Reconstruction of the biocultural and biodemographic profile of a small mountain community of the XVI - XVIII century through archeoantropological and documentary data: the case of the inumates of Roccapelago (Modena)

La tesi ha per oggetto lo studio di oltre 400 individui e oltre 8.000 registrazioni documentali desunte dai registri parrocchiali. Il lavoro si apre con una approfondita analisi storica del sito, necessaria a chiarire le varie fasi d’uso a cui l’attuale chiesa è andata incontro. Grazie all’analisi dei registri parrocchiali, inediti, è stato inoltre possibile ricostruire la diacronia dei luoghi di sepoltura che hanno gravitato attorno al piccolo abitato di Roccapelago, individuando peraltro un sito deposizionale sconosciuto fino a questo momento. Una volta fissato e chiarito l’ambito degli eventi e dei luoghi, sono state dettagliate le operazioni archeologiche, che hanno consentito il recupero del materiale osteologico. Di grande importanza è stato lo studio paleodemografico desunto dai registri parrocchiali, nelle loro tre classiche declinazioni circa le morti, le nascite ed i matrimoni. Lo studio nella sua interezza, ha avuto come obiettivo quello di ricostruire l’assetto demografico dell’antica popolazione, e recuperare quanto più possibile del tessuto sociale di Roccapelago. E’ stata così illustrata la stagionalità degli eventi, il saldo popolazioni stico naturale, il sex ratio index e i vari indici di consanguineità; sono stati inoltre ricavati indicatori circa l’interpretazione della morte di fronte al decesso di un neonato, o i moniti circa la necessità di sopportare i patimenti fisici. L’analisi antropologica, dato l’elevato numero di elementi considerati, è stata anch’essa organizzata con una finalità popolazionistica, ricercando eventuali conferme del dato documentario scaturito dall’analisi dei registri ed evidenziando i miglioramenti occupazionali raggiunti dalla popolazione nel corso di due secoli. Le varie analisi laboratoristiche effettuate, hanno cercato conferma su specifiche indagini: l’istologia del polmone ha confermato quanto supposto a livello occupazionale tramite i registri, le stagionalità delle funzioni sono state confermate dalle analisi botaniche, la preservazione del collagene, analizzato al SEM ha meglio dettagliato le operazioni deposizionali osservate durante lo scavo archeologicoThe purpose of this thesis is the study of over 400 individuals and over 8,000 documentary records derived from parish registers. The analysis begins with a thorough historical analysis of the site, necessary to clarify the various stages of use that the church has had. Thanks to the analysis of unpublished parochial records, it was also possible to reconstruct the succession of the burial places that gravitated around the small village of Roccapelago, identifying an unknown depositional site. Archaeological operations have been detailed, which have allowed the recovery of osteological material. Very important was the paleodemographic study taken from the parish registers, in their three classic declinations about deaths, births and weddings. The aim of the study was to reconstruct the population structure of the ancient population and to recover as much as possible about the social fabric of Roccapelago. The seasonality of the events, the balance of natural populations, the sex ratio index and the various consanguinity indices were illustrated; Indicators have also been made about the interpretation of the death of a newborn, or the warnings about the need to endure physical ills. The anthropological analysis of the high number of elements considered, was also organized with a demographic purpose, seeking any confirmations of documentary data resulting from the analysis of the parish records and highlighting the employment gains achieved by the population over the course of two centuries. The various laboratory analyzes carried out, have undergone specific investigations: lung histology confirmed the supposed occupational level through by the parish records, the seasonality of the functions was confirmed by botanical analyzes, collagen preservation, analyzed by SEM, has better detailed the depositional operations observed during archaeological diggin

Strontium Isotope MC-ICP-MS Analysis of Hair Strands from Human Mummies: Transhumance Pastoralism of Early-Modern Individuals between Northern and Central Italy

Mammal hair is formed by a scleroprotein, namely keratin, composed by some major elements (C, N, H, O, S), but including also trace elements such as Sr, Pb, Fe, K, Na and Ca. The latter are fixed through diet and exposure to exogenous sources, mainly water and air. Given that the average human scalp hair growth is ~1 cm/month, timeresolved hair sampling yields information about a specific period, reflecting the elemental and isotopic composition of the diet and environment at that time. The 87Sr/86Sr ratio of mammal tissues is generally directly correlated to the local bioavailable strontium, providing the chance to reconstruct the individual movements in a given time interval. In this work, we developed our protocol to analyse low-Sr concentration mammal hairs for their 87Sr/86Sr ratio by Neptune MC-ICP-MS. We tested the method on a modern individual who traveled cyclically between Italy and Brazil. Hair strands were sampled with a time resolution of 1 to 2 months, yielding time resolved isotopic variations from the highest radiogenic ratios of the São Paulo area to the lower ones of Modena waters. Thus, the Sr analysis of hair has been applied to human mummies (Roccapelago, Modena, 16th-18th cent.). Hair strands were cut in several sub-samples with different length (time-resolution) in relation to the amount of available material. The best achieved time-resolution was of 3 months in a 12-cm-long strand. These samples revealed cyclical human movements from Roccapelago to the high radiogenic area of the Tuscan Magmatic Province. Historical documents attest a high frequency of human seasonal travels to Tuscany, up to the Grosseto area, likely linked to the exploitation of transhumance pastoralism

