secrets from an ancient graveyard

One of my current favourite TV programs is Time Team – I enjoy learning little bits of history & Tony Robinson's happy enthusiasm is so contagious (but I still think of him as Baldrick). So you'll understand that I was happily distracted this morning when, while looking for something else (isn't that usually the way?), I stumbled across a fascinating piece about an ancient graveyard in the Italian town of Badia Pozzeveri.

Published on Science magazine's site, the article tells the story of the ongoing excavation of a medieval graveyard. The dig is providing a wealth of information on things like the dietary differences between nobles, monks, & peasantry (based on isotope analysis of their teeth) & the impact this had on health. What's more, using ancient DNA (aDNA) techniques, the scientists leading the dig are hoping to identify the presence of various pathogens, such as Yersinia pestis (the bacterium linked to the Black Death, and which still causes cases of plague in the US today) and Treponema pallidum, which causes syphillis and has already been found in 16th-century mummies from Naples.

And like many episodes of Time Team, the tale has a twist at the end: a bit of fashion-based detective work showed that at least some of the burials were not medieval at all.

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