The eruption of Vesuvius left victims petrified in lava. Science tried to reconstruct their stories by studying them. However, new ancient DNA techniques refute some of these traditional interpretations, correctly specifying the gender and breaking up supposed families.
In the House of gold braceletthe remains of an adult person, wearing a bracelet and a child resting on her hip, were interpreted as mother and child. However, genetic analysis determined that it was an unrelated man and child.
This is one of the ‘stories’ that science rewrites through a study who publishes Current Biology carried out by an international team.
The study of ancient DNA shows how sex and family relationships do not coincide with formulated traditional interpretations.
The eruption of ’79
A great eruption of Vesuvius (Italy), in the year 79, buried Pompeii under a layer of ash that, when solidified, preserved many of the bodies (more than a thousand have been discovered).
Although the soft tissue disintegrated, the contours and bones of the bodies remained. Already in the 19th century, excavators filled the cavities in 104 bodies with plaster. They did this with the aim of obtaining tracings (molds).
It is precisely the study of the ancient DNA of 14 of these tracings that has served scientists from the Universities of Harvard, Cambridge and Florence, among others; to try to find out everything possible about those people.
The data also offers insight into the ancestry of the Pompeians, who had diverse genomic backgrounds. Mainly, they come from recent immigrants from the eastern Mediterranean, thus reflecting the cosmopolitan character of the Roman Empire and pre-modern globalization.
Challenge traditional assumptions
The study was carried out on highly fragmented bone remains mixed with plaster recovered from different anatomical elements.
The goal, the scientists write in the study, was “to test interpretations suggested in the absence of genetic data on the identity of the victims and their relationships.”
The result was that the new DNA-based data “does not always match assumptions,” largely based on the physical appearance and position of the molds, in the words of David Reich of Harvard University (USA). .
The geneticist highlighted the case of a pair of individuals who were traditionally believed to be sisters or mother and daughter, but at least one of them was a genetic male. “These findings challenge traditional assumptions about gender and family.”
No proof of biological relationship
In the already mentioned House of the gold braceletIn addition to the alleged mother and her son, two other victims were found. They were an adult and another child, who had been identified as a family.
The DNA establishes, according to the investigation, that they are all males and “there is no proof of biological relationship, at least up to the third degree.”
This study has “significant implications for the interpretation of archaeological data and the understanding of ancient societies,” according to co-signer Alissa Mittnik of Harvard.
“That individuals’ sex and their family relationships do not match traditional interpretations exemplifies how modern assumptions about gender behaviors may not be reliable lenses through which to view data from the past,” the report adds.
Hence the importance of “integrating genetic data with archaeological and historical information to avoid erroneous interpretations based on modern assumptions,” Mittnik said.
For the authors, the research indicates, “instead of establishing new narratives, which could also distort the experiences lived by these people; these results encourage us to reflect on the conceptions and construction of gender and family in past societies, as well as as in academic discourse”.
Furthermore, they do not rule out that the exploitation of rubbings as vehicles for telling stories led to the manipulation of their poses and relative position by restorers in the past.
Genetic data and other bioarchaeological approaches, “provide the opportunity to deepen our understanding of the people who were victims of the Vesuvius eruption,” he says, and highlight how integrating genetic data with archaeological and historical information” significantly improves our understanding of past lives and behaviors,” he concludes.
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