The DOMINA project: revisiting the condition of women in Milan over 2,000 years through their skeletal remains

The DOMINA (Donne Milanesi Nascoste – Hidden Women of Milan) project aims to revisit the condition of women of Milan over the last 2,000 years in an interdisciplinary approach including bioarchaeology, paleopathology, history, and paleoepidemiology, centered around the study of skeletal remains. The project started with 200 skeletons from the Anthropological Collection of the LABANOF, equally divided by sex and historical periods, representing a continuum of 2,000 years in Milan (25 females and 25 males from Roman, Medieval, Modern and Contemporary periods). The sample has now increased to over double its original size (n=484). Results showed that female skeletons tend to be less complete than those of males (ANOVA, p=0.01) regardless of age-at-death or post-mortem interval and that male and female stature did not significantly vary across historical periods in Milan (p<0.001). Mann-Whitney U and ANOVA tests showed robusticity of entheseal changes varied significantly with sex and historical period. Kaplan-Meier survival analyses and Gompertz hazards analyses indicated decreased survivorship and higher risks of death for females compared to males in the Roman (p=0.014, p=0.037) and Modern (p=0.039, p=0.079) samples, but increased survivorship and lower risks of death for females in the Contemporary sample (p=0.001, p=0.009). These first results are starting to shed new light on the life experiences and history of women in Milan over the last 2,000 years with different patterns of lifestyle and survivorship.