Settlement size, site history, and mortality at Roman Viminacium: Testing the urban graveyard hypothesis

Abstract

It is a widely held view that ancient cities were unhealthy environments. Some scholars have gone so far as to suggest that larger pre-Industrial cities were so lethal as to be unable to sustain their population levels without constant immigration from rural hinterlands. The present study therefore examines mortality at the ancient city of Viminacium on the Danube frontier in an attempt to test the Urban Graveyard Hypothesis using skeletal remains from a provincial Late Roman context. Given the known trajectory of urban development at Viminacium, which began as a small military outpost on the Roman Limes during the 1st Century and evolved into a large, regionally important political and economic center persisting into the 5th century, it was possible to study changes in health as settlement size and density increased through examination of skeletons from the graveyards surrounding the city. The results suggest that local, historically-specific conditions – namely the Third Century Crisis known from ancient documentary sources – were far more influential upon general public health than increasing population size at Viminacium.