Tracing Leprosy: The paleopathological study of the individuals excavated from the Sant Llàtzer leprosarium in Barcelona, Spain (12th-18th c.).

Objective: Our objectives are twofold: to analyse the frequency of leprosy-related pathological lesions in the cemetery of Sant Llàtzer Hospital (12th-18th c.); and to examine how individuals affected by the disease were perceived and integrated into society during that period in Barcelona.

Materials: The skeletal remains of 87 individuals recovered from the cemetery.

Sequential trypsin and ProAlanase digestions unearth immunological protein biomarkers shrouded by skeletal collagen.

This study investigates the efficacy of proteomic analysis of human remains to identify active infections in the past through the detection of pathogens and the host response to infection. We advance leprosy as a case study due to the sequestering of sufferers in leprosaria and the suggestive skeletal lesions that can result from the disease. Here we present a sequential enzyme extraction protocol, using trypsin followed by ProAlanase, to reduce the abundance of collagen peptides and in so doing increase the detection of non-collagenous proteins.

Stable isotope analyses of amino acids reveal the importance of aquatic resources to Mediterranean coastal hunter-gatherers.

Determining the degree to which humans relied on coastal resources in the past is key for understanding long-term social and economic development, as well as for assessing human health and anthropogenic impacts on the environment. Prehistoric hunter-gatherers are often assumed to have heavily exploited aquatic resources, especially those living in regions of high marine productivity. For the Mediterranean, this view has been challenged, partly by the application of stable isotope analysis of skeletal remains which has shown more varied coastal hunter-gatherer diets than in other regions, perhaps due to its lower productivity.

First insight into the Neolithic subsistence economy in the north-east Iberian Peninsula: paleodietary reconstruction through stable isotopes.

Objectives: The study of subsistence strategies among Neolithic communities in north-east Iberia, late-fifth to early-fourth millennia cal BC, enables a more in-depth study of the activities and behavior of the inhabitants of this region, where paleodiets have been little studied. The objectives of this study are, therefore, to determine the diet and subsistence patterns of those communities and to consider whether any relation existed between their subsistence strategies and environmental, geographic, and/or social factors.

Materials And Methods: Bone samples from 25 middle Neolithic human individuals at seven archeological sites and comparative faunal samples were analyzed, and compared with contemporary series in Mediterranean Europe.