In 79 AD, a terrible event took place in the province of Naples (named Campania in Roman times): the eruption of one of the most infamous volcanoes, Vesuvius. The event in fact decimated the entire city of Pompeii, leaving traces and sometimes bodies charred by the ashes, thus offering a striking overview of this catastrophe still today. Researchers have just discovered interesting information about this city thanks to DNA collected from the remains of these inhabitants.
The population of Pompeii was not what we thought
Through their work, published in the journal Current Biologya team of researchers has revealed a completely different demographic of the Roman port city of Pompeii.
Alissa Mittnik, archaeogeneticist at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology and Harvard University, explains to Gizmodo that they discovered “great genetic diversity with significant influences from the Eastern Mediterranean”.
He adds that the latter “was not only a phenomenon in the metropolis of Rome in the imperial era, but extended to the much smaller city of Pompeii, emphasizing the cosmopolitan and multi-ethnic nature of Roman society” .
Bones that speak volumes
To recover the DNA of these inhabitants of Pompeii, the researchers used 14 of the 86 plaster casts currently being restored, and more precisely their bones.
“The team discovered that some residents were of different sexes than previously thought and had different genetic relationships to each other,” Gizmodo reports.
This also made it possible to discover scenes in another way, notably the remains of an adult wearing a gold bracelet and a child sitting on his lap. “Long interpreted as a mother and her child, the remains actually belong to an unrelated man and a child,” it reads.
We also learn that what were believed to be two sisters who died together, ultimately included a man, and were not closely related.
David Caramelli, researcher at the Universita di Firenze and co-author of the study, underlines that “this study illustrates the unreliability of accounts based on limited evidence, which often reflect the worldview of researchers of the time” .
A diverse population
On the demographic side, the team of researchers discovered significant diversity.
“Five individuals from Pompeii were not genetically associated with modern-day Italians and Imperial-period Etruscans, but rather with groups from the Eastern Mediterranean, Levant, and North Africa, particularly Jewish populations of North Africa”, we learn.
All this is not surprising when we know that Pompeii was an important port city of the Roman Empire during the 1st century.
“In my opinion, these results highlight the potential of ancient DNA analysis. Integrated with bioarchaeological data, it can allow a more nuanced understanding of the victims of Pompeii,” comments a geneticist at the University of Rome Tor Vergata.
He also adds that the new data on the genetic composition of the Pompeian population “aligns with previous genomic studies, suggesting an ancestry strongly influenced by recent migrations from the eastern Mediterranean”.
Distinguishing fact from fiction
In conclusion, this should allow researchers to disentangle the truth from the false concerning this past event, and the population victims of Vesuvius.
In addition, it is specified “that the exploitation of the casts as vectors of stories led the restorers to manipulate their poses and their relative positioning in the past”.
An influence that DNA does not have, and which will provide a fairer narrative.
