1. Everyday Life - Health

2. Everyday Life - Health
• The main evidence for the health of the
population comes from the investigations
of skeletal remains
• Estelle Lazer examined skeletons from
Pompeii and Sara Bisel and Luigi
Carpasso examined those from
Herculaneum

3. Everyday Life - Health
• Some general conclusions about health,
height, gender and age can be drawn
from examining the bones
• Overall, skeletons present a good
sample of the population, including
men, women and children, although
infants and juveniles are under
represented because their remains are
less likely to have survived

4. Everyday Life - Health
• The condition of the bones suggests a
reasonably healthy population
• On average female skeletons are shorter
than the males, 155cm compared with
168cm, a little taller than modern
Neapolitans
• On the basis of minerals present in the
bones, Bisel concludes that most people in
Herculaneum ate vegetables and seafood
rather than a large amount of meat to
obtain their protein

5. Everyday Life - Health
• Teeth in some skeletons
show considerable wear,
sometimes down to the
gum line, due mainly to
the grit in bread
resulting from the flour
milling process
• Lazer has made some
deductions about
disease, although she
cautions that not all
diseases show up in
bones
• She has found evidence
of respiratory problems
and symptoms of a
menopausal condition in
some of the female
remains

6. Everyday Life - Health
• Bisel and Carpasso have interpreted the
signs of muscle usage as evidence of
heavy manual work
• Lazer cautions that there may be other
explanations, perhaps heavy athletic
training would have produced similar
evidence

7. Everyday Life - Health
• Collections of surgical
instruments have been
uncovered in different
locations in Pompeii,
including tweezers, forceps,
probes, clamps, pliers,
instruments for drilling into
bone and instruments for
manipulating fractured
bones
• Two skeletons provide
evidence of trepanation, an
operation involving the
removal of a piece of skull
to help relieve pressure on
the brain
• Both patients survived the
operation