Health and wealth in the Roman Empire |
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| Institution: | 1. Molecular Biology Center, Interdisciplinary Research Institute on Bio-Nano-Sciences, Babeș-Bolyai University, 400271, Cluj-Napoca, Romania;2. Department of Molecular Biology and Biotechnology, Faculty of Biology and Geology, Babeș-Bolyai University, 400006, Cluj-Napoca, Romania;3. Department of Ancient History and Archaeology, Faculty of History and Philosophy, Babeș-Bolyai University, 400084, Cluj-Napoca, Romania;4. Department of Archaeology, National Museum of Romanian History, 030026, Bucharest, Romania;5. Institute of Biology Bucharest, Romanian Academy, 060031, Bucharest, Romania;1. Science and Technology in Archaeology and Culture Research Center, The Cyprus Institute, 2121 Aglantzia, Nicosia, Cyprus;2. Department of Antiquities, 1 Museum Avenue, 1097 Nicosia, Cyprus;1. Department of Anthropology, University of Louisville, 228 Lutz Hall, Louisville, KY 40292, United States;2. Center for Archaeology and Cultural Heritage, University of Louisville, 1606 Rowan Street, Louisville, KY 40203, United States;1. Department of Biology of Organisms and Systems, University of Oviedo, Catedrático Valentín Andrés Álvarez s/n, Asturias 33006, Spain;2. HERCULES Laboratory, University of Évora, Largo Marquês de Marialva, 8, 7000-809 Évora, Portugal;3. MED – Mediterranean Institute for Agriculture, Environment and Development, University of Évora, Pólo da Mitra, Ap. 94, 7006-554 Évora, Portugal;4. Laboratory of Anthropology, Department of Legal Medicine, Toxicology and Physical Anthropology, University of Granada, 18016 Granada, Spain;5. School of Technology Sciences, Department of Chemistry, University of Évora, Rua Romão Ramalho 59, 7000-671 Évora, Portugal |
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| Abstract: | Ancient Rome was the largest and most populous empire of its time, and the largest pre-industrial state in European history. Recent though not universally accepted research suggests that at least for the most populous central periods of its history standard of living was also rather higher than before or after. To trace whether this is also reflected in Roman biological standard of living, we present the first large and more or less comprehensive dataset, based on skeletal data for some 10,000 individuals, covering all periods of Roman history, and all regions (even if inevitably unequally). We discuss both the methodologies that we developed and the historical results. Instead of reconstructing heights from the long bones assuming fixed body proportions or from one individual long bone, we apply exploratory factor analysis and calculate factor scores for 50-year periods. Our measure of the biological standard of living declined during the last two centuries B.C. and started to improve again, slowly at first, from the second century A.D. It correlated negatively with population, but also with other aspects of standard of living such as wages or diets. |
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| Keywords: | Biological standard of living Roman Empire skeleton remains |
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