Valeria AMORETTI1 / Francesco CARRERA2
(1SUN Second University of Naples / 2University of Pisa, Italy)
Keywords: Burial archeology, taphonomy, 3D scanner, volumetric analysis, forensic procedure
Abstract:
In 2007, during an excavation directed by Professor Fabio Redi (L’Aquila University, Chair of Medieval Archaeology) in a medieval cemetery near to the chapel of San Cerbone in Baratti (Tuscany, Italy), there was an unusual discovery. The skeleton of an old-aged woman was unearthed: the particularity of this burial was the fact that the corpse was surrounded by nine nails, and other five nails were intentionally plunged inside the mouth. The evidence of the “nailing” of the body was given not just by the ones in the mouth, but also by the recovery of three quadrangular holes in some bones (first right rib, left femur, left anklebone): probably the result of the pinning down. The nails inside the mouth were found in situ: otherwise the ones pertinent to the body were found near the skeleton, but not in contact with it.
This contribution wants to examine taphonomy in a new perspective through this specific case: restored nails and the little holes in bones in those days are examined by 3D scanner and X-ray (bones only) and they will be compared in order to match the results, as in a forensic procedure, to prove and not just to suppose the nailing. The position of the body is actually submitted to diagnostic and volumetric analysis, based on the 3D reconstruction of volumes of the body from the skeleton measures as contour lines. The 3D reconstruction will be able to confirm or not the post-mortem nailing of the corpse, and also to understand the taphonomic processes on the basis of a scientific reconstruction. Researches are still in progress, and will be completed in the summer 2014, creating a sort of preliminary protocol to analyze and predict taphonomy related to burial archaeology.