Disability and deformity in Early Medieval Milan: bioarchaeology and pathography of two cases from the Ad Martyres cemetery of the Basilica of Saint Ambrose (2023)
Lucie Biehler-Gomez (Author)
Valentina Lucchetti (Author)
Mirko Mattia (Author)
Lucrezia Rodella (Author)
del Bo, Beatrice (Author)
Cristina Cattaneo (Author)
Medicina nei Secoli - Arte e Scienza
Volume: 35
Issue: 3
Pages: 33-50
Started in 2018, the vertical excavation of the Ad Martyres cemetery at the Basilica of Saint Ambrose unearthed 307 tombs dated 1st-15th century. Bioarcheological studies are still underway at the Laboratory of Forensic Anthropology and Odontology (LABANOF) aiming to construct a biological profile and osteobiography for each individual. From the phases attributed to the Early Middle Ages, two individuals revealed signs of skeletal deformity: one was a woman of 50-60 years with a severe idiopathic thoracic scoliosis buried in a brick box tomb; the other was an achondroplastic dwarf of 7-9 years. Both conditions probably led to serious and debilitating complications. Through a paleopathological, clinical, and historical multidisciplinary analysis, the present paper investigates the impact of these physical deformities on the daily life of the examined individual, discusses the potential disability they may have caused and explores how disability and deformity were experienced in the Early Middle Ages in Milan.
...MoreSimilar Citations
Book
Walker, Don;
(2012)
Disease in London, 1st-19th Centuries: An Illustrated Guide to Diagnosis
(/isis/citation/CBB001421024/)
Article
Mauro Rubini;
Nunzia Libianchi;
Alessandro Gozzi;
Paola Zaio;
Elena Dellù;
(2021)
Infectious diseases in paleopathology: a methodological approach to epidemiological situations
(/isis/citation/CBB750208808/)
Book
Giovanni Spani;
Elena Varotto;
(2020)
Malattie e medicina tra letteratura, storia e antropologia
(/isis/citation/CBB251203082/)
Article
Clark Spencer Larsen;
Fabian Crespo;
(2022)
Paleosyndemics: A Bioarchaeological and Biosocial Approach to Study Infectious Diseases in the Past
(/isis/citation/CBB022705043/)
Article
Giuseppe Carotenuto;
Giuseppe Bellomo;
Gabriele Lauria;
Roberto Micciché;
Luca Sineo;
(2021)
Problems of differential diagnosis in paleopathology
(/isis/citation/CBB743298788/)
Article
Jean-Patrice Boudet;
Laurence Moulinier-Brogi;
(2019)
Miscellanées magico-scientifiques en Italie au Quattrocento: l’exemple du ms. Paris, BnF, it. 1524
(/isis/citation/CBB592436254/)
Article
Barbara Pezzoni;
Marta Licata;
(2017)
Gli studi paleozoologici di Vincenzo Fusco
(/isis/citation/CBB230445317/)
Article
Monica H. Green;
(2020)
The Four Black Deaths
(/isis/citation/CBB190514768/)
Chapter
Irina Metzler;
(2015)
Disabled Children: Birth Defects, Causality and Guilt
(/isis/citation/CBB740902298/)
Book
Irina Metzler;
(2018)
Fools and idiots?: Intellectual disability in the Middle Ages
(/isis/citation/CBB181731431/)
Book
Naoë Kukita Yoshikawa;
(2015)
Medicine, Religion and Gender in Medieval Culture
(/isis/citation/CBB323793152/)
Book
Elma Brenner;
(2015)
Leprosy and Charity in Medieval Rouen
(/isis/citation/CBB928972978/)
Book
Metzler, Irina;
(2006)
Disability in Medieval Europe: Thinking about Physical Impairment during the High Middle Ages, c. 1100--1400
(/isis/citation/CBB000774003/)
Article
Luigi Papi;
(2021)
The story of Dante Alighieri’s human remains and their anthropological analysis in the past centuries
(/isis/citation/CBB944499180/)
Article
Thillaud, Pierre L.;
(2008)
Pour une nouvelle approche de l'identification et de l'interprétation des diverses formes de cribra orbîtalia
(/isis/citation/CBB000933231/)
Article
Silvia Marinozzi;
Antonio Fornaciari;
(2021)
Renaissance and Modern Age Funerary Embalming in the Basilica of San Domenico Maggiore in Naples (15th-18th Centuries)
(/isis/citation/CBB183117929/)
Article
Luisa Ferrari;
(2021)
From Body Preservation to Pathology Museums in Italy: Conservation and Modern Value of a Historical and Biological Archive
(/isis/citation/CBB912712126/)
Article
Antonio Fornaciari;
Valentina Giuffra;
(2021)
The 1854-55 cholera epidemic in Tuscany and the cholera cemetery of the village of Benabbio
(/isis/citation/CBB254338128/)
Article
Tony Waldron;
(2015)
Roy Lee Moodie (1880–1934) and the Beginnings of Palaeopathology
(/isis/citation/CBB234478338/)
Chapter
Elena Varotto;
Marco Milanese;
Eugenia Tognotti;
Davide Caramella;
Andrea Montella;
Pasquale Bandiera;
(2020)
Klippel-Feil Syndrome in an Ancient Sardinian Population (16th Century AD). A Paleopathological Study of Four Cases from the S. Michele Cemetery in Alghero
(/isis/citation/CBB865916711/)
Be the first to comment!