This story is a journey through antropology, food and nutrition in Rome in the imperial age.
The very first beginning was a smart TED-Ed lesson about Lucius Popidius Secundus, a 17-year old living in Rome in 73 AD (http://ed.ted.com/on/PADWiE4).
Then students were encouraged to ask themselves about Roman nutrition: what did Lucius eat? Was he rich or poor? Did everybody eat the same of Lucius?
And, mostly, was there a relationship between living conditions, food and diseases? It was and the answer is in the bones: they waited years and years to be asked about and now they don’t lie. They can also tell us if Lucius ate more fish or meat.
Students studied parts of the catalogue of the exibition “Scritto nelle ossa” actually present in Rome.
They had to study the meaning of words like antropology, paleopatology and of many other -ologies necessary to understand what they were reading.
So, now they know that the Anthropology Service of Soprintendenza Speciale per i Beni Archeologici di Roma has recorded and preserved a huge amount of useful data over the years, which have been used for the reconstruction of the biological history of Roman society, especially the Imperial Age.
The use of extensive laboratory investigations utterly changed the way to describe the complex biological landscape represented by the ancient Rome.
Through the analysis of historical sources, it was possible to be focused on the diseases, and related social events, that affected the population of the City that used to be the largest by far of the Ancient World.
The use of biomolecular study, in particular the Stable Isotopes Analysis, by analyzing the carbon and nitrogen ratio in bones collagen, allowed to determine the dietary extent of the individuals.
In addition to the historical and cultural knowledge, this project is supposed also to help students -even if they are so young- to begin thinking about their future studies.