New DNA tests of Pompeii dead upend popular stories

Pompeii casts once thought to be a nuclear family

The presumed nuclear family turned out to be four unrelated males, researchers said

(Image credit: In Pictures Ltd. / Corbis via Getty Images)

published 8 November 2024

What happened

Plaster casts of calcified Pompeii residents have long been used by archaeologists to tell the stories of the last, desperate moments of ancient Romans before they were buried and preserved in pyroclastic ash from Mount Vesuvius in A.D. 79. But new DNA evidence shows that many of those stories are wrong, researchers reported Thursday in the journal Current Biology.

A team of U.S. and European researchers conducted genomic testing on skeletal remains embedded in 14 casts undergoing restoration, including two people embracing and the four-member "Family in the House of the Golden Bracelet." The presumed nuclear family — including a mother wearing the distinctive bracelet, with a child on her lap — turned out to be four unrelated males, the researchers said. At least one of the entwined "Two Maidens," long believed to be sisters or a mother and daughter, was a male, and the pair were not related. Many of the calcified Pompeiians appear to have immigrated, by choice or force, from the eastern Mediterranean or North Africa.

"Sometimes, what you think you see is not what it is," said Harvard geneticist David Reich, one of the leaders of the study. This "new scientific tool" of ancient DNA analysis reminds us "the past is, as the cliché goes, an undiscovered country." Scientifically revealing "the actual lives of the victims" is "much more respectful than just using them as props for storytelling," said Estelle Lazer, an archaeologist who previously used CAT scans and X-rays to analyze the casts, to The Washington Post.

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Peter has worked as a news and culture writer and editor at The Week since the site's launch in 2008. He covers politics, world affairs, religion and cultural currents. His journalism career began as a copy editor at a financial newswire and has included editorial positions at The New York Times Magazine, Facts on File, and Oregon State University.