MISSING WOMEN IN THE ITALIAN MIDDLE AGES? DATA AND INTERPRETATION

A recent study focusing on Italian Early and Late Middle Ages using archaeological data shows that the ratio between male and female individuals aged 20+ was clearly disproportionate in favour of the former (169 men per 100 women). Such unbalanced sex ratio is not observed neither in Italian cemeteries during Roman times or Late Antiquity nor in medieval necropolises of France, Hungary and Germany. The first aim of this paper is to demonstrate that this disproportionate sex ratio mirrors a higher infant and youth female mortality in the Italian Middle Ages, rather than statistical artefacts or selection problems concerning data on the necropolises compared those on the general population. The second aim is to disentangle the causes of such peculiarities. The (albeit scarce) written sources support the idea that the transition from Roman to medieval times in Italy was characterized by a weakening of the pater familias and – more generally – the family of origin’s control over women (throughout their lives), in part due to a widespread affirmation of exogamous marriage. This shift may have been particularly drastic in Italy – the heart of the Roman familial system – compared to Central-Eastern Europe.