Last June, archaeologists uncovered a huge Roman necropolis containing some 270 tombs south of Rome at Ponte Galeria, near Rome's Fiumicino airport, following a tip-off from the art police. Anthropologists who have examined the 300 skeletons said that some 70 per cent are adult men, many of them showing signs of years of heavy work: joint and tendon inflammation, compressed vertebrae, hernias and spinal problems. This has led them to suggest that they may have been workers from a nearby salt mine who carried heavy sacks on their backs or shoulders, or otherwise may have been involved in the construction of ports for the emperors Claudius and Trajan. Many of the skeletons were found with a coin placed in their mouths as the traditional toll for Charon. The coins bear the portraits of the Emperor Trajan (53-117) and Faustina the Elder (100-141), wife of Emperor Antoninus Pius, giving an approximate date for at least some of the burials.

''Here the main point is not the recovery of works of art, but the possibility of learning about the daily life of a small sample of imperial citizens at the lowest social levels,'' said Rome archaeology superintendent Angelo Bottini.

''It allows us to connect historical testimony with concrete reality about how people lived in the capital during the empire's most splendid era and understand how a small marginal community organised itself when faced with death,'' he added.

Also excavated was a skeleton of a man whose lower jaw was fused to his upper jaw. Study indicated "how for all of his life this individual was fed, likely through the care of his family" with liquids or semisolids "introduced through a hole made through his teeth," the archeology statement said. The man lived into his 30s, a decent age at the time. Experts took that as evidence that the lower classes cared for the disabled.

Although most of the tombs contained only basic artefacts, the graves of two young boys led to more interesting finds. One boy held a necklace made from bones, shells and an amber pendant to protect him in the afterlife, while another was buried with two gold earrings and a large ceramic oil lamp decorated with a scene from a grape harvest. Excavations at the site are continuing.

Sources : Italy Magazine ; bulletin from Wanted In Rome ; M. Harrsch’s Roman Archaeology blog.