More than 700 years ago, a medieval “case of blatant violence” ended the life of a young man with four sword blows to the head and, according to contemporary chronicles, was never solved until a recent study by the University of Insubria, Italy.

The brutality of the injuries suggests the murder may have been ‘a case of cruelty’explained the study’s lead author, Chiara Tesi, an anthropologist at the Center for Osteoarchaeology and Paleopathology at the University of Insubria, Italy.

Tesi and his colleagues analyzed the victim’s skeletal remains using modern forensic techniques, such as computed tomography (CT), three-dimensional X-ray scans and precision digital microscopy of the head injuries.

How was the brutal unsolved crime of the Middle Ages

Archaeologists discovered the victim’s skeleton in 2006 in the church of San Biagio in Cittiglio, a small town in the northern Italian province of Varese.

The oldest parts of the church are believed to date from the 8th century AD the battered skeleton was found in a tomb in an atrium built near the entrance in the 10th centuryI; radiocarbon dating indicates that the victim was buried there before 1260 AD

“The individual was likely surprised by the attacker” and was unable to adequately protect his head, the researcher explained.

After attacking the victim head-on, the killer appears to have pursued the man as he turned, probably trying to flee, as the deepest wounds were inflicted on the shouldersaccording to a study published in the December issue of the Journal of Archaeological Science.

The new study suggests the victim was a man between the ages of 19 and 24 when he was killed.. A study of the excavation published in 2008 in the journal Fasti Online found some of his injuries, but Tesi said the new study revealed more injuries and the sequence of the murder.

In your opinion, the youth likely blocked or dodged the attacker’s initial attack, although the first blow caused a superficial wound to the top of the skull.

However, when he turned to run away, “The victim was hit in quick succession by two more shots, one hitting the ear and part of the neck,” the investigator said.

“Finally, probably exhausted and face down, he received a final blow to the back of the head which caused his immediate death”.. This “obvious cruelty” suggested there may be a complex motive for the killing, Tesi said.

“It’s really amazing how well forensic techniques have been used to examine TBI and how those injuries were caused,” said Caroline Wilkinson, one of the researchers at Liverpool John Moores University in the UK.

Although Wilkinson was not involved in the new study, he did work on reconstructing the faces of some of the victims of a medieval massacre of Jews in the English city of Norwich.

The facial representations, according to Wilkinson, “can create a personal narrative around human remains, rather than just looking at the specimens in a glass box,” said the researcher.