The medieval Church of Saint Peter and Paul (Brentonico, Northeast Italy). Anthropological analysis and archaeological investigations

The medieval church of Saints Peter and Paul (Brentonico, Trentino Alto Adige, northeast Italy) is one of the oldest religious buildings of the Vallagarina. Since 2003 and 2004, the interior of the church has been under archaeological investigation to acquire historical data to trace the construction phases of the building. During the first field season several architectural phases of the church were exposed, from the 8th to the 9th century. Under the Romanesque bell tower (13th century), a multiple mass grave was discovered. The minimum number of individuals (MNI) is 22: 4 subadults and 18 adults (5 females, 10 males and 3 subjects of which the skeletal sex was not de termined). The anthropological analysis continued with the evaluation of pathological conditions, traumas, nutritional deficiencies, development of the skeletal markers of occupational stress (MOS) and musculoskeletal stress markers (MSM). The majority of the skulls shows strong evidences of vitamin deficiency and the presence of a well palpable crista supramastoidea, a particular archaic trait. Some of the subjects are remarkable for their pathological conditions: an adult male with an extended antemortem cut on the skull and a concha bullosa (the pneumatization of middle turbinates), an adult male with a Brodie abscess and another with a proximal tibiofibular fusion. In one hand, in order to better investigate the paleodemography, it was necessary to obtain more osteoarchaeological data, on the other hand the peculiarity and the rarity of some diseases in the archaeological sample make these evidences remarkable