Posted on 11/07/2024 9:39:25 AM PST by Red Badger
These ancient 'sisters' can now be seen in a completely new light.
Image credit: Archaeological Park of Pompeii
The surprising identities of some of the doomed inhabitants of ancient Pompeii have been revealed by a new analysis of their DNA, re-writing the life histories of these unfortunate souls. Based on their findings, the study authors suggest that certain long-standing narratives regarding some of the Roman city’s residents are wide of the mark, and are probably based on erroneous modern assumptions about how people lived in the past.
Following the catastrophic eruption of Mount Vesuvius that annihilated Pompeii in 79 CE, the bodies of numerous victims became encased in ash, thus preserving their postures at the moment of their horrific deaths. Over the centuries, the soft tissues of the deceased decayed, leaving hollow cavities that researchers were later able to fill with plaster in order to create casts of these long-dead Pompeiians.
From the small fragments of skeletal material still present within these casts, the authors of the new study were able to extract the DNA of 14 different individuals, which they then analyzed in order to learn more about their ancestry, sex, and genetic relationships.
“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,” write the researchers. “For instance, one notable example is the discovery that an adult wearing a golden bracelet and holding a child, traditionally interpreted as a mother and child, were an unrelated adult male and child,” added study author David Reich in a statement.
The pair were discovered in 1974 inside a dwelling that became known as the House of the Golden Bracelet, and were thought to have been part of a family of four. However, the new analysis has revealed that the two adults and two children found in the house were all unrelated males.
In an email to IFLScience, co-author David Caramelli explained that it came as no shock to learn that previous assumptions turned out to be so inaccurate. “It happens very often that when we analyze individuals who lived in the past, we often discover 'embarrassing' situations,” he said.
Despite this, Caramelli revealed that “it was certainly a surprise to discover that the family was not a family and that at least one of the two girls was a boy.”
Meanwhile, in a building called the House of the Cryptoporticus, a pair of individuals who died in an embrace had previously been interpreted as sisters, yet turned out to include at least one male. “These discoveries challenge longstanding interpretations, such as associating jewelry with femininity or interpreting physical closeness as an indicator of biological relationships,” write the researchers.
A deeper look at the genetic heritage of the ancient cadavers provided yet more surprising insights, shedding light on the global connections of ancient Rome. “Overall it was interesting that they were mainly descended from recent immigrants from the eastern Mediterranean, highlighting the cosmopolitan nature of the Roman Empire,” Caramelli told IFLScience.
He and his colleagues are now analyzing the DNA of a further 168 individuals at Pompeii, the results of which “will offer us a much more precise and complete population panorama,” he says.
The study is published in the journal Current Biology.
https://www.cell.com/current-biology/fulltext/S0960-9822(24)01361-7
Actually war galley rowers were more likely to be freeman like the skilled rowers in the vaunted Athenian navy. It’s not rowing a rowboat. It takes a great deal of skill to do it right and make the ship manueverable enough to be a weapon particularly a weapon that survives multiple collisions with the enemy. Athenian rowers weren’t of the upper class but writers of the day says they well knew their worth to Athens. You could tell them by the fact they always carried around their rowing bench cushion.
I am reminded of the joke I heard years ago. Archeologists were digging ten thousand years from now and dug up a temple representing an enormous religious group of sun worshippers. They knew this because beneath what appeared to be two broken yellow halos were the words, 20,000,000 served........
They came from surprisingly far away...
Perhaps as far away as the author's and researcher's gloves and hands (when they were not wearing gloves).
Adult male wearing women’s jewelry and embracing an unrelated child. The mystery deepens. How did Democrats get from San Francisco to Pompeii in 79 AD?
Could any of those unexplained Roman mechanical devices have had anything to do with this?
My head is going to be aching before I figure this out.
“Cosmopolitan” cause pointing out the truth that they were almost entirely certain to have been Roman slaves would be “too harsh”
Yep highly likely
Christ Emmanuel................😎
Something that is not discussed is that the majority of the population had fled. Those left behind (and consequently died) were slaves and hired help. They were left behind to watch after their masters property.
CC
Thanks Red Badger.
Perhaps the males were trying to take the children to safety. Perhaps unrelated people embraced as they were overwhelmed by terror. These are normal human reactions to danger and doom.
I visited Pompeii last week. The Romans weren’t shy about sex. An erect penis was often a prominent decoration in front of houses. A penis with the tip pointing to the brothel were carved into the stones of the street to guide men to the establishment. . As far as I can tell there was only one brothel in Pompeii. There is an erect penis jutting from the wall above the door of the brothel. When the volcano was finished enough material was spewed from the volcano that the beach was about 2 kilometers from the city. There was another Roman town on the other side of Vesuvius called Herculaneum. The two cites suffered different out comes. Reading about the different out comes is fascinating.
Left behind servents and slaves caring for property were certainly there. Also poor people who had nowhere else to go. Possibly a few opportunists who thought that they could pick up some loot while the population was mostly gone. All kinds of motives and types could have been there when the ash bomb/pyroclastic flow hit. I look forward to seeing the results of the larger DNA analysis.
Kind of like Motel of the Mysteries by David Macaulay 1979.
Just changed “Before Christ” to “Christian Era” ? That’s how I read it.
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