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Privileged burial in the Pava Pieve (Siena, 8th century AD)
Full text linkDuring the 6th archaeological excavation campaign performed at the “Pieve di Pava” (San Giovanni d’Asso, Siena, Italy) in the summer of 2009, a privileged stone burial of a single individual (US 2378) was discovered, covered by a monolithic slab and placed in front of the altar. The tomb is about 160 cm long, 40 cm large and over 70 cm deep. The skeletal remains of a young male (18-20 years), not in anatomical connection, were found on the bottom floor of the tomb. The skeleton, submitted to 14C dating, revealed a date between 650 and 688 AD. Stable isotope analysis (18O, 13C, 15N) attested that he was a member of the local population, whose diet was rather rich in animal proteins. We are clearly in front of a secondary deposition, most likely the skeleton of an eminent personage (a saint?), transported to the church in a sack, as clearly demonstrated by the circular delimitation of bones. The relic was probably used for the new consecration of the church, following the restoration works of the 8th century. The paleopathological study diagnosed a case of acromesomelic dysplasia, a congenital anomaly with disproportion of the limbs: short enlarged distal segments (radius-ulna and tibia), almost normal proximal segments (humerus and femur), short stature of about 150 cm, and bilateral fibular agenesis. Tibiae malformation and fibulae agenesis caused bilateral talipes valgus, with major walking problems. Severe enthesopathies in the upper limbs indicate that he made use of crutches
Cautery in medieval surgery: a unique palaeopathological case
No full textCautery is a fundamental tool in the ancient and medieval surgery. We read in the Aphorisms of Hippocrates: "Those diseases which medicines do not cure, iron (the knife?) cures; those which iron cannot cure, fire cures; and those which fire cannot cure, are to be reckoned wholly incurable". This sentence of the Father of Medicine was made its own by Roman Medicine and then by the Byzantine and Islamic surgical practice in the Middles Ages. However, bioarchaeological human remains that testify the use of the cautery are extremely rare.
We present a unique, original case, dating back to the 11th century, recently discovered on the mummy of a Saint venerated in Lucca (central Italy). The mummified body of St. Davinus Armenian has been preserved for about 1000 years in the Basilica of San Michele in Foro in Lucca (central Italy). In the hagiographic sources, we read that Davinus, left from Armenian Kingdom, arrived in Lucca in the year 1050, after a long pilgrimage to Jerusalem and Rome. He died in a hospital annexed to the church of San Michele during a stop of the pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela. The veneration of the body is already attested in the 11th-12th century.
In 26-29 March 2018 a complete study of the body, including macroscopic and radiological examination (CT total body), revealed the natural mummy of a young man of about 25 years. Two traumatic lesions of the skull with long-term survival appeared: a superficial cutting wound on the left frontal bone (5 cm length, 0.5 cm wide), produced by a toothed blade, and an elliptical (2 x 1 cm) wound with depressed fracture, produced by a blunt weapon on the right coronal suture. Around the elliptical lesion, we noted a wider scar with thin margin (0.2 mm) describing a pentagonal shape, evidently caused by the application of a red-hot iron, a cautery with a pentagonal head.
The cauteries had very variable shape, round, squared or polygonal (as in the present case), depending on their primary aim, as is documented the surgical treaty (al-Taṣrīf ) of Albucasis, the great Muslim surgeon of 10th-11th century, master and unyielding advocate of the cautery practise.
It is the first time that the use of Medieval cautery linked with a surgical care of a cranial blunt trauma wound is documented in Paleopathology and this case represents also one of those very rare instances in which direct evidence of ancient surgery can be gained from the skeleton examination
Privileged Burial in The Pava Pieve (Siena, 8th century AD)
No full textDuring the 6th archaeological excavation campaign performed at the «Pieve di Pava» (San Giovanni d’Asso, Siena, Italy) in the summer of 2009, a stone-lined burial of a high-status single individual (uS 2378) was discovered, covered by a monolithic slab and placed in front of the altar. The tomb is about 160 cm long, 40 cm wide and over 70 cm deep. The skeletal remains of a young male (18-20 years), not in anatomical connection, were found on the floor of the tomb. 14C dating revealed a period between 650 and 688 AD. Stable isotope analysis (18O, 13C, 15N) attested that he was a member of the local community, with a diet quite rich in animal proteins. We are in presence of the secondary burial of an eminent personage, perhaps a saint, likely to have been transported to the church in a sack of perishable material, possibly textile, which caused their alignment along a curved line, as clearly demonstrated by the circular delimitation of the bones. The body was probably used for the re-consecration of the church following the restoration works of the 8th century. The paleopathological study diagnosed a case of acromes- omelic dysplasia, a congenital anomaly with disproportionate limbs: short, enlarged distal segments (radius-ulna and tibia), almost normal proximal segments (humerus and femur), short stature of about 150 cm, and bilateral fibular agenesis. Tibiae malformation and fibulae agenesis led to bilateral talipes val- gus, with major walking problems. Extensive enthesopathies in the upper limbs indicate the use of crutches
Il cimitero della Pieve di Pava, Siena (XI-XIII secolo): primi dati antropologici e paleopatologici
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