01753nas a2200253   4500000000100000008004100001260004400042653002100086653001200107653001000119653002300129653001200152100001300164700001600177700001500193700001200208700001100220245010500231856005900336300000600395490000900401050001500410520107400425       2012                            d  c06/2012bHindawi Publishing Corporation10aFull text online10aleprosy10aItaly10aHistory of leprosy10aHistory1 aRubini M1 aDell'Anno V1 aGiuliani R1 aFavia P1 aZaio P00aThe First Probable Case of Leprosy in Southeast Italy (13th-14th Centuries AD, Montecorvino, Puglia)  uhttp://www.hindawi.com/journals/janth/2012/262790/cta/  a70 v2012  aRUBINI20123 aIn 2008, during an archaeological excavation on the medieval site of Montecorvino (Foggia, Puglia, Italy), ten individuals were found buried near the principal church. The tombs were dated to the 13th-14th centuries AD, except for one attributable to the 11th century AD. The individual from tomb MCV2 shows some bone changes in the rhinomaxillary area. The most probable diagnosis is that she suffered from a type of near-multibacillary leprosy. Although leprosy has been documented in Italy from the first millennium BC and well described in the first millennium AD, its presence seems to be confined to Northern and Central Italy. This is the first case of leprosy in southeastern Italy and the second in Southern Italy overall. At the moment, the interesting datum is that leprosy seems to appear in Southern Italy only after the first millennium AD. All this could be because of the First Crusade with the opening of new trade and pilgrimage routes to the Near East or simply because other cases of leprosy have still not been found in osteoarchaeological context.