He or she? The Use of an Integrated Approach for Sex Determination in the Bioarcheological Research

This research aims to determine the sex of non-adult skeletal remains from two archaeological sites dating to the Roman Imperial and Medieval periods by using morphological, morphometrics and molecular approaches. The determination of sex from non-adult remains is a debated issue in the literature even though it has important implications in the palaeodemographic reconstruction of past populations. Concordance between the different approaches was obtained in the 63% of cases (N=19). The obtained results although preliminary are encouraging even though much research is needed for enlarging the sample size and for applying the cutting-edge High Throughput Sequencing (HTS) technologies

First analysis of ancient burned human skeletal remains probed by neutron and optical vibrational spectroscopy

Burned skeletal remains are abundant in archaeological and paleontological sites, the result of fire or of ancient funerary practices. In the burning process, the bone matrix suffers structural and dimensional changes that interfere with the reliability of available osteometric methods. Recent studies showed that these macroscopic changes are accompanied by microscopic variations are reflected in vibrational spectra. An innovative integrated approach to the study of archaeological combusted skeletal remains is reported here, where the application of complementary vibrational spectroscopic techniques-INS (inelastic neutron scattering), FTIR (Fourier transform infrared), and micro-Raman-enables access to the complete vibrational profile and constitutes the first application of neutron spectroscopy to ancient bones. Comparison with data from modern human bones that were subjected to controlled burning allowed identification of specific heating conditions. This pioneering study provides archaeologists and anthropologists with relevant information on past civilizations, including regarding funerary, burial, and cooking practices and environmental settings