Title: Cases of tuberculosis from the St. Sava cemetery (Bucharest) and comments over a sample from the 20th century

Authors: Andrei Soficaru¹, Mihai Constantinescu¹, Luminiţa Adreica²

Affiliations: ¹Institute of Anthropology, Romanian Academy, Bucharest, Romania; ²Museum of Arad, Arad, Romania

Abstract: During the archaeological excavations from the University Square, the east area of the Church Saint Sava’s cemetery was unearthed and a number of 676 graves from 16^th to 19^th centuries were discovered.

The human remains were analysed by the Laboratory of Palaeoanthropology (Institute of Anthropology, Romanian Academy) and it was recording state of preservation and representation, sex determination (skull and hip bones features), non-adult age estimation, adult age estimation, pathology, and traumatic injuries.

The sample comprises 133 non-adults and 491 adults; by sexes are 149 females, 236 males and 106 are indeterminate. From those, four skeletons display pathological modifications due to the tuberculosis. As chronology: skeleton M 231 is dated in the period of 1441–1524 (BPU_3; Poz-66330; 390±30 BP); the skeletons 468, 488, 637 are dated in 16^th–19^th centuries based on the inventory.

Anthropological data: skeleton 231 (male of 33–42 years), skeleton 468 (indeterminate of 14–16 years), skeleton 488 (female of 20–23 years), skeleton 637 (female of 30–40 years). All of them display lesions on radii, ulnae, ribs, lumbar vertebrae, os coxae, femurs, and tibiae; also, some have cribra cranii or hypoplasia.

In our study will discuss these archaeological cases and they will be linked with TB cases recorded in the statistical yearbooks of Bucharest and Rainer Osteological Collection.