Who was buried with Nestor's Cup? Macroscopic and microscopic analyses of the cremated remains from Tomb 168 (second half of the 8th century BCE, Pithekoussai, Ischia Island, Italy).

Cremation 168 from the second half of the 8th century BCE (Pithekoussai's necropolis, Ischia Island, Italy), better known as the Tomb of Nestor's Cup, is widely considered as one of the most intriguing discoveries in the Mediterranean Pre-Classic archaeology. A drinking cup, from which the Tomb's name derives, bears one of the earliest surviving examples of written Greek, representing the oldest Homeric poetry ever recovered. According to previous osteological analyses, the Cup is associated with the cremated remains of a juvenile, aged approximately 10-14 years at death. Since then, a vast body of literature has attempted to explain the unique association between the exceptionality of the grave good complex, the symposiac and erotic evocation of the Nestor's Cup inscription with the young age of the individual buried with it. This paper reconsiders previous assessments of the remains by combining gross morphology with qualitative histology and histomorphometric analyses of the burnt bone fragments. This work reveals the commingled nature of the bone assemblage, identifying for the first time, more than one human individual mixed with faunal remains. These outcomes dramatically change previous reconstructions of the cremation deposit, rewriting the answer to the question: who was buried with Nestor's Cup?.

A possible case of mycosis in a post-classical burial from La Selvicciola (Italy).

An examination of an adult male buried from the post-classical necropolis of La Selvicciola (Viterbo, Latium, Italy; 4th-6th centuries AD) revealed a series of skeletal lesions. The lesions, both proliferative and lytic, ranging in size from small (around 0.01 mm) to extensive (up to 16.00 mm) pits, occurred at multiple sites. A holistic approach assessed lesion type, frequency and location in a differential diagnosis, which included myeloma, metastatic carcinoma, tuberculosis, leukemia, osteomyelitis, and mycoses. It was concluded that a mycosis, specifically Cryptococcosis, was the most likely cause of these lesions. Both macroscopic analyses and X-ray scans support our diagnosis. We also provide a methodological scheme as a model for examining unknown lesion patterns.

A health assessment for imperial Roman burials recovered from the necropolis of San Donato and Bivio CH, Urbino, Italy.

Imperial Roman burials recovered from the sites of San Donato and Bivio CH, located in the city of Urbino, Italy were examined for skeletal lesions. Observed pathologies include arthritis, trauma, periostitis, cranial pitting and enamel hypoplasia. All of the adults exhibited at least one enamel hypoplasia. In general, the adult males exhibit greater rates of skeletal pathologies than the females. Clearly, chronic health problems appear to be common among all adults; nearly 89% of them exhibit at least one form of skeletal lesion. This is in stark contrast to what is seen for the sub-adults. Only one sub-adult showed skeletal lesions. Acute health problems may have been the primary contributing factors for the death of the children recovered from the site. Despite previous research and attention to malaria as a critical health problem of Roman sub-adults, it does not seem to be an issue for this burial sample. We compare the frequency of cranial pitting and periostitis for the Urbino burials to several other Imperial Roman skeletal samples as a means to assess the potential for malaria and other casual factors for the observed lesions. In conclusion, we see the extreme rate of skeletal lesions for this community as indication of an extremely poor quality of life for these Romans.