From Excavation to Interpretation: Multidisciplinary Approaches to the Late Medieval Cemetery of Cencelle (VT)

The site of Leopoli Cencelle (9th–17th century CE) is located in the Tolfa Mountains, a few kilometres from the Province of Rome. The late medieval cemetery, in use from the 12th to the 15th century CE, has yielded more than 1,000 burials, studied through both archaeological and anthropological analyses. However, despite the quantity of data collected, it is still not possible to reconstruct the lived experience of the community nor to establish a clear chronological framework for the individuals buried there. To address these gaps, the current project aims to integrate archaeological and anthropological data within a unified and queryable digital environment. The first step has been the creation of the Cencellae Database Project, a multidisciplinary repository designed to store excavation data alongside anthropological results. These datasets are being incorporated into a spatial database (GIS) structured in chronological layers. This infrastructure allows for more precise reconstructions of funerary practices and population dynamics, including the spatial distribution of individuals by biological and paleopathological profiles. Finally, this integrated approach between the fields of archaeology and anthropology will be applied to conduct radiocarbon (C14) analyses on the osteological material from Cencelle, with the aim of reconstructing the phases of use of the funerary area. It will also serve to guide the selection of samples for the investigation of paleodiet, mobility, and the spread of infectious pathogens.