The Mummies in the Church of Santa Maria delle Grazie, Calascio: A New Site in the Inner Abruzzo Region, Central Italy

The inner Abruzzo region, corresponding to the province of L’Aquila, is a land of mountains and highlands in central Italy. Its environmental conditions greatly foster spontaneous mummification, and the area is well known for the human mummies found in the last decades. We present a newly discovered collection of mummified remains in the village of Calascio, located 1,210 meters above sea level, near Gran Sasso Mountain. Here, the Franciscan convent of Santa Maria delle Grazie was built in 1594. The preliminary survey of a crypt in the conventual church allowed us to observe wooden coffins with at least seven mummified bodies still in their clothes, and several bony remains. Most likely, the mummies date back to the second half of the 19th century, and belonged to laypersons. Preservation was certainly due to the cold dry environment of the crypt. The recovery of the entire series will take place through speleological techniques according to stratigraphic relationships, in order to trace a bioanthropological profile of this small community members

The plague of 1630 in Modena (Italy) through the study of parish registers

The purpose of this paper is to study the impact this disease had on the community in Modena during the epidemic in 1630 and highlight the real course of the disease that brought Modena and whole Europe to its knees in the 17th century. The investigation was carried out by transcribing and studying the par-ish certificates of death for the period 1625-1635. This study confirmed that the plague epidemic in Modena began as early as 1629, and then exploded in the most virulent form since the beginning of summer 1630 and reached its peak in August of the same year, when it caused about seven hundred victim

Sawmark Analysis of Three Cases of Amputation and a Craniotomy from the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries Hospital Necropolis of Forlì Campus (Forlì, Italy)

The seventeenth-eighteenth century hospital necropolis of Forlì Campus (Forlì, Italy) was discovered during the Forlì Campus building work in 2014. Three cases of limb amputation and a craniotomy are examined using the forensic approach of sawmark analysis in order to understand features of the surgical instruments employed and to gain insight into the position of the surgeon during the cutting actions. With the aid of high definition photographs and moulds, we analyzed the cut surfaces of each sample, also using stereomicroscopy and SEM (Scanning Electron Microscopy). A qualitative and quantitative approach was used in the analysis of the kerf features (e.g. breakaway spur and notch, tooth scratches and hop, exit chipping), and empirical evidence was compared against comparisons coeval surgical essays. We hypothesize that a linear hand-powered push saw and an alternated push saw with a 2mm distance between the teeth were used for amputations. The craniotomy was executed presumably using a linear hand-powered saw with the set of the blade circa 1.3mm wide. Through the application of forensic methods on individuals from archaeological context we describe early cases of surgical practice in a more technical way

Paleopathological Approach to the Study of a Christian Relic: The Case of the Blessed Maria Lorenza Longo

The Blessed Maria Lorenza Longo, founder of the hospital of Santa Maria del Popolo degli Incurabili and the Order of the Capuchin Poor Clares in Naples, Italy, died on 21 October 1539 and was recently beatified on 9 October 2021. The relic, a fully skeletonized cranium, underwent visual and radiological inspection. The biological profile supports the at¬tribution of female sex of the relic, whereas the age at death is estimated to be younger than that reported by historians. A paleopathological survey was conducted to evaluate the historical reports of poisoning or rheumatoid arthritis affecting Maria Longo. Given the limited skeletal data, it was not possible to confirm the presence of these claims. No obvious in¬dicators of dietary deficiencies were observed, and the tertiary syphilis hypothesized by textual sources was excluded. Postmortem alterations of the relic were clearly visible on the superior aspect of the cranium and testified to the worship of the relic

