Aree funerarie a Leopoli-Cencelle. Riflessioni sui primi dati

Leopoli-Cencelle is a medieval town located in via Aurelia km 84, founded in 854 by Pope Leo IV. Two of the three urban cimiterial areas that have been excavated are linked to the main church of the city dedicated to Saint Peter and they have been used respectively from the foundation until the beginning of XII century, when the church was reconstructed, and from XII to XVI century. In addition to all that, the third cimiterial area, located immediately inside the northern city wall, has allowed to unearth nine infant burials that date after 1349 earthquake. Excavation of the cemetery connected to the Romanesque church of Saint Peter, that is still going on, is an interesting opportunity to reconstruct interactions linked to the worship of dead and to the conse‑crated space between the Communes era and late Middle Ages. Different burial phases can be identified; burials analyzed belong to the most intense usage season characterized by soil graves within additional soil accumulation layers, intensively taking up space, overlapping and cutting across each other. The accumulation layers of the necropolis, the layers filling the graves and burials themselves have brought to light a wide range of pottery fragments and objects that reflect different aspects of late Middle Ages life in Leopoli-Cencelle. The sample is composed by 96 individuals: 69% adults and 31% subadults. Anthropological analyses are still going on in order to reconstruct not only biological features (sex, age at death, stature etc) but to achieve a full palaeobiological reconstruction of this medieval population.