A new medieval cemetery discovered at Târgoviște (Dâmbovița County, Romania). Bioarchaeological characteristics

Abstract

Recent preventive archaeological research in Târgoviște led to the discovery of a segment of a medieval cemetery (16th– 17th centuries), previously unknown from archaeological and documentary sources. Eighteen inhumation pits containing at least 19 burials (36 individuals) were investigated. In what demography is concerned, there were 23 subadults (one foetus, 11 infants, ten children, and one male adolescent) and 13 adults (two young adults, two middle adults and two old adults, of which one male, six females and six indeterminate). The increased mortality among the subadults was evidenced both by traumatic manifestations, resulting in a violent death in one case, but also by means of three skeletal and dental indicators of biological stress : linear hypoplasia of tooth enamel, cribra orbitalia and osteoperiostitis. Among the etiological agents of these pathological conditions were noted nutritional deficiencies or infectious diseases. The recording of the pathological manifestations observed in the analysed sample provides significant information regarding the socio‑economic conditions and the way of life specific to the population of Wallachia in the Middle Age

Keywords

• middle ages
• greater wallachia
• târgoviște
• 16th–17th centuries
• cemetery
• bioarchaeology