Between Anthropology, Genetics and Obstetrics: a Study of Potential Childbirth Deaths from the Hospital Cemetery of Forlì Campus (18th Century)

In 2014 an archaeological area dated between the 17th and the 18th centuries and located in the historical downtown of the city of Forlì (FC), in Northern Italy, offered the possibility to retrieve and study a huge amount of burials, some of which contained perinatal individuals buried in the same grave with adults. The location of this archaeological site (identified as “Forlì Campus”), near the area of the ancient city hospital, generated the idea that this site could have been the hospital cemetery in the 18th century. The possibility to study the bisome burials, represented by an adult and a perinatal individual, coupled with the period to which they date, make this sample of particularly interest. In fact, since prehistoric times, pregnancy, labor, birth and obstetrics have been women’s field.