Genomic research from Pompeii casts doubt on initial accounts of fatalities

Photo Credit (Freepik)

Researchers used DNA from skeleton fragments to prove that the adult carrying the kid—long assumed to be a mother—was actually a male who had no relation to the youngster.

Photograph taken on March 26, 2013, at the British Museum in central London, showing the exhibition “Life and death Pompeii and Herculaneum.” The artifacts discovered in the Pompeiian house are set against a backdrop of casts of the two adults and two children who perished in the same house. (Lefteris Pitarakis, File, AP Photo)

Along with the casts of the two adults and two children who perished together, the golden bracelet was presented.

New evidence implies that the identification of some of the dead buried in Pompeii after the Mount Vesuvius explosion may have been incorrect.

After analyzing 14 casts of victims discovered in the Roman city’s 79 AD ruins, researchers utilized DNA testing to draw conclusions.

According to DNA extracted from skeletal fragments, determining the paternity of an adult wearing a golden bracelet and cradling a child was a male who was unrelated to the infant.

Part of what was dubbed “the house of the golden bracelet” had become famous for its surprising twists and turns.

Other people, including a kid and an adult, whose remains were nearby, were believed to be members of their immediate family.

According to DNA testing, though, all four of them were male and unrelated.

In 1979, a photograph was taken of the Roman city of Pompeii, which is now under ground near the Italian city of Naples. (AP Image, Document)

The Roman site Pompeii, now under water and in ruins, is close to present-day Naples.
German evolutionary anthropologist Alissa Mittnik stated that this proves “the story that was long spun around these individuals” was incorrect.

‘Awake’ and ‘alert’ footballer Edoardo Bove emerges from on-field collapse

San Michele Arcangelo Church in Ollolai.
Disgruntled Americans in Ollolai, Italy, offered “€1 houses” after Trump’s victory.

Italian authorities reclaim Etruscan artifacts from individuals who acted as amateur “tomb raiders.”

We were able to debunk or question some of the earlier stories that were based on how these people were discovered in connection to one another, according to Ms. Mittnik.

“It opens up different interpretations for who these people might have been.”

Long thought to be a mother and daughter or sisters, another finding revealed that one of the two entwined figures was actually a guy.

The different backgrounds of Pompeii’s population were largely influenced by immigrants from the eastern Mediterranean, according to researchers. This highlights the mobility of people and the multiculturalism within the Roman Empire.

After the tragedy, the ash and muck that had encased the bodies began to crumble, revealing the exact locations of the victims’ remains.

In the late 1800s, the cavities were used to make casts.

Using genetic material that has been maintained for nearly two millennia, researchers aimed to ascertain the sex, ancestry, and genetic ties amongst the victims of the 14 casts that are currently undergoing restoration.

On Thursday, the findings were published in the journal Current Biology. The team includes academics from Harvard University and the University of Florence in Italy.