An ancient Roman who died in Pompeii has had their genome sequenced

By Colin Barras.

The inhabitants of Pompeii were killed by the hot volcanic ash, but it didn't destroy their genes. The first complete genome from Pompeii shows genetic markers that haven't been seen before.

There is only one active volcano in mainland Europe. It buried several Roman settlements, including Herculaneum to the west of Mount Vesuvius and Pompeii to the southeast.

The volcanic ash that covered Pompeii is thought to have killed people instantly and caused significant damage to their internal tissues.

The expectation was that the high temperatures would make our effort in DNA sequencing in Pompeii futile.

They decided to look for ancient DNA anyway. They focused on the skeletons of two people found in the Casa del Fabbro, which is the House of the Craftsman. A man in his 30s and a woman in her 50s were found dead on a couch in a dining room.

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The researchers were able to get genetic material from both skeletons, but only the man's bones yielded a full genome. The man's genome was compared with those from 1030 ancient people who lived during the last 5000 years or so, and 471 present-day people from western Eurasia. The man from Pompeii had the same genetic makeup as people who lived in Italy at the height of the Roman Empire.

There were differences. In particular, groups of genes on the man's Y chromosome and in his mitochondrial DNA were different from those seen in earlier studies of ancient Romans, but similar to those carried by some people living today on the Italian island of Sardinia.

There is still a lot to be learned about the genetics of the past peoples in the Italian peninsula.

The University of Naples Federico II, Italy's Pier Paolo Petrone says that improved analytical techniques allow us to extract DNA from the skeletons preserved at Pompeii. He says the work shows there are always new discoveries to be made.

The ancient man's bone sample contained some evidence ofbacteria. Evidence from the state of his skeleton shows that he had a disease.

The pathology causes severe pain, such as lumbago and sciatic pain. Many Pompeiians fled when the eruption began, but the man didn't. Instead, he stayed in the town.

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