Life and death in the Middle Bronze Age. The case study of the necropolis of Olmo di Nogara, Verona (Italy).

The cemetery at Olmo di Nogara (Verona, northeast Italy) is one of the most important protohistoric burial sites that have come to light in Italy during recent years. The anthropological sample considered in this study includes all adult males buried in the cemetery consisting in a total of 116 individuals and 65 adult women. From the palaeopathological point of view, 11 cases of perimortal lesions, which may be interpreted as the results of injuries inflicted during life by metal blades and arrows, were found on the males. This corresponds to a prevalence of 9,5% of the male sample thus suggesting a considerable degree of conflict involving the community. The composition of grave goods, with armed individuals, and the anthropological evidence of conflict at Olmo di Nogara imply social complexity that founds little comparisons in coeval sites of other areas of the Peninsula. We have carried out an isotope study on several skeletal series from northern and southern Italy to test for further differences in the dietary practices of these Bronze age communities; stable carbon and nitrogen data reveal an interesting dichotomy in the use of resources between the two areas of the Peninsula, with the reliance on extremely diverse plant species. We associate such differences not only to the traditional pattern of diffusion of domesticated crops, but mostly to cultural practices that might only partially be connected to environmental constraints and more likely associated with the habitus of these human groups. This study was funded by MIUR and Department of Archaeology, university of Padua.