DNA analysis of the plastered remains at Pompeii has shown that modern interpretations of the ancient tragedy are inaccurate.
The scenes left behind by the tragedy painted a picture of families meeting their untimely demise at the hands of Mount Vesuvius’ massive volcanic eruption that buried the ancient city of Pompeii in 20 feet of volcanic ash and sediment in 79 AD. However, DNA analysis of Pompeii shows that two of the most famous remains in Pompeii, painted as familial scenes, had no relation whatsoever.
Pompeii preservation
When Vesuvius erupted and destroyed the ancient Roman city of Pompeii, everything was buried under ashes and sediment. As a result, ash and debris formed around many corpses left behind after the tragedy. This formed impressions that archaeologists could use as molds to fill out with plaster in the late 1800s.
DNA revealed the truth of Pompeii
One of the most famous scenes in Pompeii is the Family of the House of the Golden Bracelet. These remains depict a scene in which two parents are with their children. One of the parents is standing, holding their child. The other had a golden bracelet and a child on their lap. This scene, which has moved many, has been misunderstood.
According to DNA testing, in a study published on Thursday in the journal Current Biology, the modern perspective completely misconstrued the interpretation of the ancient scenes.
“We were able to disprove or challenge some of the previous narratives built upon how these individuals were kind of found in relation to each other,” said Alissa Mittnik, a co-author of the study and a geneticist at the Harvard Lab that extracted the genome data. “It opens up different interpretations for who these people might have been.”
The study team concluded that the perceived scene of the mother and the child in the House of the Golden Bracelet actually depicts a male carrying a boy who is not related to him. The researchers concluded that none of the four people at the scene are related to each other.
“We were able to quite clearly disprove what archaeologists have put forth about this grouping being a nuclear family,” said Mittnik. “But of course, we don’t really know, and we can’t really say, who these individuals were and how they interacted with each other.”
Pompeii’s ancient Greek population
The DNA testing of the Pompeii remains also showed how diverse ancient Roman cities were. Of the 14 samples the team tested, many were not Roman but from the eastern Mediterranean, including the Aegean people of ancient Greece.
“Some of those from whom we were able to generate genome-wide data showed a more eastern Mediterranean-like genetic ancestry, which could match populations, for example, from the Aegean or from the Levant,” said Mittnik. “So, they might be either recent migrants or the descendants of migrants from those regions.”
See all the latest news from Greece and the world at Greekreporter.com. Contact our newsroom to report an update or send your story, photos and videos. Follow GR on Google News and subscribe here to our daily email!
