Β-thalassemia: the Anaemia Coming from the Sea

Introduction Βeta thalassemia is a severe haematological disorder, caused by a genetic mutation. Nowadays, medical treatment and prenatal diagnosis allow to prevent the spread of the disease, but in the past it was largely distributed, mostly in people coming from the Mediterranean region. This fact led to the traditional conviction of the Mediterranean origin of β-thalassemia, the reason why it is also called “Mediterranean anemia”. Really, its origin is still controversial, but its distribution shows its probably origin and its spread from Greek population especially as far as Italy is concerned and it also shows interlinking relation with the malarial infection (Iandola ). The disease results in a severe anaemia that prevents to survive, and in peculiar bone modification which can be detected in the osteological specimens coming from archaeological sites. Anyway, a certain diagnosis cannot be made only by a macroscopic examination of the material, but there is a need of sophisticated techniques, that allow to discriminate between the modifications that are unspecific and those that are typical of thalassemia (Schulz 2003).