High-resolution dietary reconstruction of victims of the 79 CE Vesuvius eruption at Herculaneum by compound-specific isotope analysis.

Silvia Soncin,Matthew Von Tersch,Peter Garnsey,Michelle Alexander,Harry K Robson,Ricardo Fernandes,Helen M Talbot,Massimo Osanna,Alison Harris,Luca Bondioli,Valeria Amoretti,Oliver E Craig,Marina Caso,Luciano Fattore,Gill Thompson,Francesco Sirano,Jan K Bakker,Kristine Korzow Richter ,André Carlo Colonese ,Steven P Ellis

doi:10.1126/sciadv.abg5791

Abstract

The remains of those who perished at Herculaneum in 79 CE offer a unique opportunity to examine lifeways across an ancient community who lived and died together. Historical sources often allude to differential access to foodstuffs across Roman society but provide no direct or quantitative information. By determining the stable isotope values of amino acids from bone collagen and deploying Bayesian models that incorporate knowledge of protein synthesis, we were able to reconstruct the diets of 17 adults from Herculaneum with unprecedented resolution. Significant differences in the proportions of marine and terrestrial foods consumed were observed between males and females, implying that access to food was differentiated according to gender. The approach also provided dietary data of sufficient precision for comparison with assessments of food supply to modern populations, opening up the possibility of benchmarking ancient diets against contemporary settings where the consequences for health are better understood.

Highlights

The human remains found at Herculaneum represent a sample of a “living” population who died trying to escape from the eruption of the Vesuvius volcano in 79 CE
This remarkable assemblage of victims of a natural catastrophe is of huge public interest and offers an opportunity to substantially advance our knowledge of Roman society through the application of bioarchaeological approaches
No evidence has emerged as yet of biases toward any particular social class, we know from other evidence, namely, the so-called Album of Herculaneum, that freedmen and slaves made up a high proportion of the residents of the town [3, 4]

Summary

Introduction

The human remains found at Herculaneum represent a sample of a “living” population who died trying to escape from the eruption of the Vesuvius volcano in 79 CE. 340 individuals have been excavated from the beach and from nine adjacent fornici (stone vaults) that run parallel to the seashore, where they sought shelter (Fig. 1) [1]. This remarkable assemblage of victims of a natural catastrophe is of huge public interest and offers an opportunity to substantially advance our knowledge of Roman society through the application of bioarchaeological approaches. No evidence has emerged as yet of biases toward any particular social class, we know from other evidence, namely, the so-called Album of Herculaneum, that freedmen and slaves made up a high proportion of the residents of the town [3, 4]

Objectives

Methods

Results

Conclusion