Paleogeneticists have analyzed the DNA of a person whose remains were found in a prestigious tomb in the ancient city of Ephesus almost a hundred years ago. Scientists have refuted the hypothesis that they could have belonged to Arsinoe IV, the sister of the famous Egyptian queen Cleopatra VII. A genomic study has shown that the tomb actually contained the remains of a teenage boy. This is reported in an article published in the journal Scientific Reports.
In 1904, archaeologists discovered a high-status monumental tomb, commonly known as the Octagon, in the central part of ancient Ephesus. A quarter of a century later, researchers opened the burial chamber of this structure and found a marble sarcophagus containing the remains of an individual. There were no inscriptions or artifacts in the tomb indicating the identity or social status of the deceased, but judging by the tomb’s design and location, it was built for a person of high status.
The skull was then taken to Europe, where researchers later concluded that it may have belonged to a young woman, who was about 20 years old at the time of her death (later estimates range from 15 to 17 years). Decades later, a hypothesis emerged that the tomb may have contained the remains of Arsinoe IV, the sister of the famous queen Cleopatra VII, who fought for power in Egypt in the mid-1st century BC. Arsinoe was first captured by Julius Caesar, who took pity on her and allowed her to flee Rome to Ephesus, where she was killed several years later, in 41 BC, on the orders of Mark Antony.
Gerhard Weber and his colleagues from the University of Vienna have returned to the study of the Ephesus skull, which was recently rediscovered in Vienna's vaults. The study also included a femur and a rib that archaeologists found during a reopening of the tomb in Ephesus several decades ago. However, the scientists were not sure that these bones belonged to the same person as the skull.
Anthropologists determined that the skull belonged to an adolescent with abnormalities in the development of the skull bones (especially the upper jaw), who died at the age of 11-14, that is, much earlier than would be expected for Arsinoe. To determine the time when this person lived, scientists turned to radiocarbon analysis. At first, the researchers obtained a calibrated date of 355-170 BC. However, after adjusting for the likely reservoir effect, they concluded that the child died between 205 and 36 BC. Earlier, scientists obtained a similar date for a femur from this tomb - 210-20 BC.
Paleogeneticists then extracted ancient DNA from the skull, femur, and rib to determine whether the remains belonged to the same individual, what gender he or she was, and where they came from. Genomic testing showed that the samples analyzed could not belong to Arsinoe IV, as both the skull and femur (and possibly the rib, but the quality of the DNA extracted from this element left much to be desired) were the remains of a male. Moreover, the skull and femur probably belonged to the same person (or twins). As with determining gender, the conclusions regarding whether the rib belonged to the same individual remained fairly uncertain.
Further genomic testing revealed that the teenage boy buried in Ephesus did not appear to have significant North African ancestry. Instead, his ancestors were genetically similar to people who lived in southern Europe during the Bronze and Iron Ages. The boy was genetically closest to populations that lived around 500 BCE on the Italian peninsula and in Sardinia.
Recently, geneticists got around to examining the remains of a supposed Pompeian woman who died during the eruption of Vesuvius in the House of the Golden Bracelet. DNA analysis showed that this person was actually a dark-skinned man.