Mauro Rubini and Paola Zaio studied skeletons from 234 graves in an early Medieval (6th-8th century) cemetery in Molise (south-central Italy). Based on grave goods, they suggest that the people buried in the cemetery were of different ethnic backgrounds - the Eurasian Avars, Lombards, and indigenous Italians - and were semi-nomadic. Three of the skeletons appear to have warfare-related wounds, and one of the three also suffered from leprosy in life. The authors therefore conclude that the three were "warriors from the East."
But there is one very problematic feature of this article that quite frankly surprised me, considering the high profile of the journal and the research caliber of the first author.
The Leper Warrior: Persistence of Racial Terminology in Biological Anthropology - Kristina Killgrove, Powered By Osteons
