New DNA tests on Pompeii victims have shaken long-held beliefs

With a single study, researchers have shattered centuries-old fantasies surrounding Pompeii. Eighteen genetics and biology experts from across the Americas and Italy have conducted DNA tests on casts of people who died in the historic eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 AD, when Pompeii suffered several days of ashfall, lava flows and earthquakes. Their results, published yesterday Current biology, Debunk long-held beliefs about the people who lived through this disaster.

Pompeii was uncovered in 1599 when architect Domenico Fontana came across the ruins as part of an infrastructure project. Legend has it that Fontana covered up the discovery because he found certain frescoes too explicit. The actual excavations did not begin until 1748. An inscription excavated in 1763 identified the site.

The ancient city continues to fascinate, thanks to the human stories that continue to emerge from its remains today (in addition to the unexpected structures and fascinating murals that the site continues to produce). In the 19th century, archaeologists began bringing these stories to life, immortalizing the disaster's victims through casts of their bodies. There are hundreds of them, many of which contain biomass. They are often displayed to illustrate the narratives that well-meaning pundits have invented and projected onto them.

Researchers have conducted DNA testing on other human and animal remains from Pompeii over the years. But the new study is the first time anyone has conducted such tests on the casts.

“We sampled 14 plaster casts that were in the process of being restored, from which we could easily remove bone samples embedded in the plaster because they already showed damage,” Harvard geneticist Alissa Mittnik, the study's leader, told me via email with. “We were also particularly interested in these individuals because some testable narratives for their identities and relationships had previously been proposed. In the end, five of the people provided us with usable genomic data.”

The alleged sisters from the house of Cryptoporticus. Photo: Alissa Mittnik.

These five figures included an adult who perished in the House of the Golden Bracelet with a child on his lap. For decades, experts viewed the duo as mother and child. However, DNA testing revealed that the adult was a man who was not biologically related to the child. Two hugging victims discovered in 1914 were presumably female relatives. Here, DNA tests revealed that at least one of the two was genetically male.

“All Pompeiians with genome-wide data consistently derive their ancestry largely from recent immigrants from the Eastern Mediterranean,” the researchers added, “underscoring the cosmopolitanism of the Roman Empire during this period.”

Casts of Pompeii victims in the so-called House of the Golden Bracelet. Photo: Alissa Mittnik.

The paper noted that these revelations show “how modern assumptions about gender behavior may not be reliable lenses through which to view data from the past.”

Although Mittnik thought about it Daily Mail Stressing that some of these false characters may have been servants and slaves, she stressed: “We do not want to propose new stories that could also misrepresent the lives of these people.”

“Perhaps with technological advances and more scientific analysis we can say more,” she said.