“Indagine bioarcheologica della necropoli di San Lorenzo di Quingentole (MN): la facies altomedievale”

This research focuses on the site of San Lorenzo di Quingentole, in the province of Mantua, a context of Roman origin that undergoes transformations during the medieval period. The aim of this study is to reconstruct the paleodemographic profile and the relevant pathological patterns of the population collected in the early medieval phase (VII-IX century) of the church building. 83 individuals were selected, belonging to the adult (<20 years) and adolescent (12-20 years) age classes, individually subjected to the reconstruction of the biological profile and the search for pathological lesions, especially focusing on trauma identification. Based on comparisons with contemporaneous and geographically similar contexts, the population of San Lorenzo di Quingentole reveals a mostly balanced sex ratio (1.2), slightly favoring the male component, while the distribution of mortality exhibits a peak in the adult category, within the age range between 20 and 35 years. The pathological study has allowed the identification of lesions from biomechanical stress and nonspecific infections, which may have involved and fatigued the adult population; whereas signs caused by metabolic and nutritional stress were identified in smaller percentages, suggesting generally balanced nutrition. A more in-depth study of traumas seemed necessary starting from the bellicose component of the historical-political context, during VII century: despite the premises, the small percentage of traumas allows us to hypothesize the exclusion of the Mantuan community from the dynamics of conflict and violent encounters widespread in Northern Italy.