"The experts also noted remarkably good dental health."
Mind you, 0 needs inventing or what happens between 1 and -1 ... oh and -1 needs defining too, whatever that nonsense is!
People haven't somehow magically become cleverer over the recent millennia. We just have some fancier tools these days. I'm sure if you gave a few Romans enough wine and the starting point of "Quid CDI significat?" then you would probably get a decent discussion.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roman_numerals#Standard_form:
“The numerals for 4 (IV) and 9 (IX) are written using subtractive notation, where the smaller symbol (I) is subtracted from the larger one (V, or X), thus avoiding the clumsier IIII and VIIII. Subtractive notation is also used for 40 (XL), 90 (XC), 400 (CD) and 900 (CM). These are the only subtractive forms in standard use.
[…]
While subtractive notation for 4, 40, and 400 (IV, XL, and CD) has been the usual form since Roman times [citation needed], additive notation to represent these numbers (IIII, XXXX, and CCCC) very frequently continued to be used, including in compound numbers like 24 (XXIIII), 74 (LXXIIII), and 490 (CCCCLXXXX).[12] The additive forms for 9, 90, and 900 (VIIII,[9] LXXXX, and DCCCC) have also been used, although less often“
Flour was ground by stone, tiny pieces of stone made its way into the bread, and the stone stripped the enamel from teeth.
My dad and grandad would laugh at this. 500ml/day is rookie numbers in the former Roman parts of Eastern Europe.
Because they (and many other people) drank more than that, doesn't mean it's a good diet. The Romans drank they wine cut with water though I think.
[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_alcohol_c...
And yes, this was a real thing.
However, besides the more expensive honey, boiled concentrated grape juice was widely used as a sweetener, for most purposes where today sugar would be used.
Grape juice concentrated and sterilized by boiling has been used for millennia as the main sweetener instead of the more expensive honey, and in most cases the vessels used for boiling must have been made of healthier materials, e.g. bronze in the more ancient times, then cheaper brass during the Roman times.
In the warmer countries of the Middle East, boiled concentrated date juice was used instead of grape juice.