Pompeii victim's genome sequenced for the first time

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Scientists have sequenced the genome of an unfortunate man who died on that fateful day in 79 CE when Mount Vesuvius rained hell upon the Roman city of Pompeii.
 
As reported in the journal Scientific Reports, this is the first successfully sequenced genome of a human who died at Pompeii. 

An initial look at the male skeleton indicates he was around 1.64 meters tall (around 5 foot 4 inches) and was between 35 and 40 years old at the time of his death. From parts of the skulls of both skeletons, the team attempted to extract and sequence their DNA. 

“What we believe it means is that he represents some Iron Age genetic diversity that was lost due to the homogenization of the Italic peninsula after the Roman Empire.” explained Scorrano.

“Very little is known about them, and even their relationship with the Romans and present-day Italians is uncertain." 

Along with the human DNA, the team also detected DNA sequences commonly found in Mycobacterium, the group of bacteria tuberculosis-causing Mycobacterium tuberculosis belongs to. A close look at his spine should signs of tuberculous spondylitis, aka Pott’s disease, a known complication of tuberculosis.

Source: https://www.iflscience.com/editors-blog/ancient-pompeii-victims-genome-sequenced-for-the-first-time-ever/

[papergangster 2,823]

This has always fascinated me, the whole incident. 

[Chic 20,830]

Let them rest, it’s too soon 

[Levine 23,958]

To think that people still live around that vulcano, god help them if it wakes up again

[Guest]

Love that i hope they find more stuff

[Economy 52,842]

Makes me wonder how malnourished these ppl were. We consistently find evidence that people up until the industrial revolution were on average several inches shorter

 

While their food was obviously healthier than ours (free of antibiotics or pesticides for example and all organic as well as GMO free) they certainly would of lacked diversity in what was available in each season causing deficiency of key nutrients

 

Even my father (he is 54 years old) who grew up in rural Portugal said often u are the same things over and over again in different seasons cuz it's what the land provided and u didn't wanna waste it

 

Now of course his situation was less severe, they still had grocery stores to change up their food diet here and there whenever u could afford to so they wouldn't have been malnourished to the same degree and he's actually 6'2 which is taller than me. But u get the point

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4 hours ago, AnnaNicoleSmith said:

Love that i hope they find more stuff

 

5 hours ago, Chic said:

Let them rest, it’s too soon 

History nerd alert but I hope they do more research into reconstructing Europe's patterns of migration.

We know know, based on analysis of genoms from individuals across Europe since 2018, that European peoples are the result of intermixing betwen three populations: original hunter-gatherers (black skin and blue eyes), Near Eastern farmers (white skin and brown eyes) and Yamnaya/ Proto-Indo-European peoples (that themselves had brown hair but they were related to an ancestral population that had the gene for blond hair). Near Easteners bought the farming from Mesopotamia and mostly replaced the first inhabitants of Europe. Yamaya people brought a lighter skin complexion, the ability to digest milk and the Language - English, French, Latin, Italian, Russian, German, Hindu, Persian, Greek etc all evolved from the Language spoken by these Yamaya people.

Also fun fact but Europeans and native Americans (from North America down to places like Patagonia or Chile) are more realted than Europeans and South-East Asians. This is because they descend in some capacity from a population that once lived in Siberia, who where possibily the first people to have the mutation for blonde hair.

Historians/ geneticists need information on people's genomes to figure this stuff out. This field of research is actually at its beginning right now and might very well help us re-write history in a more accurate way. So far archaeologists looked at poterry and formed opinions about patterns of migration which isn't too reliable...  We can now look into the genes of the peoples living at a given time in a certain location and compare with the genes of other people.

Fun fact 2 - Out of the three categories, Otzy (the mummy discovered in the Alps) was genetically the closest to.... Near Eastern. This is because he lived before Yamaya came to Europe, spread their Language and before its male warlike population interbred with women from the original tribes. He probably spoke a Language somehow similar to Etruscan but certainly not Latin or German itself.