Your source for the latest research news

Follow Subscribe

New:

New Model for How Humans Localize Sounds

New Measurement Yields Smaller Proton Radius

Unhealthy Yet Pervasive 'Hyper-Palatable' Foods

How Microbes Harvest Electrons

Why Is Ice So Slippery?

Chemists Observe 'Spooky' Quantum Tunneling

Run, Even a Little, for a Longer Life

Deep Sleep Can Rewire the Anxious Brain

New Grid Batteries for Renewable Energy

Carbon Dioxide Capture May Become Big Business

advertisement

Follow all of ScienceDaily's latest research news and top science headlines!

Science News

from research organizations

Researchers lay out first genetic history of Rome

Date:

November 7, 2019

Source:

Stanford University

Summary:

Despite extensive records of the history of Rome, little is known about the city's population over time. A new genetic history of the Eternal City reveals a dynamic population shaped in part by political and historical events.

Share:

FULL STORY

Scholars have been studying Rome for hundreds of years, but it still holds some secrets -- for instance, relatively little is known about the ancestral origins of the city's denizens. Now, an international team led by researchers from Stanford University, the University of Vienna and Sapienza University of Rome is filling in the gaps with a genetic history that shows just how much the Eternal City's populace mirrored its sometimes tumultuous history.

advertisement

The study, published Nov. 8 in Science, focuses on the ancient DNA of individuals from Rome and adjacent regions in Italy. Those genetic data reveal at least two major migrations into Rome, as well as several smaller but significant population shifts over just the last few thousand years, according to Jonathan Pritchard, a professor of genetics and biology and one of the paper's senior authors.

Notably, DNA analysis revealed that as the Roman Empire expanded around the Mediterranean Sea, immigrants from the Near East, Europe and North Africa pulled up their roots and moved to Rome. This significantly changed the face of one of the ancient world's first great cities, said Pritchard, who is also a member of Stanford Bio-X.

"This study shows how dynamic the past really is," said Hannah Moots, a graduate student in anthropology and co-lead author on the new study. "In Rome we're seeing people come from all over, in ways that correspond with historical political events."

Genetic contact

In the last decade or so, an increasing number of studies have used DNA sampled from ancient skeletons to fill in important details of human history. Rome presented an interesting opportunity to use the same ancient DNA techniques to fill in details left out of the historical record. "The historical and archaeological records tell us a great deal about political history and contacts of different kinds with different places -- trade and slavery, for example -- but those records provide limited information about the genetic makeup of the population," Pritchard said.

advertisement

To find out what that makeup looked like, the Stanford team partnered with a host of European researchers, including senior authors Alfredo Coppa, a professor of physical anthropology at Sapienza University, and Ron Pinhasi, an associate professor of evolutionary anthropology at the University of Vienna, to gather 127 human DNA samples from 29 sites in and around Rome dating from between the Stone Age and medieval times.

An analysis of some of the earliest samples more or less comports with what has been found around Europe -- they represent an influx of farmers primarily descended from early agriculturalists from Turkey and Iran around 8,000 years ago, followed by a shift toward ancestry from the Ukrainian steppe somewhere between 5,000 and 3,000 years ago. By the founding of Rome, traditionally dated to 753 BCE, the city's population had grown in diversity and resembled modern European and Mediterranean peoples.

Republic, empire and beyond

But for Pritchard, Moots and co-first authors Margaret Antonio, a graduate student in biomedical informatics, and Ziyue Gao, a postdoctoral fellow in Pritchard's lab, the most interesting parts were yet to come. Although Rome began as a humble city-state, within 800 years it had gained control over an empire extending as far west as Britain, south into North Africa and east into Syria, Jordan and Iraq.

As the empire expanded, contemporary accounts and archaeological evidence indicate there were tight connections between Rome and other parts of its domain built through trade, military campaigns, new roads and slavery -- and the genetic history corroborates but also complicates the story. There was a massive shift in Roman residents' ancestry, the researchers found, but that ancestry came primarily from the Eastern Mediterranean and Near East, possibly because of denser populations there relative to the Roman Empire's western reaches in Europe and Africa.

The next several centuries were full of turmoil: the empire split in two, diseases decimated Rome's population and a series of invasions befell the city. Those events left a mark on the city's population, which shifted toward western European ancestry. Later, the rise and reign of the Holy Roman Empire brought an influx of central and northern European ancestry.

Migration is nothing new

The lesson, Pritchard said, is that the ancient world was perpetually in flux, both in terms of culture and of ancestry. "It was surprising to us how rapidly the population ancestry shifted, over timescales of just a few centuries, reflecting Rome's shifting political alliances over time," Pritchard said. "Another striking aspect was how cosmopolitan the population of Rome was, starting more than 2,000 years ago and continuing through the rise and dissolution of the empire. Even in antiquity, Rome was a melting pot of different cultures."

In future studies, the researchers hope to expand the geographic range of ancient DNA they can sample. Among other things, that would allow them to say with more certainty how ancient populations mixed and moved around. In the long run, they're also hoping to study more than ancestry and migration. For example, the group also plans to study the evolution of traits like height, lactose tolerance and resistance to diseases such as malaria that may have changed over time, Moots said.

