Re: David and Noelle Soren (edd.), A Roman Villa and a Late-Roman Infant Cemetery: excavation at Poggio Gramignano, Lugnano in Teverina. Reviewed by W. V. Harris.
Two brief comments on Harris’ remarks on the malaria epidemic postulated as the cause of the infant deaths:
1) There is now some direct evidence for malaria at Lugnano provided by ancient DNA extracted from one of the skeletons. This evidence is going to be published by myself and Susan Gomzi in a forthcoming issue of the journal Ancient Biomolecules.
2) The forthcoming work on malaria in Roman Italy attributed by Harris to Walter Scheidel is actually being done by me. The considerable volume of evidence for malaria in Italy in antiquity will be presented in detail in my book Malaria and Rome: a history of malaria in Italy in antiquity, forthcoming from Oxford University Press.