DNA shows Pompeii’s dead aren’t who we thought they were

Interesting article today about some new DNA tests done on Pompeii victims.

In the 19th century, an archaeologist named Giuseppe Fiorelli figured out how to make casts of those frozen bodies by pouring liquid plaster into the voids where the soft tissue had been. Some 1,000 bodies have been discovered in the ruins, and 104 plaster casts have been preserved. Restoration efforts of 86 of those casts began about 10 years ago, during which researchers took CT scans and X-rays to see if there were complete skeletons inside. Those images revealed that there had been a great deal of manipulation of the casts, depending on the aesthetics of the era in which they were made, including altering some features of the bodies' shapes or adding metal rods to stabilize the cast, as well as frequently removing bones before casting.

This part is not news, but I did not know about the manipulations and thought it was relevant and worth highlighting.

Four Pompeii victims were found in 1974 in what is known as the "House of the golden bracelet." Three (two adults and one child) were found at the foot of a staircase leading to a garden and the seafront. Archaeologists thought this was likely a father, mother, and their child because of the arrangement of the bodies...

This new DNA analysis showed that this conventional interpretation was incorrect. All the bodies were male, including the one with the golden bracelet, and none of them were genetically related. It wasn't possible to glean much information about physical characteristics, but one person had black hair and dark skin, and two others probably had brown eyes. The ancestry of all four was consistent with origins in North Africa or the Mediterranean.

One of the examples mentioned in the article.

Reich also cautioned against making similar mistakes with DNA analysis. "Instead of establishing new narratives that might also misrepresent these people's experiences, 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," he said.

Interesting and insightful. It's so easy to get caught up in creating narratives where there aren't any. I'm pretty sure that's just human nature. Like how we can feel sympathetic towards non-human things, or how we create backstories when there are none to be had.