Funerary Meals During the Roman Empire: Are They the Same As the Modern Diet of People Today?

Researchers recently discovered that funerary meals were much like daily for some people who lived during the Roman Empire.

The said research team, working with a colleague from South Africa, described in their paper the study of animal and human remains found in ancient graves at Vila de Madrid, a necropolis that was found outside of the ancient Roman city of Barcino, now called "modern Barcelona," a Phys.org report specified.

During the Roman Empire, rules were made for dominated lands that tended to coincide with the regulations that the Romans observed.

One set of rules managed funeral arrangements. One of them mandated that an animal or a part of one needs to be sacrificed and placed into the grave with the person who had died, regardless of social status, gender, or age.

Ancient Meals

In this new study published on the open-aces site PLoS ONE, the research team looked into how that mandate was carried out by people living in a portion of Spain.

In their work, the study investigators looked at the remnants of 41 people who had been discovered in the ancient necropolis along with the remnants of 50 animals that had been found as well in the graves.

The team noted that they expected to find that the animal sacrifices would be a special type since it was meant to be eaten by the dead person as they made their way from an "earthly realm" to whatever the afterlife was holding in store.

However, that was not what they discovered. Rather, they found that meat placed in a grave was much the same type and quality as the meat the person would have eaten before his death.

Ancient Funerary Rituals

According to Ancient Pages, ancient written sources reveal that Roman funerary rituals were relevant throughout the whole Roman Republic and Empire, as they guaranteed the protection of deities and the memory of the dead.

Part of such rituals comprised funerary offerings and banquets that were held on the day of the burial, in festivities, and on other stipulated days. The funeral remnants recovered inside and surrounding the graves are pieces of evidence of such rituals.

Therefore, this new research can allow the archeologists to know if the funerary meals and rituals developed in the Roman necropolis were special and suggested food that differed from daily dietary habits, depending on the essentiality of such rituals.

Food in the Grave

The team came up with this conclusion by carefully examining the teeth and bones of the dead people to learn more about what they had been eating in the years that led up to their death.

Then, they compared what they discovered to the food in the dead person's grave. Indeed, they discovered that rich people tended to eat better compared to poor and, thus, had more expensive types of meat in their graves.

Nevertheless, in general, the diet of the deceased person did not change much as they made their way to their so-called "afterlife.

The team also discovered a few exceptions, like graves that don't have animal bones and a couple of individuals who appear to have had radically different diets than everyone else.

The researchers plan to continue their work to learn more about how burials were performed for those interred at Vila de Madrid.

Related information about food in ancient Rome is shown on Imperium Romanum's YouTube video below:

Check out more news and information on Archeology in Science Times.