The Black Death and the Transformation of the West by David Herlihy

Sex determination analyses were carried out along with age at death, stature in life, unspecific and functional stress markers, pathologies and traumas. For the anthropological study of the skeletal remains we did not limit ourselves to the uncritical application of traditional anthropological methods, but rather endeavored to comprehend which would be the most suitable approaches to garner data as near as possible to the biological reality of the sample, comparable to other topographically and chronologically analogous contexts. While taphonomic observations have made it possible to reconstruct rituals and ways of burial that would otherwise have had little or no archaeological visibility, the topographical analyses of the cemetery, on the basis of the distribution of a number of graves, confirmed the initial hypothesis of the existence of a religious structure. Over the course of three excavation campaigns (2016-2018) a total of 52 graves were identified and documented. The study was carried out with the aim of reconstructing the biological and palaeodemographic profile of a human community that, between the mid-10th and beginning of the 11th century, during a phase that sees a change in function of the royal centre of Vetricella, and the beginnings of the graveyard.

The burials from the cemetery at Vetricella have been analyzed following an archaeological and anthropological approach in an attempt to answer both general issues and specific questions tied-in to a distinctive archeological context, not a settlement or religious complex, but rather an administrative centre, a royal court connected to the Kings of Italy and the Ottonian Dynasty of the German Kings during the post-Carolingian period. We discuss some possible research lines to resolve this apparent contradiction. During the Early Middle Ages, however, nutritional levels were higher, as suggested by taller statures, more widespread meat consumption, and longer periods of breastfeeding. Adult mortality was higher during the Early Middle Ages than during the Roman Empire and the High Middle Ages, suggesting that the stagnation of population was determined by higher mortality. In this article, data from anthropometric analysis of the skeletons in 154 Italian cemeteries that date between the 1st century BCE and the 13th century are used to gain new insights on mortality of adults and nutrition. However, the components of the dynamics of the Italian population in the long period between the Justinian Plague (around 565 in Italy) and the Black Death (1348) are largely unknown. Studies of settlements in Italy indicate that during the Early Middle Ages (6th–9th centuries) the Italian population was stagnant, whereas a slow but persistent growth followed during the High Middle Ages (10th–13th).

The Black Death and the Transformation of the West by David Herlihy