Research: “Archaeology of medicine”: analysis of medieval medical techniques and instruments from the site of Cencelle (VT)
Giulia Cati is a PhD student of Archeology at the University of Rome Sapienza.
She graduated in the bachelor’s degree in Archaeological Sciences at University of Rome Sapienza, focusing her studies on the Middle Ages. The degree took place in the academic year 2019/2020, with a thesis "Cranial trepanation in the Middle Ages: archaeological aspects and medical practice", made possible thanks to the collaboration of the Medieval Archaeology Department with the Medicine History Department.
This collaboration made it possible the master’s degree in the academic year 2022/2023 with a thesis “From excavation to museum: lifestyles and health conditions of two individuals from Leopoli-Cencelle”, functional for the musealization project of two individuals from the this site.
Multiple excavation experiences gained especially at the Leopoli-Cencelle (Viterbo) site during the bachelor’s degree period (September-October 2017; September-October 2018) and then during the master’s degree period (September 2021).
She participated at the excavation at Dragoncello (Acilia) during the first year of the studies (October 2016).
In addition, she participated at the excavation at the Saint Sepulcher at Jerusalem during the master’s degree period (December 2022 – January 2023) and post-degree with a scholarship for the excavation activity and archaeological and topographical documentation (April – July 2023).
During her training period, she carried out laboratory activities in various fields: during her bachelor’s degree, she worked on ceramics in order to the type recognition, technical drawing and thus cataloguing the various artefacts from the excavations.
In the master's degree period, activities were carried out in the field of archaeozoology for the recognition of species and anatomical parts; the study of epigraphs in the context of Rome and the processing of digital tracing; the processing of data within the excavation databases, and also the study of GIS and the processing of ortho-photos processing for the creation of 3D models.
Her interests in projects that have been carried out and are currently being worked on mainly concern the relationship of archaeology with multiple disciplines, such as the history of medicine and physical anthropology, for an interdisciplinary approach to research.