Does the longevity of the Sardinian population date back to Roman times? A comprehensive review of the available evidence

Abstract

The discovery early in this century of the exceptional longevity of the Sardinian population has given new impetus to demographic studies of this phenomenon during the classical period. In the 1970s, it was hypothesised that the average mortality rate in Roman Sardinia was lower than in metropolitan Rome itself, postulating an ancient precedent for the remarkable longevity observable nowadays in the island’s population. In the present study, the available evidence was examined in order to test this hypothesis. Literary, juridical, epigraphic, papyrological, anthropological and archaeological sources regarding the population of the Roman Empire, including Sardinia, were retrieved by accessing Science Direct, PubMed, Scopus and Google Scholar databases, as well as regional libraries, regardless of time limitation, and were independently reviewed by the authors. For Roman Sardinia, only funerary epitaphs were retrieved, in contrast with the numerous sources available for the whole Roman Empire. Inscriptions revealing the existence of three alleged nonagenarians, two centenarians, two ultracentenarians and one supercentenarian were found, corresponding to 2% in a total of 381 inscriptions. The majority were located in a highly Romanised rural area of central-western Sardinia. However, the ages reported in the epitaphs may be inaccurate because of the influence of confounders such as age rounding, approximations and/or amplifications, and are unrelated to the total number of inhabitants. In conclusion, the funerary evidence, the only available data from Roman Sardinia, is too weak to estimate the life expectancy of the local ancient population and cannot offer valuable arguments to support the hypothesis that exceptional longevity has been a Sardinian trait since Roman times.

Paleodemography: From archaeology and skeletal age estimation to life in the past

“…Historical records are likewise inconsistent with paleodemographic findings. Information, which varies in reliability, from classical antiquity and the medieval to early modern periods in Europe indicates people regularly lived to an old age (Batrinos, 2008; Cummins, 2017; Floris et al, 2021; Montagu, 1994). Here old merely refers to the short lifespans typical of studies of archaeological skeletons, so it is something in excess of 50 years.…”

“…Nevertheless, skeletons have been used to estimate settlement size and duration, and this work dates back to a time when there were few such estimates about excavated communities (Hooton, 1920(Hooton, , 1930. Demographic information for past societies with written records has also been derived from funerary inscriptions, among other source material (Floris et al, 2021;Hin, 2013;Scheidel, 2012;Woods, 2007). These data have their own biases and interpretive ambiguity, so much so that a critique of funerary epitaph information has been aptly titled Graveyards for Historians (Hopkins, 1987).…”

Does the trained immune system play an important role in the extreme longevity that is seen in the Sardinian blue zone?

“…The exceptional longevity that is seen in the Sardinian LBZ is thought to be a relatively new phenomenon, observed in the 20th century. This is supported by a review of evidence from the time of Roman occupation that found no evidence for exceptional longevity at that time (Floris et al, 2021).…”

Association of Genetic Polymorphisms with Longevity in the population of the Sardinian Blue Zone

“…Interest and curiosity for the predictability of human lifespan date back to ancient times. The ability of rare individuals to reach advanced age, and even to live 100 years or more, is already attested in the writings of the Roman era, Middle Ages and Renaissance as well as nowadays [1,2]. However, the interest is the systematic study of centenarians, regarded as a model of successful aging, emerged and grew just a few decades ago, fueling the hope of discovering major biological factors affecting the human life span.…”