Beyond the autopsy table. The potentials of a forensic anthropology approach for biological profiling of unknown skeletal individuals from ancient. A morphological, metric and isotopic analysis of the Medieval population of Leopoli-Cencelle.

The present research deals with the anthropological analysis of skeletal human remains recovered in the archaeological site of Leopoli-Cencelle (Viterbo, Italy), dating back to the Medieval period (9th-15th centuries CE). The medieval city represents an outstanding model for gaining knowledge on the building and the structure of one of the few Italian centers of Papal foundation as well as to reconstruct the dynamics of its population. The city stands on a hill at about 160 meters above the sea level surrounded by two rivers, the Mignone on its West side and the Melledra enclosing the area from West to North. The foundation of this Medieval city is attributed to a directive initiative of Pope Leo 4th aiming to provide hospitality and safety to the inhabitants of the Roman harbor city of Centumcellae (the modern Civitavecchia) menaced by Saracens’ attack. The main aim of this research was the reconstruction of the biological profile of the analyzed skeletal remain through the application of scientifically established morphological and molecular forensic techniques. The morphological examination took into account sex and age at death assessment, living stature and physical constitution estimates as well as the analysis of paleopathological and musculoskeletal stress markers. The molecular approach focused on the stable isotope analysis from bone protein on a Late Medieval sample consisting of 75 human and 5 faunal specimens. The analyzed sample consists of 877 individuals: 329 juveniles and 548 adults. The demographic parameters allowed defining the analyzed skeletal series as representative of the biological population from which it comes. All age classes were represented with a slight under-representation of infants with respect to adolescents. In non-adult individuals, the mortality pattern reflects that generally observed in preantibiotic era populations showing the highest peak prior to 1 year and between 1 and 6 years of age. As regards adults, sex-related differences were observed highlighting a 10% higher mortality rate for females in young adult age class with respect to males. This apparent low longevity could be attributable to the health toll related to frequent pregnancies and the demand of breastfeeding for the newborns, as well as to an insufficient nutritional intake with respect to the physiological demand. This probable nutritional depletion seems to be confirmed by the statically significant difference of ≈11 cm in living stature estimation (167.05 ± 4.41 cm in males and 156.29 ± 4.18 cm in females). Functional indices and musculoskeletal stress markers revealed a probable internal division of work tasks between males and females in the Medieval Leopoli-Cencelle. Statistically significant differences were observed for both skeletal robustness, and biomechanical stress the individuals were subjected to. The main differences were observed for the lower limbs, leading to hypothesize activities more confined within the city itself for females (i.e. tailoring activities, housework, and child care), with respect to males involved in agricultural, artisan and commercial work tasks leading to a more dynamic working life. The paleopathological analysis revealed a generally good health status showing the highest occurrence for infectious and degenerative disease followed by skeletal trauma. The dietary pattern reconstruction showed an omnivorous mainly based on C3-terrestrial food sources, both plants and animals. Therefore, despite the Late Medieval period is characterized by a general reduction in animal food sourced in human diet, in Leopoli-Cencelle there was a high protein consumption. Probable consumption of C4 plants was hypothesized for three individuals. Although the isotope data suggested that fish consumption did not have a significant role in the diet, the utilization of freshwater resources cannot be excluded. The absence of statistically significant differences between sexes and age groups led to a hypothesis of a comparable nutritional intake between them. The goal of the present research was the application of a forensic approach to the recovery and the anthropological (morphological and biomolecular) analysis of one of the largest Italian Medieval samples in order to shed light on such an interesting page of our history.