Preliminary anthropological and historical investigation of the Saint Cristopher Church in Pian di Marte, Italy (18th-19th century)

The parish church of San Cristoforo in Pian di Marte - on the hills north of Lake Trasimeno - represents a monument that, in the last decade, has aroused the curiosity and interest of historians and scholars. The restoration work on the building revealed the existence of five underground rooms below the nave, used as burial chambers. The renovation of the church made it possible to investigate anthropologically the human skeletal remains so as to derive valuable information regarding the population of the ancient parish. Furthermore, the discovery of these remains sparked a new interest in the history of this church and its community, which led to the systematic analysis of published and unpublished sources available to reconstitute its historical memory. In this contribution, we present the first historical-anthropological evidence related to the Pieve di San Cristoforo in Pian di Marte, with particular attention to some tapohonomic and anthropological aspects of the skeletal sample.