The Activities and Results of the Laboratory of Physical Anthropology at the Ca’ Foscari University, Venice (Italy)

Abstract

We present in this paper a summary of the activities led by our Laboratory of Physical Anthropology in Italy and abroad (Syria, Sudan, Georgia and Armenia) and starting from 1998. We have currently a palaeobiological sample of more than 2000 skeletal remains dating from Prehistory to Modern age that has been extensively excavated on the archaeological sites and analysed from a taphonomical point of view and studied from an anthropological, palaeodemographical and palaeopathological perspective and therefore forms a unique collection of data and specimens. The majority of our sample come from Medieval cemeteries and religious contexts such as churches, cathedrals, pilgrims’ hospitals, monasteries, abbeys, but we have examples of prehistoric cremations and inhumations, Roman and Late Antiquity age necropolises and even underwater casualties from a modern age shipwreck. The application of new methodologies for age determination in adults and juveniles is also a new issue among our goals of research.

In medieval cemeteries which can be considered as demographically representative of a past pre-industrial society, the percentage of neonates, infants and children ranges from 30% to 50% of the total number of those buried, with a fairly equal presence of adult males and females. Infant mortality shows a peak at birth and between 2 and 3 years of age, because of the risks associated with pregnancy, childbirth and possibly a delayed weaning after prolonged breastfeeding. Mortality among adult females also shows a significant higher incidence between the ages of 20–30 years, while males tend to become older.

Our human skeletal sample for the number of subjects, the archaeological context of provenance and its chronological and geographical extension represents a unique chance to collect data on a number of cases that have been extensively analysed, building an impressive database on human remains and burial archaeology and offering a very useful comparison sample.