Beneath the Ashes

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Nearly two millennia after Mount Vesuvius erupted and buried Pompeii under layers of ash and pumice, a new genetic study has unveiled some surprising details about the Roman city’s victims.

An international team of scientists examined DNA from five individuals preserved in Pompeii’s iconic plaster casts and found that some commonly held assumptions about the victims’ identities and relationships may be false.

Vesuvius’s eruption in 79 CE entombed the ancient city and killed an estimated 2,000 people. But it also preserved Pompeii in time.

In the 19th century, archeologist Giuseppe Fiorelli pioneered a plaster-casting technique in which he filled human-shaped voids left in the ash to create detailed representations of Pompeii’s inhabitants in their final moments.

This technique allowed generations of archeologists to study the victims, but interpretations were often based on assumptions influenced by modern perspectives, according to Live Science.

For instance, a cast showing an adult with a golden bracelet holding a child had long been interpreted as a mother and child.

However, study co-author David Reich explained that the DNA analysis showed the individuals were actually “an unrelated adult male and child.” Another cast of two people in an apparent embrace was found to include at least one genetic male, challenging previous beliefs about their relationship.

“The findings demonstrate the importance of integrating genetic analysis with archeological and historical information to enrich or correct narratives constructed based on limited evidence,” co-senior author Alissa Mittnik of the Max Planck Institute said in a statement.

The genetic study also highlighted Pompeii’s diversity, confirming that many residents were recent immigrants from the eastern Mediterranean.

These revelations also serve as a caution against making assumptions based on limited data.

“Instead of establishing new narratives that might also misrepresent these people’s experiences,” Reich said, “the genetic results encourage reflection on the dangers of making up stories about gender and family relationships in past societies based on present-day expectations.”