SHORT REPORT Excavation and Study of Skeletal Remains from a World War I Mass Grave D. GAUDIO, a,b * A. BETTO, c S. VANIN, d A. DE GUIO, c A. GALASSI b AND C. CATTANEO a a LABANOF, Laboratorio di Antropologia e Odontologia Forense Sezione di Medicina Legale e delle Assicurazioni DMU–Dipartimento di Morfologia Umana e Scienze Biomediche, Università degli Studi di Milano, Italy b U.O.S di Medicina Legale, ULSS N. 6 Ospedale Civile San Bortolo, Vicenza, Italy c Dipartimento di Archeologia, Università Di Padova, Italy d Department of Chemical and Biological Sciences, School of Applied Sciences, University of Huddersfield, UK ABSTRACT This study presents the excavation and multidisciplinary analysis of seven skeletons recovered in a World War I Mass Grave on the mountains of the Veneto Region, Italy. While it is not a rare phenomenon to these mountainous areas involved in the First Conflict, it is exceptional, on these mountains, to find a mass grave with soldiers in primary burials. Stratigraphic excavation was the mean used for recovery, along with 3D laser scanning documentation. Every skeleton but one was found complete and in anatomical connection. Four soldiers lay in the prone position; two subjects were lying on their side. Identification of the nationality was performed for two of the subjects, who both of whom had personal effects such as a badge for military vac- cinations and religious medals. What remained of their uniforms gave clues about their Italian nationality. The entomological analysis conducted on fly puparia discovered close to the bones revealed that the bodies had not been buried immediately. The skeletons were biologically profiled by sex, age, height and ancestry. An accurate study of pathology and stress markers was carried on, as well as on skeletal trauma in order to establish the type of trauma and ammunition involved. The remains belonged altogether to seven Italian male soldiers ages between 18 and 35. Various kinds of stress markers revealed occupational (enthesopathies) and metabolic stress: several signs of cribra cranii and of cribra orbitalia were registered. The study of the injuries revealed a surprising va- riety of types of lesions, mostly lethal: a few subjects were struck by a shrapnel grenade; one soldier was killed by a grenade explosion. Two of the soldiers were probably executed, instead: this conclusion reached on the basis of gunshot holes (9 mm) in their skulls, and by the position of the injuries. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. Key words: Archaeology of War; Laser Scanner; Mass Grave; Physical Anthropology Introduction The study presents the excavation and the multidisciplinary analysis of seven skeletons recovered in a World War I Mass Grave on the mountains of the Veneto Region (Site of Soglio Melegnon di Arsiero, Vicenza, Italy). Although the finding of skele- tal remains from to World War I is not such a rare phe- nomenon on the mountainous areas which had been involved in the First Conflict, it is rather exceptional to find a mass grave with soldiers in primary burials. In Europe, a limited number of archaeological excava- tions involving skeletal remains of fallen soldiers during the Great War have been conducted in recent years (Jacques, 1997; Desfossès et al., 2003; Fraser, 2005). In Italy, however, these kinds of archaeological excava- tions were not conducted until 2006. Furthermore, anthropological studies regarding skeletal remains of soldiers fallen during WWI are very rare in the scientific literature (Jankauskas and Palubeckaitė-Miliauskienė, 2007; Jankauskas et al., 2007; Jankauskas et al., 2011). This study is part of a three year project financed by the province of Vicenza (2006–2009) to improve the recovery and the analysis of fallen soldiers of World War I. Before this project, remains were recovered * Correspondence to: Dott. Daniel Gaudio-LABANOF, Laboratorio di Antropologia ed Odontologia Forense, Sezione di Medicina Legale Dipartimento di Scienze Biomediche per la Salute, Università degli Studi di Milano, V. Mangiagalli 37, Milan, Italy. e-mail: daniel.gaudio@unimi.it Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. Received 26 March 2013 Revised 30 June 2013 Accepted 14 July 2013 International Journal of Osteoarchaeology Int. J. Osteoarchaeol. (2013) Published online in Wiley Online Library (wileyonlinelibrary.com) DOI: 10.1002/oa.2333