2,000-Year-Old Bones of Mt. Vesuvius Victims Reveal What They Ate

The people who inhabit in the township of Herculaneum were kill instantly in the abominable rut of pyroclastic flows spew from Mount Vesuvius in 79 CE . Nothing remains of their stomach , but that has n’t stopped archaeologists from learning about the diets of these sentence ancient Romans . In a new written report , researchers looked at isotopes in their bone collagen and found , among other details , that the men eat more seafood than cleaning woman .

The research squad studied the corpse of 17 of the 340 people who have been excavated from Herculaneum ’s beach and endocarp vaults , where many residents fled as the vent conflagrate . The 17 remains belong to 11 men and six women . base on the C and atomic number 7 isotope in the amino acids in their bony rest , the team define that the male in Herculaneum ate about 50 % more protein from seafood than the women did , while females got a large proportion of their protein from terrestrial rootage — creature , fruits , and veg . The squad ’s results arepublishedtoday in Science Advances .

Silvia Soncin , an archaeologist at the University of York and conduct source of the paper , said in a universitypress releasethat it was previously know that males in Herculaneum had more access to fish than women , as they were more likely to be fish and more often than not held a more inner position in society , meaning they could more typically afford food for thought like Pisces the Fishes .

Remains of the ancient Roman town Herculaneum, with Mt. Vesuvius in the background, in 2019.

Remains of the ancient Roman town Herculaneum, with Mt. Vesuvius in the background, in 2019.Photo: ANDREAS SOLARO/AFP (Getty Images)

“ We do n’t get laid if these results are specific to Herculaneum and the Bay of Naples or if they can employ to the Roman dieting in general , ” Soncin suppose in an email to Gizmodo . “ However , they suggest that the Roman diet can be dissimilar from what was previously thought ( for example , mainly cereals and flora products and only small amounts of animal Cartesian product and Pisces ) , since our study shows a meaning contribution of proteins and calories from terrestrial animals and marine fish , the latter much higher than that eat up by population in the Mediterranean in the 20th century . ”

Diets in the Bay of Naples generally included bread , olive oil , domestic fowl , wild game ( like boar ) , fruits and vegetable and , of course of instruction , Pisces . Being right by the water , seafood was a cardinal component of the diet and , even when fish or shellfish was n’t being serve , item were often eaten withgarum , a fermented fish sauce . That dieting turns up in archaeological evidence , but was never so plain on display as when a well - preserved thermopolium , or Roman food for thought cubicle , wasexcavated in Pompeiiin 2019 .

The newfangled research build onprevious workby the same team into the diet of several of the departed in Herculaneum . “ Whilst the results of the new paper documentation what we found before , for the first clock time we are able to add numbers with uncertainty to the per centum contribution of different foodstuffs — this is a big step if we are to meaningfully compare diet through time and space , ” say Oliver Craig , an archaeologist at the University of York and a co - author of the newspaper , in an email to Gizmodo . Craig added that the novel analysis also mean the team can measure the dietary differences between person in Herculaneum and beyond , mean instead of simply have it off whether a specific food was eaten by two individuals , the researchers can now know how much of each food each mortal consumed .

Skeletal remains at Herculaneum.

Skeletal remains at Herculaneum.Photo:Dr. Luciano Fattore

Details on diets in Herculaneum can also be compared with those in Pompeii , the more celebrated seaside town that suffered the same fate in 79 CE . Maciej Henneberg and Renata Henneberg , forensic anthropologists at the University of Adelaide in Australia , looked at diet variability in 31 individuals from Pompeiiin 2016and saw a similar Mediterranean dieting , with valet de chambre again consuming more seafood than women .

“ The generator used most up - to - date methods to sop up conclusions confirm the results we have put out in 2016 , using a large sample distribution of human stiff , ” Maciej Henneberg write in an electronic mail to Gizmodo . “ Our resultant for Pompeii , together with these newfangled finding for Herculaneum , show relative stability of nutrition in the area around Vesuvius and stay on custom of Mediterranean diet . ”

The volcano , while snuffing out whole communities , ironically has preserved so much about their lives and culture . With excavations and inquiry on-going in the area , it ’s safe to say there ’s still plenty more to learn about these people beyond the dramatic way in which they died .

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