Bioarchaeology and Dietary Reconstruction across Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages in Tuscany, Central Italy

This volume presents the first multidisciplinary bioarchaeological analysis to reconstruct life conditions in ancient Tuscany between Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages. This was done through the examination of stress markers, including adult stature, periosteal reaction, cranial porosities, linear enamel hypoplasia and paleodietary reconstruction.

Bioarchaeology and Dietary Reconstruction across Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages in Tuscany, Central Italy presents the results of the first multidisciplinary bioarchaeological analysis to reconstruct living conditions in Tuscany between Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages. This was done through the examination of stress markers, including adult stature, periosteal reaction, cranial porosities, and linear enamel hypoplasia, and through palaeodietary reconstruction in order to explore the effects of socio-cultural and environmental factors in a diachronic perspective. The shift from Classical to Medieval times has long left its mark on the European historical consciousness. Nevertheless, the impact of this transition on living conditions and dietary practices remains a subject of debate, with a prevailing perception of these ‘Dark Ages’ as an impoverished phase following the collapse of the Roman agrarian villa system, particularly in the Mediterranean area. This volume analyses bioarchaeological data from three sites in Tuscany, in the former core of the western Roman Empire and potentially most vulnerable to the major socio-political constraints of the first millennium AD, to provide a corrective view, which begins to show how communities perceived and reacted to changes during the passage to post-Classical times.

List of Figures ;

Foreword ;

Acknowledgements ;

I. Introduction ;

II. Historical Background of Tuscany in the 1st Millennium AD ;

III. Background of Late Antique and Medieval Sites in Tuscia ;

IV. Antropology, Palaeopathology and Biochemistry Methodologies ;

V. Osteological and Stable Isotope Results ;

VI. Theoretical Framework for Discussing Osteoarchaelogical and Palaeodietary Data ;

VII. Conclusion ;

References ;

Appendix

Giulia Riccomi received an MSc in Archaeology at the University of Pisa and a PhD in Classical Studies and Archaeology at the same institution. As a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the Division of Palaeopathology (University of Pisa), she is committed to conducting multidisciplinary research programmes focussing on human bioarchaeology and palaeodiets of Italian Etruscan and Medieval osteological collections. Giulia has several international, peer-reviewed publications concentrating mainly on osteoarchaeology and palaeopathology.

• By (author) Giulia Riccomi

"'...this book does contribute to the growing scholarship on human health in the past using multidisciplinary bioarchaeological approaches, and it serves as an aspirational companion to students wishing to undertake publishable PhD work. It also offers a solid foundation for future studies that might identify interesting skeletal collections with excellent historical and associated archaeological context, and to suggest interesting opportunities for new research.' - Kori Lea Filipek (2023): Antiquity Vol. 97 (395)'Overall, this publication provides an invaluable body of data and information on post-classical and medieval Tuscany and for Italy in general, where anthropology and bioarchaeology have only recently started to be exploited for their contribution to issues long debated by scholars on the critical passage between the Classical and medieval world.' - Alessandro Carabia (2022):
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‘Overall, this publication provides an invaluable body of data and information on post-classical and medieval Tuscany and for Italy in general, where anthropology and bioarchaeology have only recently started to be exploited for their contribution to issues long debated by scholars on the critical passage between the Classical and medieval world.’ – Alessandro Carabia (2022): Medieval Archaeology, 65/2, 2021

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‘…this book does contribute to the growing scholarship on human health in the past using multidisciplinary bioarchaeological approaches, and it serves as an aspirational companion to students wishing to undertake publishable PhD work. It also offers a solid foundation for future studies that might identify interesting skeletal collections with excellent historical and associated archaeological context, and to suggest interesting opportunities for new research.’ – Kori Lea Filipek (2023): Antiquity Vol. 97 (395)

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