Children in roof tiles: a case study from medieval Paternò (Sicily) Alessandra Morrone 1 , Dario Piombino-Mascali 2 , Maria Randazzo 3 , Giulia Raimondi 4 , Laura Maniscalco 5 1 Department of Archaeology, Institute of History and Archaeology, University of Tartu, Tartu Estonia; 2 Department of Anato- my, Histology and Anthropology, Institute of Biomedical Sciences, Vilnius University, Vilnius Lithuania; 3 Ministry of Educa- tion, University and Research, Adrano, Italy; 4 Department of Humanities, University of Catania, Catania Italy; 5 Superintend- ence for the Cultural and Environmental Heritage of Catania, Catania Italy Abstract. Te study of child fctile burials provides a chance to understand the role and treatment of children within past societies, and this typology of burial customs has been rarely encountered in medieval Sicilian fu- nerary contexts. Tis paper investigates three unusual child burials within roof tiles discovered in the cemetery of Santa Maria della Valle di Josaphat at Paternò (Eastern Sicily), dating from the XIV century AD. A multi- disciplinary approach was adopted, considering the archaeological, bioanthropological and paleopathological aspects of the burials, thus providing a critical evaluation in the light of the historical and archaeological con- texts. Two of these three individuals were well-preserved enough to allow a thorough macroscopic investiga- tion. Te results of the bioarchaeological analyses indicated that they were around 2-3 years of age at death, representing striking examples of non-perinatal individuals recovered from fctile artefacts in Italian funerary contexts. In one of the two subjects, the paleopathological study allowed for the identifcation of skeletal changes associated with systemic metabolic disease. Tis article reports the frst detailed bioarchaeological analysis of child fctile burials recovered from a Sicilian cemetery, paving the way for further investigations of the medieval and early modern Sicilian funerary practices. Keywords: bioarchaeology of children, fctile burials, metabolic disease, paleopathology, Sicily Introduction In contrast to the funerary customs generally ap- plied to adult burials, fctile containers have frequently been encountered in archaeological contexts for the re- mains of infants and young children. Te funerary tra- dition of burying infants and fetuses within roof tiles has been practiced in the Italian peninsula since the pre-Roman and Roman periods, continuing through the Middle Ages and up until the Renaissance. Tis practice has been widely studied. Several examples, most likely derived from the Greek and Roman tradi- tion of burying children within enchytrismos, were dis- covered in numerous medieval and early modern cem- eteries, especially in Northern Italy (1-4). However, the selection of this funerary treatment in Southern Italy, and particularly within medieval Sicilian con- texts, is scarcely documented (5,6,7). In fact, complete and exhaustive archaeological investigations concern- ing medieval cemeteries on the Sicilian territory are quite rare (5,8-11), and specifc literature concerning child burials, very often underrepresented in Sicilian medieval churchyards, is almost completely absent. Te cemetery associated with the church of Santa Maria della Valle di Josaphat is located in the acropolis of the city of Paternò (province of Catania, Eastern Sicily), and was in use from the XII to the XV centu- ries AD. During archaeological excavations performed Medicina Historica 2021; Vol. 5, N. 1: e2021006 © Mattioli 1885 Original articles: paleopathology