Story Source:

Materials provided by Stanford University. Original written by Nathan Collins. Note: Content may be edited for style and length.

Journal Reference:

Margaret L. Antonio, Ziyue Gao, Hannah M. Moots, Michaela Lucci, Francesca Candilio, Susanna Sawyer, Victoria Oberreiter, Diego Calderon, Katharina Devitofranceschi, Rachael C. Aikens, Serena Aneli, Fulvio Bartoli, Alessandro Bedini, Olivia Cheronet, Daniel J. Cotter, Daniel M. Fernandes, Gabriella Gasperetti, Renata Grifoni, Alessandro Guidi, Francesco La Pastina, Ersilia Loreti, Daniele Manacorda, Giuseppe Matullo, Simona Morretta, Alessia Nava, Vincenzo Fiocchi Nicolai, Federico Nomi, Carlo Pavolini, Massimo Pentiricci, Philippe Pergola, Marina Piranomonte, Ryan Schmidt, Giandomenico Spinola, Alessandra Sperduti, Mauro Rubini, Luca Bondioli, Alfredo Coppa, Ron Pinhasi, Jonathan K. Pritchard. Ancient Rome: A genetic crossroads of Europe and the Mediterranean. Science, 2019; 366 (6466): 708 DOI: 10.1126/science.aay6826

Cite This Page:

MLA

APA

Chicago

Stanford University. "Researchers lay out first genetic history of Rome." ScienceDaily. ScienceDaily, 7 November 2019. <www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2019/11/191107160611.htm>.

Stanford University. (2019, November 7). Researchers lay out first genetic history of Rome. ScienceDaily. Retrieved November 8, 2019 from www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2019/11/191107160611.htm

Stanford University. "Researchers lay out first genetic history of Rome." ScienceDaily. www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2019/11/191107160611.htm (accessed November 8, 2019).

RELATED TOPICS

Health & Medicine

Genes

Human Biology

Personalized Medicine

Gene Therapy

Fossils & Ruins

Ancient Civilizations

Fossils

Anthropology

Origin of Life

advertisement

RELATED TERMS

Genetic drift

Pompeii

Ancient Rome

Toba catastrophe theory

Human migration

Heritability

Evolution

Tutankhamun

RELATED STORIES

Genome Study Presents New Way to Track Historical Demographics of US Populations

May 24, 2018 — Researchers have developed a method to estimate historical effective population size, which is the number of individuals who pass on their genes to the next generation, to reveal the shifting ... read more

Modern DNA Reveals Ancient Male Population Explosions Linked to Migration and Technology

Apr. 25, 2016 — The largest ever study of global genetic variation in the human Y chromosome has uncovered the hidden history of men. Research reveals explosions in male population numbers in five continents, ... read more

New Population Genetics Model Could Explain Finn, European Genetic Differences

May 11, 2015 — A new population genetics model could explain why the genetic composition of Finnish people is so different from that of other European populations. Researchers discovered a previously unknown ... read more

Elucidating the Origin of MDR Tuberculosis Strains

Jan. 28, 2015 — A study has focused on the evolutionary history of the mycobacterium that causes tuberculosis, and more specifically on the Beijing lineage associated with the spread of multidrug resistant forms of ... read more

FROM AROUND THE WEB

Below are relevant articles that may interest you. ScienceDaily shares links with scholarly publications in the TrendMD network and earns revenue from third-party advertisers, where indicated.

FROM AROUND THE WEB

Glioblastoma Pathway Signatures, Treatment Responses Differ Between Male, Female Patients
Precision Oncology News, 2019

NCI to Fund Studies on Liquid Biopsy, Imaging Combos for Cancer Monitoring
Precision Oncology News, 2019

At ASCO, FDA Discusses Use of Real-World Data Drawn From Flatiron Health's Clinico-Genomics Database
Precision Oncology News, 2018

Exact Sciences Q1 Revenues Up 79 Percent
Precision Oncology News, 2019

Guardant Health Liquid Biopsy Test to be Covered by EviCore
Precision Oncology News, 2019

PGDx Shares New MSI Data, Provides Update on FDA Bid for Pan-Cancer IVDs
Precision Oncology News, 2019

Georgia Tech, Emory Developing Urine-Based Dx to Guide Cancer Immunotherapies
Precision Oncology News, 2019

FDA Approves Expanded Use of Qiagen EGFR CDx in Lung Cancer
Precision Oncology News, 2018

Powered by

Privacy policy

Google Analytics settings

I consent to the use of Google Analytics and related cookies across the TrendMD network (widget, website, blog). Learn more

Yes No

Print   Email   Share

advertisement

Most Popular

this week

PLANTS & ANIMALS

The World Is Getting Wetter, Yet Water May Become Less Available for North America and Eurasia

Did an Extraterrestrial Impact Trigger the Extinction of Ice-Age Animals?

