Roman gravestones hint that ancient economies still shape the present.

The article discusses a computer analysis of Latin inscriptions from Roman gravestones, which suggests that economic complexity tends to remain consistent over time, a phenomenon described as "sticky." Researchers reconstructed economic complexity across the Roman Empire from the first century B.C.E. to the fifth century C.E. using 500,000 digitized Latin inscriptions, revealing connections between various occupations and their geographical distribution. While the findings indicate that regions with high economic complexity in ancient Rome often retain that complexity today, some historians express skepticism about the completeness of the data, noting cultural biases in how professions were recorded. The study aims to enhance understanding of economic growth and development strategies in contemporary contexts. [Extracted from the article]