- Jean MacIntosh Turfa with Marshall J. Becker –
combat or practice resulted in a broken nose – which healed well, although he probably
carried a rakish scar for the rest of his 40 years of life. Even this affl uent man showed mild
signs of anemia (cribra orbitalia), and had poor dental hygiene (back teeth lost long before
death in lower jaw and bad dental calculus: Becker et al. 2009: 78–79).
In an outlying necropolis of fi fth-century bc Marzabotto, one man’s cause of death
appears to have been high-energy trauma, perhaps a fall from a horse or a height, which
caused a pelvic ring fracture. Hemorrhage in such cases produced a high mortality rate
in the past and still claims some modern victims; this fi nd is said to be the oldest known
example of this particular trauma (Pascarella et al. 2009).
In a fourth-century bc rock-cut tomb at Populonia, the skeleton of a man aged 45–
50 years was identifi ed to have metastatic cancer, its osteolytic lesions affecting skull,
ribs, humerus and femur. The man had robust muscular development and worn upper
incisors, presumably from occupational activities; while the doctors analyzing the bones
felt this was a common worker, perhaps employed in Populonia’s famous metals industry
(Ciranni and Tempestini 2008), his burial in a rock-cut tomb would seem to indicate a
more affl uent status. Still, his affl iction with cancer raises issues of industrial pollution,
although the likeliest cause of his lesions is said to be either myeloma, lymphoma, renal
cell or thyroid cancer, not lung cancer. At Tarquinia, a tumor on the femur of an otherwise
unidentifi ed skeleton was described by Virchow in 1884 (Brown 1960).
A number of men show broken and healed bones of legs, arms, feet, or the effects of
warfare; but women too sustained serious injuries, provoking the question, if an affl uent
woman can be grievously injured, what is her environment like? Or is she in fact, just a
reckless chariot-driver? The second-century bc terracotta sarcophagus of Seianti Hanunia
Tlesnasa in the British Museum still contained her skeleton, of which a thorough study
was made (Swaddling and Prag 2002), suggesting that her effi gy on the lid was indeed
a deliberate likeness. But Seianti’s skeleton had some anomalies not portrayed in her
sculpture: as a teenager, she had sustained some trauma of the soft tissues (not fractures) of
her right pelvis and lower lumbar spine that caused changes in the bones due to crushing,
necrosis and hematoma and causing later arthritis and pain. Seianti also suffered from a
temporomandibular joint injury that occurred around the same time and left her with
poor dental health and other discomfort. R. W. Stoddart (2002) suggested the injuries
resulted from a fall while riding horseback; Seianti lived into old age with good nutrition,
which probably included specially prepared soft foods.
AgingMany skeletons of both men and women show the long-term effects of daily physical labor
(microtrauma) in the deterioration of joints and arthritic conditions, sometimes leading
to infections such as osteochondritis, seen for instance, in remains found in burials at
Castenaso, Budrio, and Pontecagnano (Mainardi and Pacciani 1994; Losi 1994; Giusberti
1994; Fornaciari 1997).
Some Hellenistic sarcophagi show the signs of aging for men whose lined faces, set
jaws and heavy chins are sometimes accompanied by fat bellies, made more prominent
by Etruscan formal dinner dress (the Greek himation exposing chest and abdomen). The
issue of the obesus etruscus (raised because of Catullus’ comment, Carmen 39.11) could
imply poor health due to overindulgence by Etruscans, but apart from a few Hellenistic
sarcophagi and urns, there is no real evidence of obesity or related problems among