Archaeology Lecture with Tyler Franconi (Brown University)

Tyler Franconi will speak on “Health and Wealth at Roman and Early Medieval Vacone, Italy." Refreshments will be available from 12 to 12:30, and the lecture will be from 12:30 to 2. Join us in person or on Zoom!

Lecture Abstract:

This paper explores the relationship between health and wealth at the Roman villa of Vacone, located 70 km north of Rome in the Sabine region of central Italy. Excavations by the Upper Sabina Tiberina Project since 2012 have revealed the extensive remains of an early imperial villa with heavily decorated domestic quarters as well as one of the largest known olive pressing installations in central Italy. The region was known in antiquity for its olive oil, and the owners of the Vacone villa undoubtedly earned at least part of their wealth from its sale. As wealthy as the villa was, however, analyses of latrines and wastewater channels reveal that its inhabitants carried multiple gastrointestinal parasites, offering a strong contrast to the perceived elite lifestyle otherwise associated with rural estates. The villa was destroyed, probably by an earthquake, around AD 200, and its ruins were used as a cemetery in the late Roman and early medieval periods. These populations also show signs of parasitic infection and other ailments, thus providing the opportunity to explore the changing relationships between health and wealth in Sabine, Italy, during the first millennium AD.