Pompeii victims reveal new secrets thanks to their DNA

© Tetiana Grypachevska/Pexels

In October 79 AD, the eruption of Mount Vesuvius, an explosive volcano, surprised the inhabitants of the city of Pompeii (Italy) and neighboring towns, burying them under several meters of ash and pumice. This tragic event froze the city in time, giving archaeologists a unique glimpse into daily life in Roman times.

An international team of researchers has just gotten their hands on some very interesting new information about the inhabitants of Pompeii, or rather the victims. By analyzing the DNA of fourteen bodies, they have just demonstrated that certain historical interpretations, accepted for decades, were largely erroneous. The results of their research were published on November 7 in the journal Current Biology.

DNA defies the legends of Pompeii

The teams from the University of Florence and Harvard have accomplished a remarkable technical feat:extract and analyze DNA from human remains nearly two millennia old, trapped in the famous plaster casts. Of the 86 bodies currently being restored, fourteen have been successfully studied, and the results have astounded researchers.

The most striking example concerns a scene that has become iconic: an adult wearing a gold bracelet, frozen in a protective posture with a child. This image, long interpreted as the final embrace between a mother and her son, hides a very different reality. Genetic analysis finally revealed that it was a man, with no family ties to the child.

Identities shaken up by modern science

The surprises multiplied as the analyses progressed. Another famous duo, traditionally presented as two sisters or a mother and daughter, was revealed to include at least one man. These revelations somewhat upset our assumptions about gender roles and family structures in Roman society.

Indeed, traditional representations of the Roman family, with well-defined roles for men and women, are thereby challenged. The example of the protective man with a child thus calls into question the idea that only women had a role in caring for and protecting children.

Perhaps family structures in Pompeii were more diverse and complex than previously thought. There may have been stepfamilies, same-sex couples, or strong friendships between individuals of different ages and sexes.

David Caramelli, an archaeologist at the University of Florence and co-author of the study, explains: “This study demonstrates how misleading narratives based on limited evidence can be. Previous interpretations reflected the biases of scholars of the time rather than historical reality .” The so-called hard sciences, such as genetics, can therefore also be influenced by our own cultural biases and distort our reading of the past.

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A Roman city with a thousand faces

The study was not limited to identifying the victims; the researchers combined genetic analysis with the study of strontium isotopes. Strontium is an element found in rocks, soil, and water, and its isotopic composition varies across geographic regions. By analyzing the isotopic composition of strontium in an individual's teeth or bones, for example, it is possible to: determine the regions where it lived and fed during its growth.

By combining these two approaches, researchers can obtain a much more detailed and nuanced picture of an individual's life at a given moment x. This allowed the team to draw up an unexpected portrait of the Pompeian population at the time of the eruption.

Far from being a homogenous community, Pompeii now appears to be a surprisingly cosmopolitan city. The majority of the individuals studied were descended from immigrants from the Eastern Mediterranean, reflecting the incredible cultural mix that characterized the Roman Empire.

Alyssa Mittnik, an archaeogeneticist at Harvard, explains how significant this discovery is: ” Our findings have major implications for the interpretation of archaeological data and the understanding of ancient societies. They also highlight the importance of integrating genetic data with archaeological and historical information to avoid misinterpretations based on modern assumptions. This study also highlights […] broader patterns of mobility and cultural exchange within the Roman Empire ».

These new revelations about the victims of Pompeii are part of a broader movement of a certain archaeological revival. For the past ten years or so, the analysis of ancient DNA has completely revolutionized our understanding of ancient societies: human migrations, family dynamics, pandemics, climate change, etc. These recent discoveries perfectly illustrate this trend and prove that this ancient tragedy has not yet revealed all its mysteries.

• DNA analysis of Pompeii victims has revealed errors in historical interpretations, shattering long-accepted legends.
• The findings show a cosmopolitan population, with more complex family structures than previously thought.
• The researchers behind the study stress the importance of combining genetics and archaeology to avoid interpretations influenced by our modern biases.

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