A cemetery dating to the 5th-6th century AD resurfaced below the Uffizi Gallery in Florence during the excavation works to expand the museum.
Workers found sixty skeletons, buried two by two, head-to-foot, which made researchers think that they were buried to save space and in a hurry and therefore they could have been the victims of plague or some other infectious disease.
The small necropolis is located under the Magliabechiana Library.
Researchers will now carry out DNA analysis and carbon-14 dating. Through these exams, they will be able to ascertain the cause of death and they will also able to gather information about eating habits, diseases and other aspects of the Florence population of the time. The possibility of a massacre in relation to barbarian invasions has been excluded because the skeletons do not show any mortal wounds, plus the mass burial would rule out death from starvation during a siege.
The most plausible explanation remains that of an epidemic: either plague, colera, dysentery or a banal influenza which would have been fatal then.
This discovery is especially important because it could bring more light to a period in the history of Florence of which little is known, as the director of the National Archaeological Museum of Florence explained. After the splendor of the 2nd and 3rd centuries, the city got smaller and some parts of its walls were knocked out. This discovery is expected to help understand why.
