Assessing the Parasitic Burden in a Late Antique Florentine Emergency Burial Site
| hal.structure.identifier | Laboratoire Chrono-environnement (UMR 6249) [LCE] | |
| hal.structure.identifier | Ausonius-Institut de recherche sur l'Antiquité et le Moyen âge | |
| dc.contributor.author | ROCHE, Kévin | |
| dc.contributor.author | PACCIANI, Elsa | |
| hal.structure.identifier | Università degli studi di Torino = University of Turin [UNITO] | |
| hal.structure.identifier | University of Warwick [Coventry] | |
| hal.structure.identifier | Anthropologie bio-culturelle, Droit, Ethique et Santé [ADES] | |
| dc.contributor.author | BIANUCCI, Raffaella | |
| hal.structure.identifier | Laboratoire Chrono-environnement (UMR 6249) [LCE] | |
| dc.contributor.author | LE BAILLY, Matthieu | |
| dc.date.issued | 2019-12 | |
| dc.identifier.issn | 0023-4001 | |
| dc.description.abstractEn | Excavation (2008-2014) carried out under the Uffizi Gallery (Florence, Italy) led to the discovery of 75 individuals, mostly buried in multiple graves. Based on Roman minted coins, the graves were preliminarily dated between the second half of the 4th and the beginning of the 5th centuries CE. Taphonomy showed that this was an emergency burial site associated with a catastrophic event, possibly an epidemic of unknown etiology with high mortality rates. In this perspective, paleoparasitological investigations were performed on 18 individuals exhumed from 9 multiple graves to assess the burden of gastrointestinal parasitism. Five out of eighteen individuals (27.7%) tested positive for ascarid-type remains; these are considered as “decorticated” <i>Ascaris</i> eggs, which have lost their outer mammillated coat. Roundworms (genus <i>Ascaris</i>) commonly infest human populations under dire sanitary conditions. Archaeological and historical evidence indicates that <i>Florentia</i> suffered a period of economic crisis between the end of 4th and the beginning of the 5th centuries CE, and that the aqueduct was severely damaged at the beginning of the 4th century CE, possibly during the siege of the Goths (406 CE). It is more than plausible that the epidemic, possibly coupled with the disruption of the aqueduct, deeply affected the living conditions of these individuals. A 27.7% frequency suggests that ascariasis was widespread in this population. This investigation exemplifies how paleoparasitological information can be retrieved from the analysis of sediments sampled in cemeteries, thus allowing a better assessment of the varying frequency of parasitic infections among ancient populations. | |
| dc.language.iso | en | |
| dc.publisher | Korean Society for Parasitology | |
| dc.subject.en | Paleoparasitology | |
| dc.subject.en | ascaris | |
| dc.subject.en | egg | |
| dc.subject.en | cemetery | |
| dc.subject.en | bioarchaeology | |
| dc.subject.en | emergency burial site | |
| dc.subject.en | Florence | |
| dc.subject.en | Italy | |
| dc.subject.en | Late Antiquity | |
| dc.subject.en | Paleoparasitology | |
| dc.title.en | Assessing the Parasitic Burden in a Late Antique Florentine Emergency Burial Site | |
| dc.type | Article de revue | |
| dc.type | Data paper | |
| dc.identifier.doi | 10.3347/kjp.2019.57.6.587 | |
| dc.subject.hal | Sciences de l'Homme et Société/Archéologie et Préhistoire | |
| dc.subject.hal | Sciences du Vivant [q-bio]/Microbiologie et Parasitologie/Parasitologie | |
| bordeaux.journal | Korean Journal of Parasitology | |
| bordeaux.page | 587-593 | |
| bordeaux.volume | 57 | |
| bordeaux.issue | 6 | |
| bordeaux.peerReviewed | oui | |
| hal.identifier | hal-04183026 | |
| hal.version | 1 | |
| hal.popular | non | |
| hal.audience | Internationale | |
| hal.origin.link | https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr//hal-04183026v1 | |
| bordeaux.COinS | ctx_ver=Z39.88-2004&rft_val_fmt=info:ofi/fmt:kev:mtx:journal&rft.jtitle=Korean%20Journal%20of%20Parasitology&rft.date=2019-12&rft.volume=57&rft.issue=6&rft.spage=587-593&rft.epage=587-593&rft.eissn=0023-4001&rft.issn=0023-4001&rft.au=ROCHE,%20K%C3%A9vin&PACCIANI,%20Elsa&BIANUCCI,%20Raffaella&LE%20BAILLY,%20Matthieu&rft.genre=article&unknown |
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