PALEORADIOLOŠKA STUDIJA O DVOJE DOJENČADI IZ 17./18. STOLJEĆA

During an excavation campaign in the Church of the Conversion of Saint Paul in Roccapelago (North Italy), a hidden crypt was discovered, which yielded the remains of more than 400 individuals. The crypt was used as a cemetery by the inhabitants of the village of Roccapelago between the 16th and 18th centuries. Along the north side of the crypt, an area apparently separated from the rest of the burials was found, bordered by stones, where several burials of newborns and infants were concentrated. From here, five fabric rolls containing bones were recovered, and it was decided not to carry out destructive analyses, allocating the two best examples to a thorough radiological investigation to try to define the type of burial and the complete biological profile of the infant. The two rolls, subjects of this study, can be dated archaeologically between the 17th and 18th centuries. CT analysis shows a varied group of bones with a fairly good state of conservation. The paleoradiological study carried out had the primary objective of avoiding the destruction of the two rolls, ensuring their conservation; but at the same time, providing essential data to understand their nature, defining the biological profile and the type of deposition.Tijekom iskapanja u crkvi Obraćenja sv. Pavla u selu Roccapelago (sjeverna Italija) pronađena je skrivena kripta s ostatcima više od četiristo osoba. Stanovnicima sela Roccapelago kripta je između 16. i 18. stoljeća služila kao groblje. Uza sjevernu stranu kripte pronađen je prostor omeđen kamenjem, očito odvojen od ostalih ukopa, u kojem je bilo koncentrirano nekoliko ukopa novorođenčadi i dojenčadi. Ovdje je pronađeno pet smotuljaka tkanine, koji su sadržavali kosti. Donesena je odluka da se ne provode destruktivne analize, a dva najbolja primjerka podvrgnuta su temeljitom radiološkom istraživanju kako bi se pokušala definirati vrsta ukopa te potpun biološki profil djeteta. Dva smotuljka, koji su predmet ove studije, mogu se arheološki smjestiti između 17. i 18. stoljeća. CT analiza pokazuje raznoliku skupinu kostiju s prilično dobrim stanjem očuvanosti. Provedeno paleoradiološko istraživanje imalo je primarni cilj izbjeći uništenje dvaju smotuljaka, osiguravajući njihovu konzervaciju, ali u isto vrijeme pružiti važne podatke za razumijevanje njihove prirode, definirajući biološki profil i vrstu svjedočanstva

Risultati preliminari delle indagini scientifiche sul corpo del Beato Antonio da Fano (m. 1435)

The Blessed Antonio da Fano was a Franciscan friar dead in 1435, after being Confessor to the King Alphonso V of Aragon and Ambassador to the Holy See. His body, re-cently discovered in the church of Santa Maria Nuova in Fano, underwent external inspection, radiologic examina-tion, and subsequent laboratory investigations. The well-preserved, partially skeletonized mummy showed signs of obesity, atherosclerosis, and dental caries, leading us to hypothesize that Antonio had access to a diet rich in sugar and fats. The anthropometric study estimated a height of 168 cm. The study of occupational activities revealed moderate and symmetrical stress of the lower limbs with much less overload of the upper district. Rare osteoarthrit-ic processes affected thoracic and lumbar spine. The cra-nial cavity contained amorphous material, bony remnants of rodents, and textile fragments belonging to the subject’s primary burial. The facial reconstruction was carried out by computed tomography scanning.Il Beato Antonio da Fano era un frate francescano decedu-to nel 1435, dopo essere stato confessore del re d’Aragona Alfonso V e ambasciatore presso la Santa Sede. Il suo cor-po, recentemente rinvenuto nella chiesa di Santa Maria Nuova in Fano, è stato sottoposto ad ispezione esterna, esami radiologici e successive indagini di laboratorio. La mummia, ben conservata e parzialmente scheletrizzata, mostrava evidenza di obesità, aterosclerosi e carie dentale, lasciando ipotizzare una dieta ricca di zuccheri e grassi. L’antropometria indicava un’altezza di 168 cm. Lo studio ergo-nomico mostrava un impegno moderato e simmetrico degli arti inferiori con un carico assai minore del distretto superiore. I rari processi artrosici riguardavano la colonna toracica e lombare. La cavità cranica conteneva materiale amorfo, resti ossei di roditori e frammenti di tessili relativi alla prima sepoltura. La ricostruzione facciale è stata effet-tuata mediante tomografia computerizzata

A case of Kennedy terminal ulcer in a 17th-century Italian mummy

Giacomo Torno was born in 1539 (or 1541) in Naples. At the age of 18 he joined the Clerics Regular Theatines in San Paolo Maggiore and was welcomed on 30 October 1558. He suffered a stroke on 4 December 1608 and died 45 days later. Contemporary sources report that he appeared to be tormented by the devil during his illness, tormented by constant spasms in his arm, which caused him great discomfort. During the analysis of his mummified body, a discontinuity of the skin surface at the level of the sacrum was discovered. All morphological features indicate a wound that developed during the subject’s life. Based on historical sources, the fracture of the first coccygeal vertebra, the appearance of the lesion near death, and the shape of the lesion, it appears that this is the first recorded instance of the Kennedy terminal ulcer, identified through both direct and indirect source