It was a quiet morning in Pompeii when, after sleeping centuries, Vesuvius exploded. On August 24, 79 AD, the dormant volcano began to spew smoke, ash, and volcanic rocks. earthquakes shook the city. Thousands of people fled the city. Others sheltered in their homes in search of refuge. That night, in what is known as the craftsman’s house, a man lay in his dining room when a cloud of incandescent volcanic ash flooded his home and killed him instantly. centuries laterthe history of this Pompeian has been rescued thanks to the reconstruction of the first complete genetic sequence of a victim of the great explosion of Vesuvius.
The analysis, published this Thursday in the scientific journal ‘Science Advances’, represents an unprecedented achievement. Until now, the history of Neapolitan volcano victims It had been narrated first through the chronicles of the moment and, later, through archaeological studies. But never, until now, has it been possible reconstruct the genome of a Pompeian to unravel his origins, his life, his vicissitudes and, finally, his death.
A native Pompeian
Lets start by the beginning. The man, the protagonist of this study, had between 35 and 40 years old at the time of his death. He was 164 centimeters, so he was just about average height for Pompeians of the time. Vesuvius explosion caught him in your dining roomreclining on a sofa (‘triclinium’), just side of a woman, 50 years old. Everything indicates that both they died instantlyburied by the enormous cloud of incandescent ashes that sneaked into homes after the sudden eruption of the volcano.
His remains were discovered in 1933 by the Italian archaeologist Amedeo Maiuri, during the great excavation of Pompeii. “For years, the skeleton of this man remained at the discovery site. It was not until 2016 that, due to some maintenance work on the ‘craftsman’s house’, we had access to these remains and were able to study them“, explains the anthropologist Serena Vita, a researcher at the University of Salento and one of the scientists who have led this study.
Genetic analysis of this individual has allowed researchers to climb his family tree and discover that, for example, this Pompeian had a very distant ancestor, from the Paleolithic period, Iberian lineage. His most direct relatives, already from the Roman era, were italics. Mostly from the center of the peninsula. Although, as revealed by his genes, he also had some other characteristic feature of Sardinia. “The genetic profile of this man suggests that was an individual native to Pompeii“, wields Gabriele Scorrano, from the University of Copenhagen, one of the scientists who has led this research.
TB patient
More than 2,000 years after the death of the artisan from Pompeii, the study of his skeletal remains has also made it possible to reconstruct part of his medical history. According to the researchers in charge of this analysis, the Pompeian suffered from a type of tuberculosis. In their lumbar vertebraein fact, are observed a series of injuries and deformities typical of this bacterial disease. Before the appearance of antibiotics, this type of bone alterations affected about 3% to 5% of patients about tuberculosis.
Everything points to the ‘official diagnosis’ of the craftsman from Pompeii is next. At some point in his life, the man came into contact with the bacteria ‘Mycobacterium tuberculosis‘; the pathogen responsible for the largest number of tuberculosis cases in the world, one of the deadliest diseases in history. Over time, the Pompeian developed the so-called Pott’s disease; a form of tuberculosis which, beyond the lungs, also causes spinal cord damage.
scientific achievement
Related news
Despite his untimely death, the scientists explain, the artisan of Pompeii had the enormous ‘luck’ to remain sheltered for thousands of years under a thick layer of ash and volcanic dust. If it weren’t for this rocky mantle, it is very likely that centuries of light, oxygen and environmental disturbances would have left his remains even more bruised. If so, the researchers argue, could hardly have recovered with success the remains of DNA that have allowed to reconstruct his adventures.
rescue the story of this craftsman from Pompeii, beyond being a curiosity or an anecdote about the Vesuvian city that was buried, represents an unprecedented scientific achievement. So far they have only managed to rebuild short pieces of mitochondrial DNAl of human and animal remains that died in Pompeii after the great explosion of Vesuvius. But now, thanks to technological advances in the field of genetic sequencing, we have passed to read single lines your genetic history to have the whole book what their genes say.