The feasibility of the adult age estimation 3D-CBCT method on ancient human remains.

The age estimation of skeletal remains still represents a central issue not only for the reconstruction of the so-called "biological profile," but mostly for the palaeodemographic investigation. This research aims at verifying the feasibility of the adult age estimation method developed on living people by Pinchi et al. (2015 and 2018), for estimating the age at the death of 37 subjects from ancient populations found in two different Italian necropolis of archaeological interest (Mont'e Prama and Florence, X-IX century B.

The origin and legacy of the Etruscans through a 2000-year archeogenomic time transect.

The origin, development, and legacy of the enigmatic Etruscan civilization from the central region of the Italian peninsula known as Etruria have been debated for centuries. Here we report a genomic time transect of 82 individuals spanning almost two millennia (800 BCE to 1000 CE) across Etruria and southern Italy. During the Iron Age, we detect a component of Indo-European–associated steppe ancestry and the lack of recent Anatolian-related admixture among the putative non–Indo-European–speaking Etruscans.

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 (δOca and δCca) 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 δOca values suggest a significant role of local sources in the water inputs to the body water, whereas δCca values indicate food resources, principally based on C plants. Both δCca and δOca ranges vary substantially when samples are broken down into local populations.

Gastrointestinal parasite burden in 4th-5th c. CE Florence highlighted by microscopy and paleogenetics.

The study of ancient parasites, named paleoparasitology, traditionally focused on microscopic eggs disseminated in past environments and archaeological structures by humans and other animals infested by gastrointestinal parasites. Since the development of paleogenetics in the early 1980s, few paleoparasitological studies have been based on the ancient DNA (aDNA) of parasites, although such studies have clearly proven their utility and reliability. In this paper, we describe our integrative approach for the paleoparasitological study of an ancient population from Florence in Italy, dated to the 4th-5th c.

Assessing the Parasitic Burden in a Late Antique Florentine Emergency Burial Site.

Excavation (2008-2014) carried out under the Uffizi Gallery (Florence, Italy) led to the discovery of 75 individuals, mostly buried in multiple graves. Based on Roman minted coins, the graves were preliminarily dated between the second half of the 4th and the beginning of the 5th centuries CE. Taphonomy showed that this was an emergency burial site associated with a catastrophic event, possibly an epidemic of unknown etiology with high mortality rates.

Integrative approach using genomes to revisit the historical landscape of plague during the Medieval Period.

Over the last few years, genomic studies on , the causative agent of all known plague epidemics, have considerably increased in numbers, spanning a period of about 5,000 y. Nonetheless, questions concerning historical reservoirs and routes of transmission remain open. Here, we present and describe five genomes from the second half of the 14th century and reconstruct the evolutionary history of by reanalyzing previously published genomes and by building a comprehensive phylogeny focused on strains attributed to the Second Plague Pandemic (14th to 18th century).

Palaeodiet reconstruction in a woman with probable celiac disease: a stable isotope analysis of bone remains from the archaeological site of Cosa (Italy).

Stable isotope analysis in the reconstruction of human palaeodiets can yield clues to early human subsistence strategies, origins and history of farming and pastoralist societies, and intra- and intergroup social differentiation. In the last 10 years, the method has been extended to the pathological investigation. Stable isotope analysis to better understand a diet-related disease: celiac disease in ancient human bones was carried out.

Origin of celiac disease: how old are predisposing haplotypes?

We recently presented the case of a first century AD young woman, found in the archaeological site of Cosa, showing clinical signs of malnutrition, such as short height, osteoporosis, dental enamel hypoplasia and cribra orbitalia, indirect sign of anemia, all strongly suggestive for celiac disease (CD). However, whether these findings were actually associated to CD was not shown based on genetic parameters. To investigate her human leukocyte antigen (HLA) class II polymorphism, we extracted DNA from a bone sample and a tooth and genotyped HLA using three HLA-tagging single nucleotide polymorphisms for DQ8, DQ2.

[Congenital spinal malformations: issues of anthropological ancient samples].

This work is part of a more extensive, still ongoing, research which aims to provide a morphological assessment and interpretation of congenital malformations on ancient bones. The study of the frequency and distribution of congenital malformations on juvenile osteological remains may provide interesting insight and critical observations in assessing the role of those factors that are responsible for child's mortality. In the present study we describe and discuss two cases of congenital spinal malformation refer to failure in the separation of vertebral arch elements between contiguous vertebrae.