Infectious diseases and eating habits at Herculaneum (1st century AD, Southern Italy)

This paper shows that many food remains excavated from Herculaneum were microbiologically contaminated, and that the Romans probably had continuous exposure to gastrointestinal diseases. However, palaeopathological analysis of skeletal remains from Herculaneum shows a low prevalence of non-specific bone inflammation. Pomegranates and figs, consumed by the population, were mainly dried and invariably contaminated by Streptomyces, a bacterium that produces natural tetracycline, an antibiotic. Histological analysis of the human remains demonstrates fluorescence typical of this substance. The tetracycline-labelled human remains show that the Roman inhabitants of Herculaneum ate food contaminated by Streptomyces, and this may explain the rarity of inflammatory bone diseases at the site due to non-specific infection in the living population. This interpretation fits with therapeutic indications suggested by Roman physicians that preserved fruits were used to cure some inflammatory diseases. Copyright C 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.