New Insights from DNA Analysis of Pompeii Victims

Recent advances in DNA analysis have led to a significant reevaluation of the relationships among some of the victims of the catastrophic eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 CE, which obliterated the ancient city of Pompeii nearly two millennia ago. A well-documented group of victims, once thought to represent a family consisting of a mother, father, and two children, has now been proven to have a different story. According to Alissa Mittnik from the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Germany, “All four of these individuals were male, which disproves the theory that they represented a father, mother, and two children. Moreover, they were not biologically related to each other.”

Another poignant scene that has undergone reinterpretation involves two figures traditionally seen as engaged in a maternal embrace. Mittnik elaborates, “In this instance, we discovered that at least one of the individuals was male. Furthermore, they had no maternal connection to one another. This again challenges the widely accepted narrative surrounding them.”

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A plaster cast vividly captures the horror experienced by a victim during the volcanic eruption of Mount Vesuvius, which devastated the ancient town of Pompeii in A.D. 79. The research team, which includes experts from Harvard University and the University of Florence in Italy, utilized genetic material that has been preserved for nearly two millennia.

Following the eruption, the bodies buried under layers of mud and ash eventually decomposed, leaving behind voids in the ash. These voids were later filled with plaster in the late 1800s to create casts, preserving a haunting snapshot of the past. The researchers concentrated their efforts on 14 casts that are currently undergoing restoration, extracting DNA from the fragmented skeletal remains that had become intermingled with the casts. Their aim was to uncover the sex, ancestry, and genetic relationships of the victims.

Furthermore, the researchers verified that the citizens of Pompeii hailed from a variety of backgrounds, primarily descending from eastern Mediterranean immigrants. This discovery highlights a broader trend of movement and cultural interchange throughout the Roman Empire, with Pompeii located approximately 150 miles (241 kilometers) from Rome.

This study builds upon previous research from 2022, when scientists successfully sequenced the genome of a Pompeii victim for the first time, establishing the feasibility of retrieving ancient DNA from the limited human remains that have survived. Mittnik summarizes the significance of these findings: “Our scientific results, based on DNA evidence, provide invaluable insights that complement previous archaeological and anthropological analyses, prompting us to reconsider who these individuals truly were, how they were related, and how they comported themselves during the final moments of their lives.”