Evidence of Barbarian migrations and interpersonal violence during the Gothic War in sixth-century Tuscany: the case of the Goth horseman from San Genesio (Pisa)

The application of radiology as an aid for paleoanthropological analyses is seeing a widespread increase. The aim of this study is to examine a number of radiological dental aspects related to hereditary haemoglobinopathies, such as b-thalassemia, on the human remains of a past community by way of micro-CT. A sample from the early medieval (10th-11th century) archaeological site of Vetricella (Scarlino, Grosseto), located in an area historically affected by malaria and part of the nEU-Med Advanced ERC project, was selected. Macroscopic paleopathological analysis revealed features typical of b-thalassemia. As a result, the skeletal remains underwent CT and micro-CT examination. CT analysis of the ribs, as demonstrated in previous studies, confirmed the initial hypothesis of the presence of b-thalassemia in the group. The dental micro-CT carried out on a sample of 7 deciduous incisors belonging to 7 sub-adult individuals allowed observing for the first time a direct relationship between the degrees of b-thalassemia recorded on the skeletons and dentinogenesis defects, identifying also a new radiological evidence which will be termed as «iris-like» appearance. A sample of three individuals from a coeval, non-thalassemic community was used for comparative purposes. These observations constitute a new approach to the diagnosis of b-thalassemia in archaeological contexts, providing an additional tool for differential diagnoses while also furthering our knowledge of the natural history of this disease.

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Archaeomagnetic Dating of Three Furnaces inside the Middle Age Settlement of San Genesio (San Miniato, Pisa, Italy)

Principe

Gogichaishvili

Devidze

et al. 2022

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Archaeomagnetic dating using full geomagnetic vector was performed on three furnaces cropping out at San Genesio archaeological zone, an ancient settlement located in the Arno River plain, near San Miniato (Pisa). The first evidence of human presence in this area dates back to the period between the VI century BCE and 1248 CE, when the village of San Genesio was destroyed by the inhabitants of the nearby castle of San Miniato. Three burned structures were located at different stratigraphic levels. The SGEN01 represents a kiln to produce pottery. The SGEN02 is probably a furnace for domestic use, while the SGEN03 is interpreted as a metallurgic kiln due to the presence of some hematite fragments possibly coming from Elba Island. Both mean paleodirections and absolute intensity were compared with the global geomagnetic model SCHA.DIF4K (Pavón-Carrasco et al., 2021) for Europe. The obtained age intervals at the 65% probability are 846-911 CE for SGEN01, 696-799 CE for SGEN02, and 623-644 CE for SGEN03. These new absolute dates agree well with their archaeological/stratigraphic position and with the history of the archaeological place.

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Evidence of Barbarian migrations and interpersonal violence during the Gothic War in sixth-century Tuscany: the case of the Goth horseman from San Genesio (Pisa)

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A new approach for the diagnosis of b-thalassemia in archaeological contexts: the relationship between congenital anaemia and dentinogenesis defects through micro-CT

A new approach for the diagnosis of b-thalassemia in archaeological contexts: the relationship between congenital anaemia and dentinogenesis defects through micro-CT

A new approach for the diagnosis of b-thalassemia in archaeological contexts: the relationship between congenital anaemia and dentinogenesis defects through micro-CT

Archaeomagnetic Dating of Three Furnaces inside the Middle Age Settlement of San Genesio (San Miniato, Pisa, Italy)

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