In the Early Middle Ages (fifth to 11th centuries AD), central Europe was marked by geo-political instabilities and important socio-cultural changes that led to the admixture of different cultures named barbari by the Romans, whose demographic impact is still not fully understood. These events also involved the populations settled in modern day South Tyrol, a region in the north-eastern Italian Alps. In this context, the early medieval site of Säben-Sabiona (Eisack-Isarco valley, Province of Bozen-Bolzano) had a relevant political role, and particularly due to its geographical location and religious importance, it was a prestigious burial site for individuals of different cultural and social backgrounds. This study aims to gain novel insights into the possible effects of these instabilities on daily life and general health of the people buried in Säben-Sabiona, based on a thorough analysis of accident and violence-related trauma. A total number of 226 individuals underwent a detailed osteological analysis to establish the number of individuals affected by trauma and to reconstruct the distribution, timing and type of injury. Trauma was assessed through macroscopic and metric analyses. Both crude, injuries per individual, and true prevalence rates, trauma per bone, were calculated. Signs of trauma were found on 37/226 individuals, whereby males exhibited more trauma than females and subadults. Most injuries were identified as antemortem fractures on the appendicular skeleton or perimortem sharp force trauma that was predominantly found on the skull. Most individuals featured less than five trauma; however, seven individuals account for more than half of the observed lesions. The trauma investigation suggests that most of the injured experienced skeletal injuries associated with labour-related accidents and only a few, all of which were males, displayed signs of contemplated violence. Hence, it appears that the lives of the studied individuals were largely non-violent, yet, sporadic situations of hostility and interpersonal conflict were also common.

中文翻译：

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意大利中世纪早期 Säben-Sabiona 的创伤模式和伤害流行

在中世纪早期（公元 5 世纪到 11 世纪），中欧的特点是地缘政治不稳定和重要的社会文化变化导致不同文化的混合，称为巴巴里由罗马人组成，其人口影响尚未完全了解。这些事件还涉及定居在现代意大利阿尔卑斯山东北部地区南蒂罗尔的人口。在这种情况下，中世纪早期的 Säben-Sabiona 遗址（Eisack-Isarco 山谷，Bozen-Bolzano 省）具有相关的政治作用，特别是由于其地理位置和宗教重要性，它是一个享有盛誉的墓地不同的文化和社会背景。本研究旨在基于对事故和暴力相关创伤的彻底分析，获得关于这些不稳定性对埋葬在 Säben-Sabiona 的人们的日常生活和总体健康可能产生的影响的新见解。共有 226 名个体接受了详细的骨学分析，以确定受创伤影响的个体数量，并重建损伤的分布、时间和类型。通过宏观和度量分析评估创伤。计算了每个人的原始伤害和真实患病率，每块骨头的创伤。在 37/226 个人身上发现了创伤迹象，其中男性比女性和亚成人表现出更多的创伤。大多数损伤被确定为四肢骨骼的生前骨折或主要在头骨上发现的死前锐力创伤。大多数人的创伤少于五个；然而，七个人占观察到的病变的一半以上。创伤调查表明，大多数受伤者都经历了与劳动相关事故相关的骨骼损伤，只有少数人（全部是男性）表现出预期的暴力迹象。因此，研究对象的生活似乎在很大程度上是非暴力的，然而，敌对和人际冲突的零星情况也很常见。