Bioarchaeology: Living and death of farming society in Sardinia, Italy (AD 1300- 1700)

This poster highlights the preliminary analysis of the human remains from the cemeterial area along the north side of the Basilica of Saint Antioco of Bisarcio, located near the village of Ozieri (Sassari) in Sardinia (Italy). The church built in the 11th century A.D. and located on isolated vulcanic hill, has been the seat of the Catholic diocese of Bisarchium from 1065 to 1503 and it was rebuilt after a fire in 1174 A.D. Archaeological excavations (2013-2016) have produced a sample of 28 skeletons with a chronology from the 14th century to the 18th century A.D. Physical analyses of different skeletal elements (teeth and bones) have shown to be a valuable tool in tracing change or consistency in activities, lifestyle and diet during a person's life. Especially, enthesopathies (Musculoskeletal Stress Markers) and other occupational stress markers are frequently used to reconstruct past lifestyles and activity patterns of a community. Equally, the record of infections and poor oral health (ante mortem tooth loss, caries, hypoplasia examined in permanent teeth using direct vision and dental explorer) speaks about the paleodiet and health of a human sample. Two skeletons have unusual lesions that would be the results of an infection such as of TBC or Brucellosis: for aDNA extraction the bone surface was decontaminated by mechanical abrasion, followed by 20 min of UV irradiation. Bone coring was then performed in order to extract a small core of internal bone. Each core was grounded in a steel mortar with a steel pestle to obtain bone powder used then for aDNA extraction. DNA was then extracted following a phenol-chloroform procedure following a 24 hour decalcification incubation. To test the presence of M. tuberculosis DNA, the extracted DNA was PCR amplified using M. tuberculosis specific primer pair targeting to a 123-bp fragment of the repetitive element IS6110.