I Fuggiaschi Di Ercolano

In 1982 the archaeological excavation of Herculaneum's ancient beach began, and we discovered that notwithstanding the near-perfect evacuation of the town there were victims of the eruption. Indeed, the skeletons of about 250 people were found. The anthropological exhamination of these unic bone materials throws light on the paleobiology of an Ancient Roman population whose habits and culture are well known to archaeologists. In particular, we reconstruct the most frequent diseases, the alimentary habits, and the life and work activities also in children: The bone] lesions reveal an ancient society in wich children, even of the youngest age, engaged in heavy manual labour: a sourge that still affected at least 375 million children throughout the world today (The Lancet, 352:1634).