Introduces isotope archaeology – the use of mass spectrometry to determine the stable isotope ratios of the lighter elements (carbon, oxygen, nitrogen) in organic materials including bone and dental enamel, and also the heavier isotope ratios (strontium, lead) on biological tissue and inorganic materials.

Chapter 3 describes the deep prehistory of the human presence on the plateau and focuses on the necessity of genetic and physiological adaptations for successful, permanent life on the plateau. Sites with early dates are described and models for the peopling of the plateau are evaluated.

The first chapter examines the Subura’s early urbanization from the Iron Age through the Middle Republic. It shows a mixed occupation of plebeians and patricians from the start. Most importantly, it emphasizes the creation of a sacred landscape composed of multiple shrines dedicated to female deities throughout the valley. Each one evoked the city’s mythological origins to highlight the important role that women played in constructing and uniting Rome’s contemporary social fabric.

The second chapter focuses on the residential boom in and around the Subura and the building campaigns of Augustus, which betray the emperor’s consternation with the bustling commercial and residential district. A reputation for prostitution began to emerge, so close to the monumental center, and this is considered in the context of Augustus’ building program in the neighborhood, namely the Basilica Aemilia and the Porticus Liviae, which together bookended the lower Subura valley.

From the Republic through the early medieval period, the local residents and Rome’s institutional power-holders together shaped both the physical and the ideological landscape of the Subura. Defined by the sloping, narrow valleys that fed into the Forum – the functional and symbolic heart of the city – the Subura and Argiletum thrived on the movement compelled by the thoroughfares that lined these valleys and the connection to the Forum that they provided. The valley was understood and perceived in antiquity as an integral topographical unit in Rome’s natural landscape stretching from the Forum to the Campus Esquilinus outside the Porta Esquilina, and it is only by considering the valley as a whole that both the physical and the ideological development of the area can be fully understood. Similar to a landscape archaeology exploring issues of connectivity between different nodes or settlements within a broader terrain, this work has attempted to show how the development of the Subura valley and Cispian hill was very much a function of its nature as a path connecting center and periphery. Its development was directly affected by the ways in which connections with major nodes were manipulated and altered within various historical and cultural circumstances.

Discusses the ionic and covalent bonds between atoms and the various forms of intermolecular bonding, showing how these manifest themselves in the shape of the molecules. It also introduces the nomenclature of organic compounds, and isomerism.