Woman as Work Force in the Imperial Rome: New Prospectives from Recent Excavations in the Roman Suburbs
Authors
Valentina Benassi
Anthropology Service of the Special Superintendence for Archaeological Heritage of Rome
Anna Buccellato
Special Superintendence for Archaeological Heritage of Rome
Carla Caldarini
Anthropology Service of the Special Superintendence for Archaeological Heritage of Rome
Paola Catalano
Special Superintendence for Archaeological Heritage of Rome
Flavio De Angelis
Department of Biology, University of Rome "Tor Vergata"
Roberto Egidi
Special Superintendence for Archaeological Heritage of Rome
Simona Menozzi
Division of Paleopathology, History of Medicine and Bioethics, Department of Oncology, Transplantation and New Technologies in Medicine, University of Pisa
Stefano Musco
Special Superintendence for Archaeological Heritage of Rome
Alessia Nava
Collaborator of the Anthropology service of the Special Superintendence for Archaeological Heritage of Rome
Walter Benedetto Pantano
Collaborator of the Anthropology service of the Special Superintendence for Archaeological Heritage of Rome
Rita Paris
Special Superintendence for Archaeological Heritage of Rome
Lisa Pescucci
Collaborator of the Anthropology service of the Special Superintendence for Archaeological Heritage of Rome
Keywords:
Woman , Work forces , Roman Imperial Age
Abstract
The systematic excavation of funerary sites carried out by the Soprintendenza Speciale per i Beni Archeologici di Roma during the last years, has allowed the collection of a considerable amount of bio-archaeological data. This work try to highlights the role of the woman in the roman society as work force, examining several biomechanical stress markers in the skeleton. The sample consist of 1041 individuals, coming from areas surrounding the urban centre and the rural environment nearby the City and chronologically framed in I-III century AD. Considering together the biological and the archaeological data, we tried to understand the occupational activities in which the women could be involved.
