The burial ground around the church was used from 7th century to the late Middle Ages. The corpses were wrapped in sheets and had no objects with them. The earlier graves were dug in the earth while later on they were surrounded by river stones and covered with a large stone. Graves with small fences and small mortar walls were rare
The abbey cloister was devoted to prayer and meditation. It evoked heaven on earth and was reserved for the burial of a few privileged people. The graves there contain precious objects such as a golden brooch, a silver papal medal, a ring decorated with the ghibelline eagle, the coins of the bishop of Cologne. Maybe the skull of the nobleman with many wounds who was buried in the cloister belongs to the abbot Tommaso who was murdered in t299. The pilgrim shell and the iron buckles were found in other isolated graves.
Studies carried on by Francesco Mallegni and his team show that the skeletons are of males who were quite tall, robust and who used their upper limbs for working: probably they were woodmen, craftsmen, masons, or hay sellers. Women, on the other hand, were slighter than men but had a healthier diet than males. Both males and females, though, had a rather rich diet based on vegetables, meat, and fish. The people from 9th century Aulla were taller than the rest of the population in Lunigiana: this maybe was due to the immigration of soldiers and craftsmen from the north who arrived to live in a new settlement. Since Aulla was a trade settlement, its inhabitants (tradesmen and craftsmen rather than farmers) could rely on a wide range of goods and food, and had high living standards.
