RE-THINK THAT AGAIN > Ancient DNA challenges prevailing interpretations of the Pompeii
DNA testing of some inhabitants of the buried city of Pompeii has found popular narratives around their identities and relationships are largely wrong, a study finds.
Published in the scientific journal Current Biology, the study was led by researchers at the University of Florence in Italy and Harvard University in the United States, and is part of a wider project to map the DNA of over 1,000 human remains uncovered at the site.
Long-held beliefs about ancient residents of Pompeii debunked by DNA testing
The DNA of Pompeii's residents was able to provide clues to their origins and identities. (Reuters: Alessandro Bianchi)
In short:
DNA testing of 14 individuals buried in the ancient Roman city of Pompeii has shown their sex and ethnic background is different to what earlier archaeologists assumed.
Nuclear and mitochondrial DNA samples showed an individual assumed to be a mother wearing a golden bracelet was actually a male unrelated to the group he was found with.
What's next?
Over 1,000 people have been found in the ashes of Mount Vesuvius' eruption across the site with DNA testing ongoing since 2015.
Pompeii's status as a port city influenced a wide range of eastern Mediterranean, Levantine and North African DNA samples found, representing a wider range of ethnicities than originally assumed, the authors said. A 2015 restoration of some plaster casts of remains found many had been significantly altered by the first archaeologists and restorers who found them, meaning interpretations based on the final pose or shape of the victims' bodies were impacted, as well as assumptions around proximity and gender roles.
Plaster cast moulds of the victims uncovered in Pompeii held valuable DNA for scientists to test. (Reuters: Alessandro Bianchi)
"This study illustrates how unreliable narratives based on limited evidence can be, often reflecting the worldview of the researchers at the time,"the authors wrote.
"These discoveries challenge longstanding interpretations, such as associating jewelery with femininity or interpreting physical closeness as an indicator of biological relationships, . ."
"Instead of establishing new narratives that might also misrepresent these people's lived experiences, these results encourage reflection on conceptions and construction of gender and family in past societies as well as in academic discourse."
Ancient DNA challenges prevailing interpretations of the Pompeii plaster casts
Highlights
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We generated genome-wide data from skeletal material in Pompeii plaster casts
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The data contradict prior narratives about the victims’ identities and relationships
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Pompeiian individuals mainly descended from recent eastern Mediterranean immigrants
Summary
The eruption of Somma-Vesuvius in 79 CE buried several nearby Roman towns, killing the inhabitants and burying under pumice lapilli and ash deposits a unique set of civil and private buildings, monuments, sculptures, paintings, and mosaics that provide a rich picture of life in the empire.
The eruption also preserved the forms of many of the dying as the ash compacted around their bodies. Although the soft tissue decayed, the outlines of the bodies remained and were recovered by excavators centuries later by filling the cavities with plaster.
From skeletal material embedded in the casts, we generated genome-wide ancient DNA and strontium isotopic data to characterize the genetic relationships, sex, ancestry, and mobility of five individuals.
We show that the individuals’ sexes and family relationships do not match traditional interpretations, exemplifying how modern assumptions about gendered behaviors may not be reliable lenses through which to view data from the past. For example, an adult wearing a golden bracelet with a child on their lap—often interpreted as mother and child—is genetically an adult male biologically unrelated to the child.
Similarly, a pair of individuals who were thought to have died in an embrace—often interpreted as sisters—included at least one genetic male. All Pompeiians with genome-wide data consistently derive their ancestry largely from recent immigrants from the eastern Mediterranean, as has also been seen in contemporaneous ancient genomes from the city of Rome, underscoring the cosmopolitanism of the Roman Empire in this period.
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