The last battle of Anne of Brittany: Solving mass grave through an interdisciplinary approach (paleopathology, biological anthropology, history, multiple isotopes and radiocarbon dating)

• DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0248086
• Publication Date: 2021-05-05T17:51:30Z
• Authors: Rozenn Colleter; Clément P. Bataille; Henri Dabernat; Daniel Pichot; Philippe Hamon; Sylvie Duchesne; Françoise Labaune...; Stéphane Jean; Gaétan Le Cloirec; Stefania Milano; Manuel Trost; Sven Steinbrenner; Marine Marchal; Céline Guilbeau-F...; Norbert Telmon; Éric Crubézy; Klervia Jaouen
• Keywords: Paleopathology; Identification

Mass graves are usually key historical markers with strong incentive for archeological investigations. The identification of individuals buried in mass has long benefitted from traditional historical, archaeological, anthropological and paleopathological techniques. addition novel methods including genetic, genomic isotopic geochemistry have renewed interest solving unidentified graves. In this study, we demonstrate that the combined use these techniques allows found two Breton graves, where one method alone would not revealed importance discovery. skeletons likely belong to soldiers enemy armies who fought during a major event history: siege Rennes 1491, which ended by wedding Duchess Brittany King France signaled end independence region. Our study highlights value interdisciplinary approaches particular emphasis on increasingly accurate markers. development sulfur isoscape testing triple isotope geographic assignment detailed companion paper [13].