Death on the Nile
Disease and the Demography of Roman Egypt
Series: - Mnemosyne, Supplements, Volume: 228
- Mnemosyne, Supplements, History and Archaeology of Classical Antiquity, Volume: 228
A pioneering comparative and multidisciplinary study of the interaction between local disease environments and demographic structure, this book breaks new ground in reconstructing the population history of Egypt during the Roman period and beyond.
Drawing on a wide range of sources from ancient census data and funerary commemorations to modern medical accounts, statistics and demographic models, the author explores the nature of premodern disease patterns, challenges existing assumptions about ancient age structure, and develops a new methodology for the assessment of Egyptian poplation size.
Contextualising the study of Roman Egypt within the broader framework of premodern demography, ecology and medical history, this is the first attempt to interpret and explain demographic conditions in antiquity in terms of the underlying causes of disease and death.
Drawing on a wide range of sources from ancient census data and funerary commemorations to modern medical accounts, statistics and demographic models, the author explores the nature of premodern disease patterns, challenges existing assumptions about ancient age structure, and develops a new methodology for the assessment of Egyptian poplation size.
Contextualising the study of Roman Egypt within the broader framework of premodern demography, ecology and medical history, this is the first attempt to interpret and explain demographic conditions in antiquity in terms of the underlying causes of disease and death.
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Walter Scheidel teaches Ancient History at the University of Chicago. He has published widely on ancient social and economic history, including Measuring sex, age and death in the Roman empire (1996) and Debating Roman Demography (Brill, 2001).
All those interested in the social and economic history of classical antiquity, te history of Egypt, medical history, and the historical demography and ecology of premodern societies.