快猫短视频

Ancient human remains found in a catacomb in Rome belonged to a migrant from northern Africa who grew up along the Nile valley before travelling to the heart of the Roman Empire more than 1700 years ago.

The remains, consisting of only a jawbone fragment with three teeth attached, were found in the , south-east Rome. They were uncovered in a chamber during a rescue excavation, conducted before a support pillar could be installed.

at the Free University of Brussels in Belgium and his colleagues write that the study offers rare evidence of a non-Roman travelling across the Empire as it existed between about the 1st and 3rd centuries AD. 鈥淚n particular, it highlights for the first time the journey of a North African-born individual who died in the Eternal city,鈥� they write.

To reconstruct the life story of the dead person, Salesse and his colleagues studied chemical isotopes in the teeth and jawbone, which can reveal details of where someone spent their childhood. The team also looked at the shape of the teeth, and studied ancient DNA in the remains 鈥� both of which can also offer hints about someone鈥檚 birthplace.

Collectively, these analyses revealed that the individual may have grown up in the Nile鈥檚 second cataract region in what is now Sudan, just south of the territory held by the Romans at the time the individual was alive. The person moved frequently as a child, perhaps due to a nomadic lifestyle, but spent several years in Rome as an adult.

The researchers suggest that the individual may have been a free man or woman, living in Rome for business reasons 鈥� but was probably brought to Rome as a slave. The researchers also show that the person ate large amounts of freshwater fish in Rome. This was a food generally eaten by those in the lower reaches of society, indicating a non-elite status.

鈥淲hile I agree that this person was certainly an immigrant, a person鈥檚 status as a free migrant or a Roman slave is still only a guess at this point,鈥� says at the University of North Carolina.

鈥淭he military recruited young men from the provinces during this time period; the data that Salesse and colleagues present could also be consistent with a new provincial recruit ending up at Rome,鈥� says Killgrove.

鈥淭his paper shows how much we can learn from a single ancient skeleton, but it also raises additional questions about patterns of migration and slavery that we cannot yet answer,鈥� she says.

鈥淓nslaved or not, [the individual] clearly illustrates and confirms the cosmopolitan character of Rome,鈥� the researchers write in the study.

Sign up to Our Human Story, a free monthly newsletter on the revolution in archaeology and human evolution