Pathocenosis of a Late Medieval Sample of Population from the Fortified Village of Castiglione-Conversano, Bari

Abstract

PATHOCENOSIS OF A LATE MEDIEVAL SAMPLE OF POPULATION FROM THE FORTIFIED VILLAGE OF CASTIGLIONE-CONVERSANO, BARIThe present paleopathological investigation regards the skeletal remains of 74 individuals recovered in 4 graves in the late medieval fortified village of Castiglione (Conversano - Bari).Among these, 28 children under 12, 7 adolescents and at least 39 adults. The sex ratio is balanced, with 18 females and 18 males. Out of 74 individuals studied, at least 43 individuals, 58% of the total, are affected by pathologies. The pathological investigation of the skeletal remains offers us the opportunity to outline the characteristics of the pathocenosis, that is the whole of the diseases, the incidence and their reciprocal relationships, corresponding to the “state of health” of that community in its territory, in a period between the second half of the fourteenth century A.D. and the first half of the fifteenth century A.D. If we could go back to Castiglione, we would have witnessed a huge crowd of cripples roaming the fortified village. This is indeed shown in some European iconographic sources (Durer, Baldung, Bosch, Brueghel the elder, Brueghel the younger). Mutilated people, beggers, outcasts, people with limb impairment crowded the residential areas and were the tragic result of disease and war, hard work and malnutrition.