When Vesuvius erupted in AD 79, lava, ash and pyroclastic flows buried the city of Pompeii – and with it many of its residents. Researchers have now succeeded for the first time in analyzing the genome of one of these ancient volcanic victims. This man’s DNA reveals that his origins differed from that of many other Romans, but he was probably not a slave or an immigrant. The Pompeian also suffered from bone tuberculosis, an infectious disease that was widespread at the time.
When the Roman cities of Pompeii and Herculaneum were buried under ash and lava by the eruption of Mount Vesuvius, it made them unique time capsules. Because nowhere else has evidence of everyday life in Roman times been so well preserved as under the protective deposits of the eruption. Finds of almost perfectly preserved everyday objects, vehicles, furniture, frescoes, as well as the buildings, indicate that Pompeii was a popular vacation spot for wealthy Romans before the catastrophic eruption. The city with up to 20,000 inhabitants was also a flourishing center of trade.
The genome of a volcanic dead
But the eruption of Mount Vesuvius put an end to all that, killing at least 2,000 people, it is estimated. Their remains, shrouded and preserved by pyroclastic flows and ash, have been discovered in many buildings of ancient Pompeii. The positions of the relics show that many residents of Pompeii were surprised and suddenly killed in everyday life. Some volcanic victims are so well preserved that even remains of tissue and brain cells can be detected. Archaeologists have been trying for a long time to isolate genetic material from the teeth or bones of these dead people in order to obtain information about their origin, their state of health and other physical characteristics from the DNA – so far largely in vain.
Only now has a team led by Gabriele Scorrano from the University of Rome succeeded for the first time in using bone samples to analyze the DNA of a man who died in Pompeii almost 2000 years ago. The 35 to 40-year-old man was one of two bodies found in room 9 of the Casa del Fabbro, the craftsman’s house. “These dead were both reclining on the remains of a triclinium — a low couch — in the corner of what was probably the dining room at the time,” Scorrano and his colleagues report. The position of the two dead suggests that they were caught off guard by the rapidly approaching cloud of incandescent ash from the eruption and died instantly.
Ancestors from the Middle East or the Balkans
Analysis of the tissue samples showed that the DNA of the approximately 50-year-old woman was too badly degraded. In the man, on the other hand, the researchers were able to extract the mitochondrial and nuclear genome from the samples and decode the DNA sequence. Comparing his genome with that of other ancient and modern Mediterranean inhabitants revealed that the man from Pompeii had some gene sequences unusual for Roman Italy. Accordingly, the mitochondrial and thus inherited DNA through the maternal line shows a gene signature that was particularly common in the Middle East, southern Europe and the Balkans after the Ice Age. Today it is only common in Sardinia.
The dead man’s Y chromosome, representing his descent through the male line, was also rather rare in Roman Italy. “The lineage is found primarily in East Africa, at 40 percent, but also to a lesser extent in the Middle East and on the Mediterranean islands of Sardinia, Cyprus and Lesvos,” Scorrano and his team report. “This leads us to assume that his roots had genetic elements from the Middle East.” The deceased of Pompeii therefore had ancestors from the Middle East or Sardinia, but was probably not an immigrant himself – nor was he a slave. Instead, the DNA comparisons suggest the man was likely born in central Italy. “Whether this individual belonged to the local population of Pompeii or whether he belonged to the five percent of the inhabitants who had immigrated from other parts of Italy is difficult to say,” write Scorrano and his colleagues.
Heterogeneous population and bone tuberculosis
In any case, the genome of the Pompeian shows that the population at that time was very heterogeneous in terms of genetics and descent, even in Italy, which was shaped by the Romans. According to the researchers, this fits well with archaeological finds and historical records that testify to the many contacts, migrations and interactions of the various ancient populations in the Mediterranean region. Also interesting: The dead man from the craftsman’s house could have suffered from an infectious disease that was widespread at the time: bone tuberculosis. “It has long been known that tuberculosis was endemic in the Roman Empire,” Scorrano and his team explain. Deformations of the vertebrae, but also DNA traces of the pathogen Mycobacterium tuberculosis in the genome of the dead man suggest that he also suffered from this disease.
“Taken together, our study confirms and demonstrates that it is possible to study the human remains of this unique site using paleogenetic methods,” the scientists state. “Our first finds now provide the basis for an intensive analysis of other well-preserved individuals from Pompeii.”
Source: Scientific Reports, doi: 10.1038/s41598-022-10899-1