Violent death of a warrior in the destruction of Roca Vecchia, Apulia, Italy: Insights on hostilities and Aegean connections in the Bronze Age

Abstract

This study recreates aspects of the life and death of a young adult male who died during the siege of Roca Vecchia, a Bronze Age fortified coastal site in Italy. The partially charred and unburied individual, Roca US813A, was found among the debris in the southern room of the main gate to the city.

This paper highlights information that can be retrieved from a single partially preserved skeleton. Detailed bioarchaeological, forensic, and taphonomic analysis, and thorough examination of archaeological and contextual data permit an osteobiography of this individual to be developed, which we situate in the overall picture of Middle Bronze Age regional events and exchanges between Italy and the Aegean world.

This individual represents a unique example of information derived from bones from an archaeological context. After suffering fatal blows to the body, the individual was accidently exposed to heat. This allowed us to analyze wounds that had undergone thermal alteration. Since the combustion of the body was only partial and the same bone retains both highly burned and unburned parts, we were able to document the variations induced by heat at a macroscopic and microscopic level.

To investigate the circumstances of his death, we focus on macroscopic and microscopic details of taphonomy and trauma using micro-CT, forensic, and multi-isotopic analysis. This may be the first secure evidence of a Middle Bronze Age (MBA) war casualty in Italy. In addition to detailed information about their manner of death, we discuss implications for the peopling of the site, tactics in Bronze Age warfare, and the nature of relations between Roca and the Aegean region.