Korean J Parasitol.
2019 Dec;57(6):587-593. 10.3347/kjp.2019.57.6.587.
Assessing the Parasitic Burden in a Late Antique Florentine Emergency Burial Site
- Affiliations
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- 1University of Bordeaux Montaigne, CNRS UMR 5607 Ausonius, Maison de l'Archéologie, Domaine universitaire, 8 esplanade des Antilles, 33607 Pessac cedex, France.
- 2University of Bourgogne Franche-Comté, CNRS UMR 6249 Chrono-Environment, 16 route de Gray, 25030 Besançon cedex, France. kevroch@gmail.com
- 3Soprintendenza Archeologia, Belle Arti e Paesaggio of Firenze, Pistoia and Prato, Italy.
- 4Legal Medicine Section, Department of Public Health and Paediatric Sciences, University of Turin, C.so Galileo Galilei, 22, 10126 Torino, Italy.
- 5Warwick Medical School, Biomedical Sciences, University of Warwick, Coventry, 4CV 7 AL, United Kingdom.
- 6ADES (UMR 7268), Laboratoire d'Anthropologie bio-culturelle, Droit, Éthique & Santé (Adés), Faculté de Médecine de Marseille, 51 Boulevard Pierre Dramard, France.
- KMID: 2469989
- DOI: http://doi.org/10.3347/kjp.2019.57.6.587
Abstract
- Excavation (2008-2014) carried out under the Uffizi Gallery (Florence, Italy) led to the discovery of 75 individuals, mostly buried in multiple graves. Based on Roman minted coins, the graves were preliminarily dated between the second half of the 4th and the beginning of the 5th centuries CE. Taphonomy showed that this was an emergency burial site associated with a catastrophic event, possibly an epidemic of unknown etiology with high mortality rates. In this perspective, paleoparasitological investigations were performed on 18 individuals exhumed from 9 multiple graves to assess the burden of gastrointestinal parasitism. Five out of eighteen individuals (27.7%) tested positive for ascarid-type remains; these are considered as "decorticated" Ascaris eggs, which have lost their outer mammillated coat. Roundworms (genus Ascaris) commonly infest human populations under dire sanitary conditions. Archaeological and historical evidence indicates that Florentia suffered a period of economic crisis between the end of 4th and the beginning of the 5th centuries CE, and that the aqueduct was severely damaged at the beginning of the 4th century CE, possibly during the siege of the Goths (406 CE). It is more than plausible that the epidemic, possibly coupled with the disruption of the aqueduct, deeply affected the living conditions of these individuals. A 27.7% frequency suggests that ascariasis was widespread in this population. This investigation exemplifies how paleoparasitological information can be retrieved from the analysis of sediments sampled in cemeteries, thus allowing a better assessment of the varying frequency of parasitic infections among ancient populations.
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