Human mobility is both a fascinating and a challenging issue for the archaeologist. In the Middle Ages, human mobility was such a relevant phenomenon that Jacques Le Goff defined the medieval man as “a perpetual pilgrim in a travelling Middle Ages”. During the Late Middle Ages pilgrims, soldiers and merchants were typical and common travelers, but some individuals were also attracted by the emerging occupational stimuli from cities in full rebirth. Among these cities Pisa certainly played a leading role, both for its bustling and early economic growth since the 11th century and for the Mediterranean expansion of its trade. Can human mobility find a bioarchaeological feedback and explain the Pisan material culture between the 11th and 14th centuries? In an attempt to answer this question, the church of San Sisto, with its cemetery, is an excellent case study. The church was founded in 1087 by the citizens of Pisa with the incomes of the victory over the Saracens of Al Mahdiya, a town near Tunis. The excavation of the cemetery of San Sisto has currently involved about 150 tombs. One of these contains a particular grave good: the burial of the so-called “pilgrim”, a 35/45-year-old woman, who revealed a specimen of pecten jacobaeus on the chest. In the last few years in Italy there have been several studies combining archaeological and archaeometric data, in particular through the analysis of isotopes useful for the reconstruction of human mobility (87Sr and 18O). However, these studies focus on the prehistoric and classical ages, and on the Lombard necropoles, but there is currently no research with this approach for the Late Middle Ages. The case study of San Sisto aims to be a first test for an integrated approach to the study of the Italian medieval mobility.

AN INTERDISCIPLINARY APPROACH TO ITALIAN MOBILITY DURING MIDDLE AGES (11-14TH CENTURIES). THE CASE OF THE CEMETERY OF SAN SISTO, PISA

Agnese Sagliuoccolo;Federico Cantini;Valentina Giuffra;Antonio Fornaciari
2023-01-01

Abstract

Human mobility is both a fascinating and a challenging issue for the archaeologist. In the Middle Ages, human mobility was such a relevant phenomenon that Jacques Le Goff defined the medieval man as “a perpetual pilgrim in a travelling Middle Ages”. During the Late Middle Ages pilgrims, soldiers and merchants were typical and common travelers, but some individuals were also attracted by the emerging occupational stimuli from cities in full rebirth. Among these cities Pisa certainly played a leading role, both for its bustling and early economic growth since the 11th century and for the Mediterranean expansion of its trade. Can human mobility find a bioarchaeological feedback and explain the Pisan material culture between the 11th and 14th centuries? In an attempt to answer this question, the church of San Sisto, with its cemetery, is an excellent case study. The church was founded in 1087 by the citizens of Pisa with the incomes of the victory over the Saracens of Al Mahdiya, a town near Tunis. The excavation of the cemetery of San Sisto has currently involved about 150 tombs. One of these contains a particular grave good: the burial of the so-called “pilgrim”, a 35/45-year-old woman, who revealed a specimen of pecten jacobaeus on the chest. In the last few years in Italy there have been several studies combining archaeological and archaeometric data, in particular through the analysis of isotopes useful for the reconstruction of human mobility (87Sr and 18O). However, these studies focus on the prehistoric and classical ages, and on the Lombard necropoles, but there is currently no research with this approach for the Late Middle Ages. The case study of San Sisto aims to be a first test for an integrated approach to the study of the Italian medieval mobility.
2023
978-80-88441-05-2
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Utilizza questo identificativo per citare o creare un link a questo documento: https://hdl.handle.net/11568/1272446
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