Library

This is a collection of essays that examines the history of ancient Rome from natural science disciplines such as climatology, zoology, botany, and osteology. Walter Scheider, professor of history at Stanford University, brings together seven essays by historians, anthropologists, and geneticists who are at the forefront of the field. Their research results help reconstruct life in the ancient Roman world. They discuss climate change and its impact on the history of ancient Rome; build a biological archive with a rich record of human skeletal material, which preserves important information about health, nutrition, disease, work, and more; and show how ancient DNA can be used to track the spread of infectious diseases and the spread of livestock and crops with people.