4th Century BC Privileged Social Class Roman Skeletons to undergo DNA Testing

Jovialis

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ROME — Sometimes the most extraordinary finds occur by sheer luck.

At least that was the case of a fourth century B.C. chamber tomb that came to light five weeks ago during the construction of an aqueduct in a Rome suburb, when an earthmover accidentally opened a hole in the side of the chamber.

“Had the machine dug just four inches to the left, we would have never found the tomb,” Francesco Prosperetti, Rome’s special superintendent with archaeological oversight, told reporters on Friday. The tomb contained the remains of four occupants — three men and a woman — and funerary wares.

Archaeologists are calling it “the Tomb of the Athlete” because of the presence of two bronze strigils, the instrument used by ancient Greek and Roman athletes to scrape sweat from the skin after a workout. Actually, the male skeletons in the tomb belonged to older men (all three were over 35 — very old in those days). “To say there was an athlete is a bit of stretch, but it works journalistically,” joked Fabio Turchetta, the on-site archaeologist who followed the aqueduct works.

All major construction that intrudes on Italy’s underbelly requires the presence of an archaeologist. Mr. Turchetta said he’d been on the job for about a year but that very little had turned up until this tomb. It was worth the wait, he said.

The tomb was dated to between 335 and 312 B.C. on the basis of a coin found next to a skeleton. One side depicts the head of Minerva, the flip side a horse head with the lettering: “Romano.”

Excavated into a bank of porous tuff, the volcanic rock typical of the area, the family tomb was distinctive “because it remained intact, and was never violated,” said the archaeologist Stefano Musco, scientific director of the dig. The quality of the black-glazed pottery found next to the skeletons — a variety of bowls and plates, some bearing mini-skeletons of animals (two, a rabbit and a lamb or a goat, have been identified) — suggested that the owners of the tomb came from a privileged social class, Mr. Musco said.

On Friday, archaeologists began to remove the occupants and the artifacts, which will be sent to a laboratory for research, including DNA testing on the skeletons to determine the familial connection.

One expert, Alessandra Celant, a paleo-botanist at the University of Rome La Sapienza, carefully collected ancient pollen and plant samples from the tomb — “the tip of a pin is enough,” she said — that she will study to potentially reconstruct the flora and landscape of the area, as well as funerary rituals.

The tomb was mapped with a laser scanner, and once it has been emptied, it will be sealed.

“It’s exciting to participate in such an important discovery,” Luca Lanzalone, the president of city-controlled utility ACEA, said at the site. The discovery of the tomb briefly stopped construction, but the project continued on a different tract of the pipeline. “Important public works and the safeguard of our patrimony” can go hand in hand, he said.

Mr. Turchetta said that the area where the tomb is — to the east of Rome — had already been studied, so he wasn’t prepared for the discovery. Looking into the hole that the earthmover had made, he said he’d never felt “such a strong or immediate emotion.” An archaeological dig is “usually very slow,” he said. “In this case it came all at once, with no warning.”





https://www.nytimes.com/2018/06/01/arts/design/roman-tomb-intact.html
 
Between this and the de Angelis paper, it's about time we started making progress on Roman DNA.
 
ROME — Sometimes the most extraordinary finds occur by sheer luck.

At least that was the case of a fourth century B.C. chamber tomb that came to light five weeks ago during the construction of an aqueduct in a Rome suburb, when an earthmover accidentally opened a hole in the side of the chamber.

“Had the machine dug just four inches to the left, we would have never found the tomb,” Francesco Prosperetti, Rome’s special superintendent with archaeological oversight, told reporters on Friday. The tomb contained the remains of four occupants — three men and a woman — and funerary wares.

Archaeologists are calling it “the Tomb of the Athlete” because of the presence of two bronze strigils, the instrument used by ancient Greek and Roman athletes to scrape sweat from the skin after a workout. Actually, the male skeletons in the tomb belonged to older men (all three were over 35 — very old in those days). “To say there was an athlete is a bit of stretch, but it works journalistically,” joked Fabio Turchetta, the on-site archaeologist who followed the aqueduct works.

All major construction that intrudes on Italy’s underbelly requires the presence of an archaeologist. Mr. Turchetta said he’d been on the job for about a year but that very little had turned up until this tomb. It was worth the wait, he said.

The tomb was dated to between 335 and 312 B.C. on the basis of a coin found next to a skeleton. One side depicts the head of Minerva, the flip side a horse head with the lettering: “Romano.”

