ORIGINAL PAPER A multidisciplinary study of calcaneal trauma in Roman Italy: a possible case of crucifixion? Emanuela Gualdi-Russo 1 & Ursula Thun Hohenstein 2 & Nicoletta Onisto 1 & Elena Pilli 3 & David Caramelli 3 Received: 8 November 2017 /Accepted: 26 March 2018 # Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature 2018 Abstract Crucifixion is a cruel method of execution. This capital punishment was perfected during the Roman Empire. Despite being a frequent practice, there is only one well-documented anthropological case of crucifixion in the world at the Jerusalem burial cave (Giv’at ha-Mivtar, first century AD). We found a particular lesion on the foot of a skeleton from an isolated Roman burial discovered by excavation in 2007 in northern Italy. Here we suggest crucifixion as a possible cause of the lesion, but this interpretation is complicated by the poor preservation of the bone surfaces and the damage and holes in other skeletal parts. To assess the biological identity of the deceased and the possible effects of ante-mortem violence on this subject, we performed an integrated (anthropological, taphonomic, and genetic) analysis of the remains. Burials showing evidence of violence or deviant burials may shed new light on past human societies. In this case, our interdisciplinary approach provides insight into a particular form of capital punishment. Keywords Osteoarcheology . Taphonomy . Ancient DNA . Roman Age . Italy Introduction The study of special burials, with bodies buried unusually or showing evidences of capital punishments, can help us under- stand the social and religious beliefs of ancient societies, pro- viding clues Bto how the ancients treated their misfits^ (Balter 2005). In Roman society, burials were generally performed following ethical and legal principles (iusta sepultura), except when individuals had committed heinous actions during their life. Iusta sepultura of the deceased was commonly practiced both by inhumation or cremation. Otherwise, Romans thought that the deceased could not leave the world of the living, becoming a restless spirit (umbra errans). The latter case could involve no or hasty burial rituals (as in the case of an executed person), prone burials, mutilations and ligatures, and nailing of the corpses to prevent the return of the dead into the world of the living after being transformed into Lemures, wan- dering and vengeful spirits (Ortalli 2010). Crucifixion was a brutal form of execution practiced for almost a thousand years (Retief and Cilliers 2003). The Romans learnt the crucifixion procedure from the Carthaginians and used it until it was abolished by Constantine the first (fourth century AD). The Romans perfected crucifixion as a form of torture to produce a slow death with maximal pain. The method preferred by the Romans did not involve tying the condemned person to the beam (Edwards et al. 1986), but rather the use of nails. This is reported by Latin writers and by a Roman inscription (Bove 1967; Cantarella 2005) indicating the legal rules to crucify delinquent slaves with the use of ropes to whip them and nails to attach them to the cross. Before the victim was hung from a cross until he died, he had to be scourged with wooden staves or a short whip (flagrum or flagellum). The cross consisted of an upright post (stipes) and a horizontal crossbar (patibulum) (Edwards et al. 1986). After the condemned man had carried the patibulum on his shoulders to the site of crucifixion, his arms were fixed by iron nails driven through the wrists (as the hands could not support the body weight). At this point, the patibulum and the victim were lifted onto the stipes and the feet were nailed to the stipes or to a wooden footrest * Ursula Thun Hohenstein ursula.thun@unife.it 1 Department of Biomedical and Specialty Surgical Sciences, University of Ferrara, 44121 Ferrara, Italy 2 Department of Human Studies, University of Ferrara, C.so Ercole I d’Este 32, 44121 Ferrara, Italy 3 Department of Biology, University of Florence, 50122 Florence, Italy Archaeological and Anthropological Sciences https://doi.org/10.1007/s12520-018-0631-9