Washington (AFP)

Archaeologists examining the remains of victims of the Vesuvius eruption in AD 79 found that the inhabitants of the coast at the time ate far more fish than Italians today, and that men ate more of it. this food, considered superior, than women.

The researchers, led by a team at the University of York, analyzed the amino acids taken from 17 adult skeletons unearthed in the Roman city of Herculaneum, a seaside resort that remained buried under the ashes of the volcano until the 18th century. .

By studying the proportion of carbon and nitrogen isotopes in amino acids and applying a statistical model, they were able to differentiate food groups with a new level of precision, the team wrote in the journal Science Advances on Wednesday.

Herculaneum provided an "extraordinary population" that made it possible to study the diets of the time because the natural disaster gave archaeologists a snapshot of the day to day life, senior author Silvia told AFP Soncin.

And this is unlike cemeteries, which "are generally used for a certain period - we are talking about hundreds of years - and food sources may have changed due to changes in climate or different trade routes," he said. she explains.

Although nearby Herculaneum and Pompeii were destroyed by the volcano, most residents were able to flee in time, one of the authors, Oliver Craig, professor of bioarchaeology, told AFP.

The 11 men and 6 women studied by the team were chosen at random from among 340 people who died on the beach and under stone arches serving as boat shelters ("fornici") where they had tried to take refuge.

"We have found a surprisingly high amount of marine contribution to the diet of these people, especially compared to the modern Mediterranean population," said Ms Soncin.

These ancient inhabitants ate about three times as much seafood as the local inhabitants today.

- Gender disparity -

The team also found a significant gender disparity within the group: Compared to women, men on average got 50% more of their protein intake from seafood.

On the site of Herculaneum near Naples ANDREAS SOLARO AFP / Archives

Men also ate slightly more protein from grains than women, while women got more protein from animal products and locally grown fruits and vegetables.

There are several possible reasons for this, according to the team: men might have been more involved in fishing than women, but it is also known that certain fish like tuna were considered superior food in Roman society, and men had more access to it.

Another possible explanation, although Herculaneum was known to be a resort for the elite, it also hosted many slaves and freed slaves.

Male slaves had a greater chance of being emancipated than women and were generally younger, which may have given them earlier access to these precious delicacies.

"We now have a way and an approach to quantify feeding in the past, so what we want to do is apply it more widely in time and space," said Craig.

He later hopes to examine how quickly diets changed as prehistoric humans moved from hunter-gatherer activities to agricultural societies.

© 2021 AFP