In summer 2022, as part of our ARC-funded research project “Pursuing Public Health in the Preindustrial World”, Giovanna Bianchi and her team of researchers Serena Viva and Mauro Buonincontri, conducted fieldwork at the site of Rocca San Silvestro, a medieval castle in Tuscany. While an archaeological dig was conducted years ago, little analysis was made on the skeletal remains. Bianchi, Viva, and Buonincontri are using this fascinating old mining community to extract information from skeletal remains, sediment and soil analyses, to make conclusions about miners’ population health, diet, and landscape. For more updates follow our Twitter account @prosanitate and Mauro’s account @goodmeetings1.
- Serena Viva, physical anthropologist working at the Rocca San Silvestro site.
- Serena Viva works with skeletons to explore health impacts of human populations, in this case a mining population at Rocca San Silvestro
- Great desk view
- Rocca San Silvestro
- Mauro Buonincontri, archaeobotanist, sampling sediment from a soil profile to extract charcoal remains.
- Rocca San Silvestro castle ruins