Excavated into a bank of porous tuff, the volcanic rock typical of the area, the family tomb was distinctive “because it remained intact, and was never violated,” said the archaeologist Stefano Musco, scientific director of the dig. The quality of the black-glazed pottery found next to the skeletons — a variety of bowls and plates, some bearing mini-skeletons of animals (two, a rabbit and a lamb or a goat, have been identified) — suggested that the owners of the tomb came from a privileged social class, Mr. Musco said.

On Friday, archaeologists began to remove the occupants and the artifacts, which will be sent to a laboratory for research, including DNA testing on the skeletons to determine the familial connection.

One expert, Alessandra Celant, a paleo-botanist at the University of Rome La Sapienza, carefully collected ancient pollen and plant samples from the tomb — “the tip of a pin is enough,” she said — that she will study to potentially reconstruct the flora and landscape of the area, as well as funerary rituals.

The tomb was mapped with a laser scanner, and once it has been emptied, it will be sealed.

“It’s exciting to participate in such an important discovery,” Luca Lanzalone, the president of city-controlled utility ACEA, said at the site. The discovery of the tomb briefly stopped construction, but the project continued on a different tract of the pipeline. “Important public works and the safeguard of our patrimony” can go hand in hand, he said.

Mr. Turchetta said that the area where the tomb is — to the east of Rome — had already been studied, so he wasn’t prepared for the discovery. Looking into the hole that the earthmover had made, he said he’d never felt “such a strong or immediate emotion.” An archaeological dig is “usually very slow,” he said. “In this case it came all at once, with no warning.”





https://www.nytimes.com/2018/06/01/arts/design/roman-tomb-intact.html

What great news, Jovialis. I hope they contact the Reich Lab, someone who knows what they're doing.
 
I'm certainly excited for this, I hope they do put it in their hands for a top quality assessment.
 
That's terrific news! I had been waiting for a genome from the Roman Republic for ages.
 
Really though, someone should bring this find to Max Planck's Institute's attention. They do the best work on ADNA short of The Reich Lab.
 
would this be the grave of a patrician family, claiming ancestors among the founders of Rome, or would this be a family of 'new riches'?

The tomb was dated to between 335 and 312 B.C. on the basis of a coin found next to a skeleton.
 
would this be the grave of a patrician family, claiming ancestors among the founders of Rome, or would this be a family of 'new riches'?

The tomb was dated to between 335 and 312 B.C. on the basis of a coin found next to a skeleton.

This was definitely a period after the reforms granting much more power to the plebians:

The consulship had already been opened to plebians (367 BC), and the office of censor had been opened to plebians too. In 339 BC a plebian consul was named as dictator, a law was passed that one of the censors had to be a plebian, and a lex publiblia was passed that patricians could no longer veto procedures and acts in the comitia tribuna. Plus, the amount of public land a man might hold had been limited to about 300 acres, a clear attempt to limit the power of the patricians.

The Sextian/Licinian laws had also already been passed, which were the culmination of what is called the “Conflict of the Orders” in English, and which went on for 200 years.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lex_Licinia_Sextia

Rome had begun its expansion, but very minimally. Although the first Samnite War had already been fought, it ended in a sort of stalemate and peace treaty. The second wouldn’t start until 327 BC
Roman_conquest_of_Italy.PNG



The Great Latin War had also just ended: 340-338 BC, but that was a conflict among the Latin tribes for supremacy, which Rome won. These people were the same in terms of language, culture, and genetics.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Latin_War

Absent other information and given all of these factors, I’d definitely lean toward seeing these people as the “Romans” who so influenced the world, even if they’re not patricians: the people who conducted trade, filled but also to some extent led the armies when necessary, governed the Roman state, directed foreign “policy”, as well as domestic matters, probably provided the engineers, lawmakers, etc. etc.

Of course, we need whatever information the archaeologists have and publish about the burials to really come to some conclusions about their possible status. That might change everything.
 
There's no reliable evidence that Roman plebians and patricians had a significant difference in genetics or that Rome itself had any sort of racial/ethnnic caste system.
 
There's no reliable evidence that Roman plebians and patricians had a significant difference in genetics or that Rome itself had any sort of racial/ethnnic caste system.

there is no evidence both ways, as we don't know the founders of Rome, we have only a legend
 
there is no evidence both ways, as we don't know the founders of Rome, we have only a legend

True, but there was indeed a tribal/clanish system in the early Rome, called Gentes originarie, "the original clans", clans existing since the foundation of Rome. Titus Livius reports about this.

Ancient Romans were divided into three main branches: Ramnes, Tities and Luceres.

