Skeletal trauma in an Iron age context: new insight into the Etruscan population from Spina (Ferrara, Italy)

Abstract

The analysis of traumatic injuries in human skeletal remains from archaeological contexts offers important challenges for the reconstruction of past populations’ behaviors. In this study, a sample of 303 buried skeletons retrieved from the Etruscan necropolis of Spina (Ferrara, Italy) and dated back to the 5th to the 3rd century BC, were macroscopically analyzed for traumatic injuries. The sample consisted of 38% males, 22% females, and 40% undetermined individuals. Subadults represented 25% of the entire sample. The aim of this study was to collect and describe new data on antemortem and perimortem injuries in the Spina Etruscans, bringing a new perspective to the understanding of social behaviors in this population. In the sample of Etruscans examined 16 individuals showed evidence of one injury and two individuals of two injuries. The analysis revealed 18 cases of antemortem trauma and 2 cases of perimortem trauma. No traumatic injuries were detected among subadults, while men and women presented different types of traumas: women were more prone to stress fractures involving the spine, whereas men were affected by antemortem and perimortem inflicted traumas, suggesting a division of labor and a major exposition of the latter to interpersonal violence. The reduced presence of sharp force traumas found exclusively in males (3 cases, 1.3% of the adult sample) is basically consistent with archaeological and historical data that described this site as a free port without an explicit history of violence.