due to the difficulty retrieving good resolution marine records and to the several uncertainties in the available proxy tools. In this regard, the Roman Period (1 CE to 500 CE) was particularly relevant in the socio-cultural development of the Mediterranean region while its climatic characteristics remain uncertain. Here we present a new SST reconstruction from the Sicily Channel based in Mg/Ca ratios measured on the planktonic foraminifer Globigerinoides ruber. This new record is framed in the context of other previously published Mediterranean SST records from the Alboran Sea, Minorca Basin and Aegean Sea and also compared to a north Hemisphere temperature reconstruction. The most solid image that emerges of this trans-Mediterranean comparison is the persistent regional occurrence of a distinct warm phase during the Roman Period. This record comparison consistently shows the Roman as the warmest period of the last 2 kyr, about 2 °C warmer than average values for the late centuries for the Sicily and Western Mediterranean regions. After the Roman Period a general cooling trend developed in the region with several minor oscillations. We hypothesis the potential link between this Roman Climatic Optimum and the expansion and subsequent decline of the Roman Empire

Integrated stratigraphy for the Late Quaternary in the eastern Tyrrhenian Sea

A high-resolution integrated stratigraphy is presented for the Late Quaternary in the southern-eastern Tyrrhenian Sea. It is based on calcareous plankton taxa (planktonic foraminifera and nannoplankton) distribution, d18OGlobigerinoides ruber record, tephrostratigraphy and radiometric dating methods (210Pb and 137Cs, AMS 14C) for a composite sediment core (from the top to the bottom, C90-1m, C90 and C836) from the continental shelf of the Salerno Gulf. High sedimentation rates from ca 1 cm/100 y for the early Holocene, to 3.45 cm/100 y for the middle Holocene to 8.78 cm/100 y from late Holocene and to 20 cm/100 y for the last 600 AD, make this area an ideal marine archive of secular paleoclimate changes. Quantitative distributional trend in planktonic foraminifera identify seven known (1Fe7F) eco-biozones, and several auxiliary bioevents of high potential for Mediterranean biostratigraphic correlation. Recognised were: the acme distribution of Neogloboquadrina pachyderma r.c. between 10.800 0.400 ka BP and 5.500 0.347 ka BP, a strong increase in abundance of Globorotalia truncatulinoides r.c. and l.c. at 5.500 0.347 ka BP and at 4.571 0.96 ka BP, respectively, an acme interval of Globigerinoides quadrilobatus (between 3.702 0.048 ka BP and 2.70 0.048 ka BP) and the acme/paracme intervals of T. quinqueloba (acme between 3.350 0.054 ka BP and 1.492 0.016 ka BP; paracme between 1.492 0.016 ka BP and 0.657 0.025 ka BP; acme beginning 0.657 0.025 ka BP). These results, integrated with trends of selected calcareous nannofossil species (Florisphaera profunda, Brarudosphaera bigelowii, Gephyrocapsa oceanica and Emiliania huxleyi) and d18OG. ruber signature, are consistent with the most important pre-Holocene and early Holocene paleoclimatic and paleoceanographic phases i.e., the BöllingeAllerod, the Younger Dryas and the time interval of Sapropel S1 deposition in the eastern Mediterranean Sea. These features revealed the high potential of this shallow water environment for high-resolution stratigraphy and correlation for the western Mediterranean. In addition, the chemical characterization of seven tephra layers supplied further data about the age and the dispersal area of some well-known Campi Flegrei explosive events, inferring the possible occurrence of explosive activity at Vesuvius around the middle of the 6th century, and contributing to refine the tephrostratigraphic framework for the last 15 ka in the south-eastern Tyrrhenian Sea.Published71-852.2. Laboratorio di paleomagnetismoJCR Journalrestricte

Isotopic reconstruction of the subsistence strategy for a Central Italian Bronze Age community (Pastena cave, 2nd millennium BCE)

The Pastena cave is located in central Italy, and its best-preserved sector is Grotticella W2, which is dated radiometrically to the Early-Middle Bronze Age. The aim of this paper is to explore human diet, animal husbandry, and plant management, analysing the fndings there discovered. Carbon and nitrogen stable isotope analysis was carried out on 40 charred seeds, six faunal remains, and four human individuals, investigating the whole bio-archaeological material available. To the best of our knowledge, this is one of the frst papers presenting stable isotope analysis on carpological remains dated to the Italian Early-Middle Bronze Age. The obtained results are consistent with a diet based on terrestrial protein, mainly on plants, and secondly on animal products. The data suggest that plants, especially broad beans, were partially subjected to human management, while livestock was managed through diferent husbandry strategies. The cooperation between archaeological studies and molecular analysis allows us to contribute to clarifying the economic strategies for a Central Italian community in a scenario that is still poor in published data

Food at the heart of the Empire. Dietary reconstruction for Imperial Rome inhabitants

This paper aims to provide a broad diet reconstruction for people buried in archaeologically defined contexts in Rome (first to third centuries CE), in order to combine archaeological and biological evidence focusing on dietary preferences in Imperial Rome. A sample of 214 human bones recovered from 6 funerary contexts was selected for carbon and nitrogen stable isotope analysis. The baseline for the terrestrial protein component of the diet was set using 17 coeval faunal remains recovered from excavations at Rome supplemented by previously published data for the same geographic and chronological frames. δ13C ranges from − 19.9 to − 14.8‰, whereas δ15N values are between 7.2 and 10.0‰. The values are consistent with an overall diet mainly based on terrestrial resources. All the human samples rely on a higher trophic level than the primary consumer faunal samples. Certainly, C3 plants played a pivotal role in the dietary habits. However, C4 plants also seem to have been consumed, albeit they were not as widespread and were not always used for human consumption. The environment played a critical role also for Romans of lower social classes. The topographical location determined the preferential consumption of food that people could obtain from their neighborhood