1,721,070 research outputs found
Death in the Time of Pandemic: A Tuscan Cholera Cemetery at Benabbio (1855)
No full textCholera was one of the great killers of the 19th century. The pandemic waves that took place between 1823 and 1899 caused hundreds of thousands of deaths in the Mediterranean region and across Europe. However, the excavation of cholera cemeteries is very rare. This article presents the results of excavations at the cholera cemetery of Benabbio, a mountain village near Lucca (northwest Tuscany) in which cholera broke out in the late summer–early autumn of 1855, causing 46 deaths in a population of around 900 inhabitants. The excavation made it possible to detect for the first time the material characteristics of a cholera cemetery. The findings provide a new source for anthropologically reading the reaction of a community facing the mortality crisis, which fluctuated between acceptance of regulations imposed by the authorities and local strategies of resistance
Pancio of Controne (1275 ca.-1340), a Tuscan physician at the courts of Edward II and Edward III of England
Full text linkThis article focuses on the figure of Pancio of Controne, a 14th-century Tuscan physician who played a major role as archiater at the courts of the king Edward II (1307-1327) and Edward III (1327- 1377). Through documents preserved in the English and Italian archives, it is possible to trace the biography of this illustrious physician and to reconstruct his social ascent and his economic activities. What emerges is a multi-faceted figure who devotes himself as much to medicine as to political and above all economic affairs, a range of activities that can be understood if they are read in the light of late medieval society and the Italian commercial expansion of the 13th-14th centuries
Bagni di Lucca (LU). Benabbio, località Castello: relazione preliminare della quinta campagna di scavo
No full textRisultati della quinta campagna di scavo al castello di Benabbio, Bagni di Lucca (LU
La mummificazione nella Sicilia della Tarda età Moderna (secoli XVIII-XIX): nuove testimonianze dalla Sicilia orientale
No full textSicily is one of the Italian regions richest in mummified corpses. In addition to the Capuchin Catacombs of Palermo, a true unicum for their exceptional number of individuals, several other mummies collections,
dated back to the late Modern Age, are present in many churches, convents and funerary chapels. The Sicilian mummies are the result of a particular treatment, obtained by drying the body in favourable
microclimatic conditions without evisceration, a method which permitted equally to achieve a good state of preservation. The mummification was an extremely diffuse phenomenon in Sicily during the 18th and 19th centuries, not only among the privileged classes, but also among the middle-class. Besides the “Cappuccini Catacombs” of Palermo, at present the sites of Sicilian mummies known in scientific literature are
restricted to Comiso (Ragusa) and Savoca (Messina); up to now in fact this historical-biological heritage has not been properly surveyed. In this article we present the first results of a survey carried out in the Messina’s
province during July 2005. The research enabled us to investigate this cultural phenomenon, to document the architectural structures appointed to the mummification process and to enrich the knowledge about the
presence of mummified bodies in eastern Sicily during the Modern Age
Many hands make light work: Collaborative CLIL Activities for university courses in Medieval funerary Archaeology
Full text linkThis paper describes the activities performed by the students of the course of funerary archaeology held at the Division of Palaeopathology of Pisa University in collaboration with the Institute for Computational Linguistics (ILC) of the National Research Council (CNR) in Pisa in the period April-June 2014. The lessons, which used a Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL) approach, were aimed at studying the funerary beliefs and burial practices in Italy and England in the Middle Ages. The 2014 course followed on from the courses of the year 2012 (focused on the more general issue of taphonomy; primary and secondary burials; single, double, or multiple burials), and 2013 (which examined the world of the ancient Romans and their burial customs of cremation and inhumation). The lessons were conducted by using extracts from self-contained specialized texts that were simple to read and that offered the basic concepts of medieval funerary archaeology. The
