Exploring mobility in Italian Neolithic and Copper Age communities

As a means for investigating human mobility during late the Neolithic to the Copper Age in central and southern Italy, this study presents a novel dataset of enamel oxygen and carbon isotope values (δ18Oca and δ13Cca) from the carbonate fraction of biogenic apatite for one hundred and twenty-six individual teeth coming from two Neolithic and eight Copper Age communities. The measured δ18Oca values suggest a significant role of local sources in the water inputs to the body water, whereas δ13Cca values indicate food resources, principally based on C3 plants. Both δ13Cca and δ18Oca ranges vary substantially when samples are broken down into local populations. Statistically defined thresholds, accounting for intra-site variability, allow the identification of only a few outliers in the eight Copper Age communities, suggesting that sedentary lifestyle rather than extensive mobility characterized the investigated populations. This seems to be also typical of the two studied Neolithic communities. Overall, this research shows that the investigated periods in peninsular Italy differed in mobility pattern from the following Bronze Age communities from more northern areas

Assessing the Parasitic Burden in a Late Antique Florentine Emergency Burial Site

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Congenital spinal malformations: issues of anthropological ancient samples

This work is part of a more extensive, still ongoing, research which aims to provide a morphological assessment and interpretation of congenital malformations on ancient bones. The study of the frequency and distribution of congenital malformations on juvenile osteological remains may provide interesting insight and critical observations in assessing the role of those factors that are responsible for child's mortality. In the present study we describe and discuss two cases of congenital spinal malformation refer to failure in the separation of vertebral arch elements between contiguous vertebrae. The skeletons belonging to two children who died in early childhood, between 0 and 6 years of age. The research was conducted on 132 juvenile individuals came from nine necropolises located in north an middle Italy, from ancient and late Roman times to late medieval times

Gastrointestinal parasite burden in 4th-5th c. CE Florence highlighted by microscopy and paleogenetics

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Integrative approach using Yersinia pestis genomes to revisit the historical landscape of plague during the Medieval Period

Over the last few years, genomic studies on Yersinia pestis, the causative agent of all known plague epidemics, have considerably increased in numbers, spanning a period of about 5,000 y. Nonetheless, questions concerning historical reservoirs and routes of transmission remain open. Here, we present and describe five genomes from the second half of the 14th century and reconstruct the evolutionary history of Y. pestis by reanalyzing previously published genomes and by building a comprehensive phylogeny focused on strains attributed to the Second Plague Pandemic (14th to 18th century). Corroborated by historical and ecological evidence, the presented phylogeny, which includes our Y. pestis genomes, could support the hypothesis of an entry of plague into Western European ports through distinct waves of introduction during the Medieval Period, possibly by means of fur trade routes, as well as the recirculation of plague within the human population via trade routes and human movement

Palaeodiet in Central and Southern Italy from Upper Paleolithic to Eneolithic

The paper presents preliminary datas from EPIC project which aims are claryfing the genetic modification, nutrition and mobility of Central and Southern Italy inhabitants from the Upper Paleolithic to Eneolithic. Analytic methodology and first data are presented

Palaeodiet in central and southern Italy from Upper Palaeolithic to Eneolithic

The foregoing Neolithic farming transition modified whole Europe with strong social and demo-graphic repercussions, which led to the birth of agricultural and breeding systems. Subsequently, important cultural and economic changes occurred during the Eneolithic period. Bogucki (1984) suggests that these changes could be ascribed also to the introduction of the plow and to the intensi-fication of secondary animal product use (milk, dairy products, wool, manure and traction): the so called ‘Secondary Products Revolution’ (Sherratt 1981, 1983). The EPIC project aims to clarify the genetic modification, nutrition and mobility of the Central and Southern Italy inhabitants from the Upper Palaeolithic to Eneolithic, a crucial period of the human demographic and perhaps biological history