Lifestyle Is a Threat to Gut Bacteria: Ötzi Proves It, Study Shows

EARTH & CLIMATE

Engineers Develop a New Way to Remove Carbon Dioxide from Air

'Artificial Leaf' Successfully Produces Clean Gas

Mars Once Had Salt Lakes Similar to Those on Earth

FOSSILS & RUINS

Boy or Girl? It's in the Father's Genes

Ornament With Eagle Talons from Neanderthal Period

New Data on the Evolution of Plants and Origin of Species

advertisement

Strange & Offbeat

PLANTS & ANIMALS

Cytoplasm of Scrambled Frog Eggs Organizes Into Cell-Like Structures

Microbes Harvest Electrons: Novel Process Discovered

From Cone Snail Venom to Pain Relief

EARTH & CLIMATE

Deep Sea Vents Had Ideal Conditions for Origin of Life

Stuck in a Polish Nuclear Weapon Bunker Cannibal Wood Ants Found the Way Home

Dolphins Demonstrate Coordinated Cooperation

FOSSILS & RUINS

Ornament With Eagle Talons from Neanderthal Period

Ancient Rhinos Roamed the Yukon

Did an Extraterrestrial Impact Trigger the Extinction of Ice-Age Animals?

Toggle navigation Menu   SD

SD

Home Page

Top Science News

Latest News

Home

Home Page

Top Science News

Latest News

Health

View all the latest top news in the health sciences,
or browse the topics below:

Health & Medicine

Allergy

Alternative Medicine

Birth Control

Cancer

Diabetes

Diseases

Heart Disease

HIV and AIDS

Obesity

Stem Cells

... more topics

Mind & Brain

ADD and ADHD

Addiction

Alzheimer's

Autism

Depression

Headaches

Intelligence

Psychology

Relationships

Schizophrenia

... more topics

Living Well

Parenting

Pregnancy

Sexual Health

Skin Care

Men's Health

Women's Health

Nutrition

Diet and Weight Loss

Fitness

Healthy Aging

... more topics

Tech

View all the latest top news in the physical sciences & technology,
or browse the topics below:

Matter & Energy

Aviation

Chemistry

Electronics

Fossil Fuels

Nanotechnology

Physics

Quantum Physics

Solar Energy

Technology

Wind Energy

... more topics

Space & Time

Astronomy

Black Holes

Dark Matter

Extrasolar Planets

Mars

Moon

Solar System

Space Telescopes

Stars

Sun

... more topics

Computers & Math

Artificial Intelligence

Communications

Computer Science

Hacking

Mathematics

Quantum Computers

Robotics

Software

Video Games

Virtual Reality

... more topics

Enviro

View all the latest top news in the environmental sciences,
or browse the topics below:

Plants & Animals

Agriculture and Food

Animals

Biology

Biotechnology

Endangered Animals

Extinction

Genetically Modified

Microbes and More

New Species

Zoology

... more topics

Earth & Climate

Climate

Earthquakes

Environment

Geography

Geology

Global Warming

Hurricanes

Ozone Holes

Pollution

Weather

... more topics

Fossils & Ruins

Ancient Civilizations

Anthropology

Archaeology

Dinosaurs

Early Humans

Early Mammals

Evolution

Lost Treasures

Origin of Life

Paleontology

... more topics

Society

View all the latest top news in the social sciences & education,
or browse the topics below:

Science & Society

Arts & Culture

Consumerism

Economics

Political Science

Privacy Issues

Public Health

Racial Disparity

Religion

Sports

World Development

... more topics

Business & Industry

Biotechnology & Bioengineering

Computers & Internet

Energy & Resources

Engineering

Medical Technology

Pharmaceuticals

Transportation

... more topics

Education & Learning

Animal Learning & Intelligence

Creativity

Educational Psychology

Educational Technology

Infant & Preschool Learning

Learning Disorders

STEM Education

... more topics

Quirky

Top News

Human Quirks

Odd Creatures

Bizarre Things

Weird World

Free Subscriptions

Get the latest science news with ScienceDaily's free email newsletters, updated daily and weekly. Or view hourly updated newsfeeds in your RSS reader:

Email Newsletters

RSS Feeds

Follow Us

Keep up to date with the latest news from ScienceDaily via social networks:

Facebook

Twitter

LinkedIn

Have Feedback?

Tell us what you think of ScienceDaily -- we welcome both positive and negative comments. Have any problems using the site? Questions?

Leave Feedback

Contact Us

About This Site  |  Staff  |  Reviews  |  Contribute  |  Advertise  |  Privacy Policy  |  Editorial Policy  |  Terms of Use

Copyright 2019 ScienceDaily or by other parties, where indicated. All rights controlled by their respective owners.

Content on this website is for information only. It is not intended to provide medical or other professional advice.

Views expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily, its staff, its contributors, or its partners.

Financial support for ScienceDaily comes from advertisements and referral programs, where indicated.

Share this page ...

Researchers lay out first genetic history of Rome
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2019/11/191107160611.htm

Despite extensive records of the history of Rome, little is known about the city's population over time. A new genetic history of the Eternal City reveals a dynamic population shaped in part by political and historical events.

Close