Ambassador Or Slave? East Asian Skeleton Discovered In Vagnari Roman Cemetery

Researchers announced that the skeleton of a man, seen here, has DNA that indicates an East Asian ancestry. Sadly he may have been a slave. His sole surviving grave good, a single pot, can be seen on the far left. A person was buried on top of him and appears to have been given more grave goods. Photo courtesy Professor Tracy Prowse.

From The Independent:

A team of researchers announced a surprising discovery during a scholarly presentation in Toronto last Friday. The research team, based at McMaster University in Hamilton, Canada, has been helping to excavate an ancient Roman cemetery at the site of Vagnari in southern Italy. Led by Professor Tracy Prowse, they’ve been analyzing the skeletons found there by performing DNA and oxygen isotope tests.

The surprise is that the DNA tests show that one of the skeletons, a man, has an East Asian ancestry – on his mother’s side. This appears to be the first time that a skeleton with an East Asian ancestry has been discovered in the Roman Empire.

However, it seems like this contact between east and west did not go well.

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