This research project aims at tracing the life history of ancient Romans through a multidisciplinary analysis of human remains to trace past nutrition and health status. We plan to apply stable carbon and nitrogen isotope analysis of teeth and bones combined with the morphological identification of microremains and the study of ancient DNA in the microbiome preserved in dental calculus: such a combined approach has never been applied in bioarchaeology, making this a pioneering investigation. The principle behind the project lies in the possibility to investigate different moments of the life of individuals from early (teeth) to late (bone) life, while capturing specific events and life conditions (calculus), following an osteobiographic approach.
The sites selected for this study are three towns gravitating around the capital of the Empire; their inhabitants were part of different social classes and were likely subject to very different life conditions: most likely Patricians at Portus Romae, and slaves, freemen, workers and generally poor individuals at Lucus Feroniae and Selvicciola. By combining multiple levels of investigation on various social categories from the roman world we will be able to trace lifestyle at various stages of an individual¿s history (childhood vs. adulthood) and at various levels of the roman society (patricians vs. plebes; men vs. women). The methodology proposed is innovative and the research approach has never been attempted in Italy, making a substantial contribution to bioarchaeological studies on ancient Rome.
Stable carbon and nitrogen isotopes investigations of human and animal bone collagen are nowadays routinely applied in the study of human past populations¿ diet and lifeways. While their application showed to be essential in understanding past food practice, they have often been used to identify major shifts in either cultural (i.e. economy) or natural (i.e., ecology) phenomena. More recent approaches are dealing with individual life histories, with the aim to capture single events, or specific moments in the life of past people.
With carbon and nitrogen on different tissues so as to capture early and later diet, the analysis of dental calculus, carried out on the same individuals, might further assess osteobiographies. Dental calculus is emerging as a potential substrate for the direct investigation of the evolution of the oral microbiome and associated measures of oral health and diet. In this perspective, the morphological identification of food microremains trapped in the calculus will allow for the reconstruction of specific foods (at the species level) and their relative contribution to the diet. Further, the analysis of aDNA preserved in the oral miocrobiome will help in identifying pathogens of the host and possible taxa related to the consumption of a variety of substances.
This combined approach has never been attempted before; its application to the Roman world, for which archaeological, historical and biological information is abundant, might represent an ideal strategy. The skeletal series selected for this investigation are suitable contexts for such a purpose and the network of collaborations built throughout the years by the applicant and the components is the ideal premise for a successful investigation.
The project is the first in Italy to apply stable isotope analysis of incremental human dentine and oral microbiome aDNA analysis and will represent a pivotal contribution to the understanding of life histories at Imperial Rome.
This research has the potential to become a pioneering study in Italy, which will place Sapienza, once again, at the forefront of innovation.