Ancient DNA rewrites the stories of Pompeii residents

'A presumed mother protecting her child was a man'

By: ansa.it

Nov 08 2024
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Ancient DNA rewrites the stori

For centuries, the remains of an adult wearing a gold bracelet found buried in the ancient Roman city of Pompeii following a volcanic eruption in 79 AD were believed to belong to a mother who had died while trying to shield her child.
    Now a study carried out thanks to ancient DNA collected for the first time from bits of human bones has revealed that the adult was actually a man who was unrelated to the child he was trying to protect.
    This is just one of the many stories rewritten thanks to the study led by Harvard University, with the participation of the University of Florence, which has been published by the journal Current Biology.
    The genetic data collected by scientists comes from bone fragments recovered through plaster casts of people who died in the eruption.
    Their findings challenge old assumptions about the victims' identities, ancestry and family relationships, originally made starting from the mid-1700s, when archaeological research began in the city.
    David Caramelli, an anthropologist from the University of Florence who co-authored the study led by David Reich, said the team examined 14 plaster casts but found "readable and usable DNA only in seven of them".
    Caramelli said that, in addition to the man with the gold bracelet shielding the child, scientists also discovered that another couple of victims originally believed to be sisters or a mother and daughter were in fact "two unrelated men".
    Another individual "found in the so-called Villa of the Mysteries did not have local ancestors".
    In fact, the individuals examined were descendants of people who had recenelt immigrated from the eastern Mediterranean, highlighting the cosmopolitan nature of the Roman empire.
    "This study shows the importance of integrating genetic data with archaeological information to avoid erroneous interpretations - otherwise stories tend to reflect the vision of the world of researchers rather than reality", stressed Caramelli.