Wednesday 17 April 2024 – 11.53am
From the infant remains of the pre-Roman site of Pontecagnano (Salerno) and dating back to the Orientalizing Etruscan period (730-580 BC) come answers on the spread of scurvy in Pre-Roman Italy.
This is what a study says paleopathological coordinated by Giulia Riccomiresearcher in the department of translational research and new technologies in medicine and surgery at the University of Pisa and recently published in the journal Scientific Reports of the group Nature.
According to what emerged from the research, what favored the onset of the disease was a poorly diversified diet and strongly dependent on the consumption of cereals, lacking in vitamin C. “The 1st millennium BC in Italy was a period of notable importance and transformation, characterized by an intensification of agricultural practices and cereal production, which had a significant impact on various aspects of the social, cultural, political and economic life of the pre-Roman groups present in the area – explains the researcher – This process favored the onset of scurvy , disease caused by a vitamin C deficiency”.
Macroscopic and radiological analyzes on an archaeological skeletal sample of non-adult individuals allowed the identification five cases of infantile scurvy in children aged between 2 and 6 years at death: “The lack of ascorbic acid in the diet causes a defect in the synthesis of collagen, a fundamental protein for maintaining the integrity of connective tissues – continues Giulia Riccomi – Its impairment can affect young children blood vessels causing capillary fragility and chronic bleeding. The result of this process is an inflammatory response with increased capillary formation and a periosteal reaction accompanied by small penetrating porosities (less than 1 mm) clearly visible on the bone surface. In areas where blood vessels are superficial or in areas where muscle contractions can damage the walls of already weakened blood vessels, the response of bone tissue to bleeding provides the most important means of identifying scurvy in paleopathology. The skeletal lesions typical of infantile scurvy are located mainly on the skull, shoulder girdle, pelvis and long bones”.
Thanks to the study, explains the University of Pisa, it was possible to evaluate the extent to which the economic and social dynamics of the 1st millennium BC influenced the health and the expression of skeletal indicators of metabolic diseases in the most vulnerable subjects. As already found in other contexts and historical periods, the introduction of agriculture and, above all, the transition to subsistence economies based on monocultures, such as cereals, have guaranteed on the one hand a more constant and regular nutritional intake from the caloric, but exposed them to a greater risk of nutritional deficiencies. The research also made it possible to confer a diagnostic value on skeletal lesions of childhood scurvy not previously described in the paleopathological literature.
They participated in the study Valentina Giuffraprofessor of the Department of Translational Research and New Technologies in Medicine and Surgery at the University of Pisa, Ségolène Maudetprofessor of Greek history and archeology at Le Mans Université (France) e Rachele Simonitgraduated in Archeology from the University of Pisa.
