Dietary and Weaning Habits of the Roman Community of Quarto Cappello del Prete (Rome, 1st-3rd Century CE)

This paper aims to provide the isotopic characterization of the diet consumed by people buried in a graveyard of the Imperial Rome Suburbium (1st–3rd centuries CE), where numerous children were buried. A sample of 50 human remains from Quarto Cappello del Prete was selected for carbon and nitrogen stable isotope analysis. Published data related to coeval faunal remains set the baseline of the diet. The results for humans were integrated with previously analyzed data from Quarto Cappello del Prete. The resulting sample of 71 people has been dissected for stratification according to demographics, focusing on the ability to ascertain the weaning process in children. Isotopic data are steady with an overall diet mainly based on terrestrial resources, where C3 plants played a pivotal role in the diet, though the δ13C range suggests that the foodstuff should have been heterogeneous. The remarkable amount of children allows us to evaluate the weaning process. Infants seem to be adequately weaned after 3 years, when they were considered as adults to what concerns the dietary habits. These data represent a valuable enhancement for understanding the weaning practices in ancient Rome, contributing to supporting the hypothesis about lifestyle and health in the Roman Imperial period.