Flavio De Angelis
Department of Biology, University of Rome Tor Vergata, Rome, I
Walter Pantano
Special Superintendency for the Colosseum, the Roman National Museum and the Archaeological Area of Rome, Rome, I
Andrea Battistini
Special Superintendency for the Colosseum, the National Roman Museum and the Archaeological Area of Rome, Rome, I
Keywords:
Demography , Population , Suburbium
Abstract
Demography evaluates the traits of human populations mainly by measuring their sizes and fluctuations. Due to their features, the archeological population structures refer to the distribution of people based both on sex and age at death. These parameters have a direct impact on the risk of death because they vary significantly with age and sex and this is reflected in a proportional sharing of deaths in several groups at risk. This chapter deals with the demographic structure of several imperial communities scattered through the roman Suburbium. A whole sample of almost 3500 skeletons pertaining to 12 necropolis has been analyzed in order to determine the gender and the age at death. Each necropolis is contextualized according to information about people lifestyle and health, trying to deepen our knowledge on the death risk exposure for every population. Our results suggest to consider the imperial Suburbium population as a very complex landscape, where several communities were featured by their different way to face the socio-economic and biologic environments.