students were supported by a reference text for funerary archaeology, which established the correct nomenclature to use when describing bodies, grave goods and tombs. Powerpoint slide presentations helped students break up the monotony of the text work and made the material more interesting and engaging. The slides were used to illustrate different types of burials in filled or empty spaces; the position of burials in both rural and urban environments; the disposition of the limbs in the burial; the rise of the Monasteries in the early Middle Ages and of the religious Orders of the Dominicans and Franciscans in the late Middle Ages. Each student was responsible for researching and reporting on a particular topic, and was supported by the use of information and communication techniques. Particular attention was devoted to the Books of Hours, important illuminated medieval manuscripts (containing psalms, short prayers and biblical quotations) that marked the different parts of the day and that were specifically composed for wealthy people. Classroom activities ranged from the simpler multi-matching and gap-filling exercises to the more complex tasks of providing definitions for given words, creating mind-maps, enriching a bilingual English-Italian glossary and providing contextualized
examples for an English grammar book. Educational videos from the BBC or other channels and pertaining to the topics treated during the lessons were projected each time and were followed by direct questioning and more general conversation, to help students gain proficiency in oral communication. In the last three years, the Italian students from Pisa University have been working in collaboration with those of Ohio University on an excavation project carried out at the Field School in Medieval Archaeology and Bioarchaeology at Badia Pozzeveri (Lucca, Italy), to which the prestigious International journal SCIENCE dedicated a special issue and cover in December 2013. Finally, multidisciplinary elements were also included in the courses, by exploiting the information extracted from videos related to disciplines other than funerary archaeology, for example a BBC Channel 4 video describing the British meals of the day, the origins of which date back to medieval times
A Methodology for the Development of a Relief, Anti-Shock and Anti-Cavitation Cartridge Valve
No full textCommentary on: Nuzzolese E, Borrini M. Forensic approach to an archaeological casework of "vampire" skeletal remains in Venice: odontological and anthropological prospectus. J Forensic Sci 2010; 55(6):1634-37
No full textChriticism to "vampire" interpretation of a normal buria
Modern double burial in Central Italy: funerary chamber of the Buondelmonti family in the Basilica of Santa Maria dell'Impruneta (Florence)
No full textThis work aims to analyze the particular burial of the Buondelmonti, one of the most important aristocratic Florentine families of the late Middles Ages and Modern Age, who had great power not only in the city, but also in the Florentine countryside. Their history has always been linked to the parish church of Santa Maria dell'Impruneta, not far from Florence, where the family built their own burial chamber. Both written and material sources state that the aristocratic Buondelmonti family was buried in this hypogeum, according to the standard double burial rite, with the corpse initially positioned on seats with a central hole and successively placed in an ossuary. This practice, which consisted in using an architectural structure, called sitting colatoio, was adopted to favour the skeletonization of the bodies. This structure was used by members of lay brotherhoods and convents especially in southern Italy, with sporadic cases in other areas of the country. The Buondelmonti tomb appears to be the first example of this kind of burial in Tuscany and, more importantly, the oldest discovered to date in Italy (1591). In light of the data that have emerged from this study, the authors will try to establish the reasons why the members of the family decided to be buried in this anomalous way, and above all how this Florentine family came into contact with this practice around the end of the 1500s
Processi di tanatometamorfosi: pratiche di scolatura dei corpi e mummificazione nel Regno delle Due Sicilie
No full textNell'estate del 2005 e del 2006 il team di paleopatologia dell'Università di Pisa ha condotto una ricognizione nella Sicilia nord-orientale per investigare le strutture funerarie post-medievali presenti nella regione. Le strutture rappresentano un tipo di apparato funerario ancora largamente sottostudiato e incompreso. Infatti, dopo la morte, i corpi di laici e preti erano sistemati in speciali strutture chiamate "colatoi", di cui sono state individuate due tipologie: il "colatoio a seduta" e il "colatoio orizzontale". Attraverso questa ricognizione è stato possibile proporre un'interpretazione sul loro uso e sulla loro destinazione. Si fornisce inoltre un inventario degli abbondanti resti mummificati ancora in situ
- …
