Sequencing the Residents of Pompeii, Italy recently revealed some interesting facts. About two thousand years ago, Census data on the demographics of small Roman cities and towns wasn’t easy to collect. The Romans were empire builders and notoriously anxious to keep tabs on who lived where and why. But a regular accurate count and in-depth description of who lived in Pompeii – a small town located on Italy’s southwestern coast – was likely never conducted. Even if it were, the combination of the earthquake of AD 62 and the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in AD 79 likely destroyed those records.
The eruption killed an estimated 13% of the population – about 2,000 people, many of them instantaneously – and important government buildings were reduced to ash.
But recent genomic research, conducted with DNA extracted from the skeletal remains of two adults – one male, one female – that died at Pompeii may contain important new clues about the demographics of this tiny but once-thriving port.
A team of scientists, based at the University of Copenhagen, gained access to the skeletal remains which were found at a building known as the House of Craftsmen buried under 23 feet of volcanic ash from the eruption. The DNA in the remains largely survived because the victims never came in direct contact with the volcanic lava and their remains were also sealed and protected from climate and weather damage – mainly exposure to water and oxygen – that typically degrades them over time.
Once the research team studied the largely intact skeleton of the deceased male, they could reconstruct his entire genome sequence – a scientific first.
For a variety of reasons the team could not perform the same genome reconstruction on the deceased female but their research revealed that she was likely 50 years old when she died while the male was between 35 and 40.
Further investigation – based on comparisons with the DNA from deceased persons in other parts of Italy – revealed that the male was originally from Sardinia and had probably migrated to Pompeii, suggesting a previously unrecognized degree of cultural diversity might have prevailed in the region.
It was also revealed that the male – estimated to be 5’5” in height, compared to the 5’ female – likely suffered from spinal tuberculosis and may have been convalescing at the House of Craftsman at the time of his death (among other clues, his skeleton was found reclining on the remnants of a chaise lounge).
Pompeii is one of the world’s most intensively studied archaeological sites. Excavations there have contributed immensely to our knowledge of life in Antiquity, especially in the Roman empire. It’s also a popular tourist site, receiving thousands of visitors annually
But getting detailed genetic information from the skeletal remains preserved in Pompeii has eluded scholars for decades. Past evidence, based on small samples of mitochondrial DNA, has not allowed for complete genome sequencing, limiting the breadth and significance of the findings, scholars say.
The Copenhagen team’s breakthrough sequencing research – published in the May 2022 issue of Scientific Reports journal – is just the first in a series of future excavations that could allow archaeologists to reconstruct the genomes of hundreds of other victims at Pompeii, shedding new light on their health conditions, cultural background and living habits, experts say. It turns out that genomics research isn’t just about genetics – but history and anthropology, too.