The project BIOLALIA intends to elucidate the sensitivity of human systems to the full range of climatic variations as they occurred during the abrupt cooling phase of Late Antiquity. A selection of 10 osteoarchaeological collections from northern and central Italian sites characterised by excellent archaeological documentation will be analysed through a multidisciplinary approach.
Palaeopathological analysis will evaluate and interpret several parameters potentially related to climatic and environmental factors, such as physiological stress indicators (stature, cribra cranii, cribra orbitalia, linear enamel hypoplasia), and health indicators (maxillary sinusitis, otitis media, periosteal new bone formation). Stable isotope analysis will be carried out to provide information about dietary patterns during climate-induced challenges. Finally, a pilot study will be carried out on the microscopy of dental calculus, an ectopic material which entraps micro-particles, providing insights into aspects of individual lifeways other than nutrition.
Skeletal, biochemical and light microscopic data will be combined with high-quality contextual information for a discussion of lifeways and health conditions of late antique Italy.
The bioarchaeology of climate change is a new and groundbreaking line of research that could lead to an identification of factors that promoted human resilience during past periods of disadvantageous climatic conditions. The knowledge gained with BIOLALIA can provide a historical perspective to climate research applied to the present. Bioarchaeological records offer the potential to detect and understand how past human groups have responded to a period characterised by negative climate events, forming a sound basis for predicting how climate change could impact on our lives in the future and to the evaluation of a range of possible solutions.