Ramnes were of Latin stock (from Romulus), Tities of Sabine stock (from Titius Tatius), and the Luceres were of uncertain origin, but according to many they were of Etruscan stock.

The name Luceres probably refers to the Latin term Lucus, a sacred grove, with the meaning of the people who lives in the sacred groves. Or to the Etruscan Lucumon, in Etruscan it means King.
 
True, but there was indeed a tribal/clanish system in the early Rome, called Gentes originarie, "the original clans", clans existing since the foundation of Rome. Titus Livius reports about this.

Ancient Romans were divided into three main branches: Ramnes, Tities and Luceres.

Ramnes were of Latin stock (from Romulus), Tities of Sabine stock (from Titius Tatius), and the Luceres were of uncertain origin, but according to many they were of Etruscan stock.

The name Luceres probably refers to the Latin term Lucus, a sacred grove, with the meaning of the people who lives in the sacred groves. Or to the Etruscan Lucumon, in Etruscan it means King.

Rome would have been build on a crossroad, and there was a marketplace and there were local herders in the hills.
But I suspect there were also refugees from nearby towns involved in the founding of Rome. They were probably the elite.
 
there is no evidence both ways, as we don't know the founders of Rome, we have only a legend

Rome would have been build on a crossroad, and there was a marketplace and there were local herders in the hills.
But I suspect there were also refugees from nearby towns involved in the founding of Rome. They were probably the elite.

I'm not quite sure I understand.

By this time the Romans were highly literate people. We have histories and extensive compilations of law and later on their own written mythology. There is absolutely nothing to indicate that by this time there was any difference in appearance or "ethnically" between the patricians and the plebs, or between the inhabitants of the actual town of "Rome" versus the "Latins" of the other towns. Now, there may have initially been some difference when the Italic tribes arrived and mingled with the prior inhabitants, but nothing, as I said, to indicate that the difference was significant.

This is in complete contrast to the founding myths and/or legal compendiums of people like the Anglo-Saxons or the Vikings, whom we've been recently discussing.

It seems to me that a logical conclusion is that either perhaps the Italics were few in number, or, perhaps more likely, they were quite different from, say, perhaps, the original Unetice people or whichever group the Latins derived from by the time they reached Rome.

Interestingly, in this regard, by the time the Romans came to write their own origin story they chose to be descended from the Trojans. In doing so, they never indicated the Trojans "looked" different to themselves, although perhaps since the aim was to claim an illustrious ancestry in contrast to that of the Greeks, that would have been unimportant. Nevertheless, the same applies to the Etruscans.

As to Rome originally being a market down, I doubt that's significant. Many of the settlements of ancient peoples were built at crossroads. Anybody coming to trade at that point on the Tiber would also have been Latins. The "Romans" were just the Latins settled at that particular spot. There would have been no meaningful difference between them and other Latins. That would be like saying there was a significant genetic difference between Angles from neighboring towns. As to elites, if anything it was the Etruscans who were the elite. They were their kings and rulers.

More importantly, many of the people who were responsible for the Roman "accomplishments" would have been Roman knights and other people of the middle to upper middle classes, people like Vespasian, or descendants of plebs. That's not even considering how much of "Roman" culture and accomplishments was taken from the Etruscans whom they absorbed but who originally ruled them. If we want to know the "make-up" of the people who built Rome, it was very possibly people like this.
Vespasianus03_pushkin.jpg
 
Rome would have been build on a crossroad, and there was a marketplace and there were local herders in the hills.
But I suspect there were also refugees from nearby towns involved in the founding of Rome. They were probably the elite.

Some historians and archeologists think that Rome was the result of synoecism. Many previous settlements incorporated by synoecism into a greater one: Rome.
 
Lets hope who they test was no etruscan

the Etruscans ruled Rome and migrated some people there for over 100 years


Yes, Sile. It would be a disaster if he was Etruscan. I do not even want to think about it, it would be a day of national mourning.

I already imagine the comments of the Nordicists when it will be discovered that the Romans were not recent arrivals from Northern Europe, and they will blame the Etruscans.
 
Yes, Sile. It would be a disaster if he was Etruscan. I do not even want to think about it, it would be a day of mourning.

not all bad .....
 
Yes, Sile. It would be a disaster if he was Etruscan. I do not even want to think about it, it would be a day of national mourning.

I already imagine the comments of the Nordicists when it will be discovered that the Romans were not recent arrivals from Northern Europe, and they will blame the Etruscans.

Amazing how when you scratch below the surface this is what so much of amateur commentary is about.
 
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