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Bone wasting reveals the owner of this skull to have suffered from leprosy. An unhealed gash on the
forehead suggests that the man died a violent death, perhaps in battle.
Credit: Mauro Rubini
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The bones of a soldier with leprosy who may have died in battle have been found
in a medieval Italian cemetery, along with skeletons of men who survived blows to
the head with battle-axes and maces.
The find also reveals the warlike ways of the semi-nomadic people who lived in the
area between the sixth and eighth centuries, said study researcher Mauro Rubini,
an anthropologist at Foggia University in Italy. The war wounds, which showed
evidence of surgical intervention, provide a peek into the medical capabilities of
medieval inhabitants of Italy.
"They knew well the art of war and also the art of treating war wounds," Rubini told
LiveScience.
So far, Rubini said, 234 graves have been excavated, many containing both
human and horse remains. Burying a man with his horse is a tradition that hails
from Siberia, Mongolia and some Central Asian regions, Rubini said, suggesting
that the Avars brought their death rituals with them to Italy.
This man, unearthed from the Campochiaro cemetery, took his horse to the grave with him.
Credit: Mauro Rubini
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Rubini and his colleague Paola Zaio detailed three of these bodies in an article to
be published in the Journal of Archaeological Science. The first man was about 55
when he died, the researchers found. They aren't sure what killed him, but they do
know what he managed to survive: a blow to the head that tore a 2 inch (6
centimeter) hole in his skull. The pattern of the wound and the size of the hole
suggest a Byzantine mace as the weapon, Rubini said.
A mace like the one that may have injured the soldier found in Campochiaro.
Credit: Mauro Rubini
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Almost as alarming, the man probably went through the medieval equivalent of
brain surgery. The margins of the wound are smooth and free of fragments, Rubini
said.
Whatever happened, the man survived his wound. The bone had begun to heal
and grow before the man died, Rubini said.
A leper warrior?
Body No. 2, another man of 50 or 55, painted a similar forensic picture. Judging by
the shape of the wedge-shaped dent in the man's skull, Rubini said, he probably
got in the way of a Byzantinian battle-ax. Like his comrade with the hole in the
head, this man survived for a long time after he was wounded.
A battle-ax much like this one could have dented the head of the Lombard-Avar soldier.
Credit: Mauro Rubini
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The third soldier wasn't so fortunate, the researchers suspect. First of all, his bones
show the telltale wasting and mutilation of leprosy, now known as Hansen's
disease. In ancient times, leprosy sufferers were often banished from society.
Apparently the Lombards and Avars took a more tolerant approach, Rubini said,
because this man, who died around age 50, was buried in the cemetery along with
the other dead. [Read: Earliest Known Case of Leprosy Unearthed]
The leprosy sufferer's skull bears the mark of what Rubini and Zaio indentify as a
sword slash. It may not have killed him, but the wound shows no signs of healing,
suggesting the man died within hours of sustaining it.
"The Avar society was very inflexible militarily, and in particular situations all are
called to contribute to the cause of survival, healthy and sick," Rubini said.
"Probably this individual was really a leper warrior who died in combat to defend
his people against the Byzantinian soldiers."
Whoever he was, the mysterious leper may help researchers understand how the
disease evolved over time. Rubini and other researchers are working to extract the
DNA of the bacteria that causes leprosy from bones found in the cemetery. The
goal is to compare the medieval version of the disease to the bacteria alive today,
Rubini said: "We study the past to know the present."