Bioarchaeology aids the cultural understanding of six characters in search of their agency (Tarquinia, ninth-seventh century BC, central Italy).

Etruria contained one of the great early urban civilisations in the Italian peninsula during the first millennium BC, much studied from a cultural, humanities-based, perspective, but relatively little with scientific data, and rarely in combination. We have addressed the unusual location of twenty inhumations found in the sacred heart of the Etruscan city of Tarquinia, focusing on six of these as illustrative, contrasting with the typical contemporary cremations found in cemeteries on the edge of the city. The cultural evidence suggests that the six skeletons were also distinctive in their ritualization and memorialisation. Focusing on the six, as a representative sample, the scientific evidence of osteoarchaeology, isotopic compositions, and ancient DNA has established that these appear to show mobility, diversity and violence through an integrated bioarchaeological approach. The combination of multiple lines of evidence makes major strides towards a deeper understanding of the role of these extraordinary individuals in the life of the early city of Etruria.

Feeding and social behavior of fallow deer (Dama dama L.) under intensive pasture confinement.

A population of 110 adult fallow deer kept in an enclosure under very intensive conditions (31.4 deer/ha) was observed for 12 h/d (from 0800 to 2000) for 17 d during the birth season in order to study social and feeding behavior under intensive management. Observations were carried out by a scan sampling technique. The feeding activity of all the deer that were not hidden behind trees or other obstacles in the enclosure (60 to 90% of all deer) and the composition and position of all groups were recorded every 20 min by video camera. Adult females ate more pasture than adult males, whereas adult males ate more hay and meal than females (P < .001). Feeding activity was concentrated in the morning and in the evening, but it was higher for bucks in the morning (when supplementary feed was distributed) than in the midday and in the evening (P < .001). The area where hay and meal were supplied was more frequently attended in morning by small groups of males. Group size was affected by the time of day (P < .05), being larger in the evening (13.6 +/- 1.2 in the evening vs 9.8 +/- 1.0 in the morning and 11.9 +/- 0.9 in the afternoon), when groups of females with fawns and mixed-sex groups (including at least one male) gathered into the pasture areas for grazing. Our study suggests that even under very intensive conditions fallow deer may tend to maintain the sexual segregation typical of this species during the birth season, but mixed-sex groups are still the most common type of social aggregation. This situation was particularly evident in the areas and at the time in which feeding activity was higher and might indicate that feeding requirements are more important than social needs when the space available is limited.

Levels of interpopulation differentiation among different functional classes of immunologically important genes.

It has been postulated that gene function may influence the degree to which allele frequencies differ among populations. In order to evaluate this effect, genotypic data from resequencing studies of genes classified as cytokines, cytokine receptors, cell adhesion molecules, Toll-like receptors and coagulation proteins were analysed for genetic differentiation (FST) between population samples of European and African descent. FST values did not differ statistically among functional groups when all polymorphic sites were included in the analyses. However, analysis based on nonsynonymous SNPs alone suggested weak heterogeneity among functional classes (P=0.0424). Particularly high levels of differentiation were shown by individual nonsynonymous SNPs at some genes, most notably ICAM1 and some Toll-like receptors. These genes interact directly with pathogens, and may therefore have been subject to geographically localised natural selection. Such loci warrant particular attention in studies of genetic disease risk and local adaptation to environmental conditions.