Restoration of Augustus' mausoleum

[Angela]

See: http://www.archaeology.org/news/5526-170502-rome-augustus-mausoleum

"ROME, ITALY—The Associated Press reports that the mausoleum of the Emperor Augustus, which has been closed to the public since the 1970s, will be restored with funding provided by the city of Rome, the culture ministry, and a private company. Located in the historic city center, the monument was constructed in 28 B.C. at a site along the Tiber River, and originally had a bronze sculpture of Augustus on its roof. The structure also holds the remains of the emperors Vespasian, Nero, and Tiberius. “I hope the mausoleum will be given back as soon as possible to the people,” said Rome Mayor Virginia Raggi. Workers have already cleaned out the garbage and cut back the trees and weeds that had grown over it. The restoration is scheduled to be completed in 2019."

I wonder if any attempts were made to analyze the remains?

 

[Promenade]

I wonder if any attempts were made to analyze the remains?

Hmm, it didn't even cross my mind. Three Julio-Claudians and a Flavian, that would be fascinating

 

[Angela]

Hmm, it didn't even cross my mind. Two Julio-Claudians and a Flavian, that would be fascinating

Well, technically, Tiberius was adopted, so only Claudian, but that's nitpicking, I know. I wonder if the bones are moldering away in a box somewhere. Unfortunately they're probably contaminated as hell. I'd wait for better techniques.

 

[Promenade]

Well, technically, Tiberius was adopted, so only Claudian, but that's nitpicking, I know. I wonder if the bones are moldering away in a box somewhere. Unfortunately they're probably contaminated as hell. I'd wait for better techniques.

They were able to retrieve DNA off a piece of dirt weren't they? My biggest concern would be that they wouldn't even think to test them. I wonder what they would discover if they started testing ancient Romans? Perhaps gens with Sabine ancestry usually had different haplogroups than those with Etruscan or Samnite ones?

 

[IronSide]

Vespasian .. Nero .. Tiberius .. my god .. the Romans had such epic names !!!

my hunch they would be R1b.

 

[Angela]

They were able to retrieve DNA off a piece of dirt weren't they? My biggest concern would be that they wouldn't even think to test them. I wonder what they would discover if they started testing ancient Romans? Perhaps gens with Sabine ancestry usually had different haplogroups than those with Etruscan or Samnite ones?

You're right; I'm sure it hasn't occurred to the curators to test them, if they're even sure where they stashed them. For one thing most Italians are singularly uninterested in what they consider anthropological genetics, and for another, we're just inundated with stuff, artifacts of all kinds. You can't put a shovel in the ground to plant some vegetables without hitting something. You just can't keep track of it all.

You're also right you'd think they'd be able to get something, but the big labs capable of that kind of work aren't in Italy, and those big labs are interested in big picture topics. My real obsession since I was a child has been the Etruscans, and yet all we have is very basic and not very informative mtdna. I think it's highly likely, for what that's worth, that Etruscan yDna was different given they spoke such a different language,but maybe some day we'll see.

@ Ironsides
We still use them. I have close relatives of an older generation who are: Aurelio(a) from Aurelius as in Marcus Aurelius, Augusto from Augustus, and lots of Cesares (Caesar). In my husband's family they have Flavio(Flavius).

 

[IronSide]

You're right; I'm sure it hasn't occurred to the curators to test them, if they're even sure where they stashed them. For one thing most Italians are singularly uninterested in what they consider anthropological genetics, and for another, we're just inundated with stuff, artifacts of all kinds. You can't put a shovel in the ground to plant some vegetables without hitting something. You just can't keep track of it all.

You're also right you'd think they'd be able to get something, but the big labs capable of that kind of work aren't in Italy, and those big labs are interested in big picture topics. My real obsession since I was a child has been the Etruscans, and yet all we have is very basic and not very informative mtdna. I think it's highly likely, for what that's worth, that Etruscan yDna was different given they spoke such a different language,but maybe some day we'll see.

@ Ironsides
We still use them. I have close relatives of an older generation who are: Aurelio(a) from Aurelius as in Marcus Aurelius, Augusto from Augustus, and lots of Cesares (Caesar). In my husband's family they have Flavio(Flavius).

Great, but dropping the "s" at the end reduced it's epicness a little.

Regarding the Etruscans, the theory I subscribe to is that they were Pelasgian colonists, Dionysius of Halicarnassus records a Pelasgian migration from Thessaly to the Italian Peninsula noting that "the Pelasgi made themselves masters of some of the lands belonging to the Umbri" and Herodotus describes how the Tyrrheni migrated from Lydia to the lands of the Umbri.

many subclades of J2a, G2, J1, and T1a are shared between Italians and Anatolians and Greeks, Pelasgian denotes the pre-Greek inhabitants of the Aegean, which I believe the is the name Greeks gave to the Minoan like population. scattered around the islands of the Aegean sea.