Editing Catacombs of Rome (section)

== Discoveries ==
Through research, it has been found that the population's diet consisted of freshwater fish. Sample D9-W-XVI-8, considered to be a two-year-old child, shows that children in Ancient Rome were breastfed and this child, in particular, had not yet been weaned off its mother. This results from the fact that the [[δ15N]] values had not begun to decline.<ref name="Rutgers et al 2009">{{cite journal |last1=Rutgers |first1=L.V. |last2=van Strydonck |first2=M. |last3=Boudin |first3=M. |last4=van der Linde |first4=C. |title=Stable isotope data from the early Christian catacombs of ancient Rome: new insights into the dietary habits of Rome's early Christians |journal=Journal of Archaeological Science |date=May 2009 |volume=36 |issue=5 |pages=1127–1134 |doi=10.1016/j.jas.2008.12.015 |bibcode=2009JArSc..36.1127R }}</ref>

Fish had intertwined secular and religious aspects in Roman society. For one thing, it was a staple of the daily diet.<ref name="Rutgers et al 2009"/><ref name=Robertson1933>{{cite journal |last=Robertson |first=R. Reid |title=The Christian Catacombs of Rome |journal=The Expository Times |date=November 1933 |volume=45 |issue=2 |pages=90–94 |doi=10.1177/001452463304500208 |s2cid=170579130 }}</ref> It also had a variety of significance for Christians, for whom it was not only a common food, as for other Romans, but featured as a [[symbol]] in Christian [[iconography]] and was consumed at meals held to commemorate the dead.