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.

[FUNERARY RITUAL OF CREMATION]. / IL RITUALE FUNERARIO DELLA CREMAZIONE.

In the area of Rome object of study, the cremations account for 10% of total burials (522 cremation burials of 4758), unlike the contemporary cemeteries of French and Cispadane areas where they are well over 30%. Detailed analysis of the cemeteries, confirms that the indirect cremations (urns and graves) represent over 85% of the sample, while direct cremations (busta sepulcra) are under-represented. For a selected sample of 69 cremations, demographic analysis was performed and it shows a discrete prevalence of women and an almost equal distribution of males and subadults. Quantitative analysis of burned bones was conducted on cremations found perfectly intact during excavation, it indicates that cremations are generally completed and that they have all the anatomical regions represented.

[Palaeopathology in Roman Imperial age]. / Salute e malattia nella Roma Imperiale attraverso le evidenze scheletriche.

The increasing attention of archaeological and anthropological research towards palaepathological studies has allowed to focus the examination of many skeletal samples on this aspect and to evaluate the presence of many diseases afflicting ancient populations. This paper describes the most interesting diseases observed in skeletal samples from some necropoles found in urban and suburban areas of Rome during archaeological excavations in the last decades, and dating back to the Imperial Age. The diseases observed were grouped into the following categories: articular diseases, traumas, infections, metabolic or nutritional diseases, congenital diseases and tumours, and some examples are reported for each group. Although extensive epidemiological investigation in ancient skeletal records is impossible, the palaeopathological study allowed to highlight the spread of numerous illnesses, many of which can be related to the life and health conditions of the Roman population.

[Dental caries: new data from imperial Roman necropolis]. / La carie dentaria a Roma: indicazioni da alcuni sepolcreti suburbani d'epoca imperiale.

The relations between oral disease and living conditions and health of a population are important to reconstruct the biological status of a population. The incidence of caries was considered by the calculation of frequencies for individual and for tooth but also by the estimate of index of caries et extraction in four Roman imperials necropolis. The analysis indicates a general increase in carious affection in mesio-distal direction, and mandibular teeth seem to be lesser affected than maxillary ones. The comparison among the necropolis seem to confirm a different socio-economic organization: sub-urban contexts probably had a simple carbohydrates rich diet and this may have encouraged the growth of carious injuries. Conversely the lower frequency of caries in Vallerano, probably associated to small farming communities, could be attributed to a diet with an highest protein/carbohydrate. In both contexts, however, the degree of dental hygiene was a significant cause of caries.

[Life in imperial Rome: new data from recent excavations in Suburbium]. / Vivere a Roma in eta imperiale: evidenze antropologiche da recenti scavi nel Suburbio.

One of the goals of the anthropological research of the Anthropological Service of the Archaeological Superintendence of Rome is to reconstruct the hygienic-environmental living conditions of the ancient populations in Imperial Age. We considered some not specific pointers of stress in four necropolis, that are excavated in the last years in the Suburbium. In particular Harris's lines, porotic hyperostosis and enamel hypoplasia are been considered. Two shape of research have been lead: (a) an analysis of the frequencies of the three factors on the data from a single necropolis and (b) a comparison between enamel hypoplasia and porotic hyperostosis. The distributions of such alterations indicates the presence of light stresses.