Ricerc@Sapienza

Pre-Roman Italy has been characterized by the presence of many different ethnic groups mainly studied by archaeological approaches. The ethnic differences can be inferred through the analysis of the funerary settings and the material culture. However, the interpretation of these data is not sufficient to clarify some issues which are still matter of debate. Recently, genetic analysis on ancient skeletal remains has proved to be useful to solve historical and proto-historical issues. In this project, we intend to clarify the genetic structure of pre-Roman Italic people focusing our attention on the Picenes, a civilization established during the Iron Age (IX-III cc. BCE), in the so called ¿Picene Area¿ (the current Marche region). Written sources concerning this culture are particularly scarce and the archaeological data often susceptible to different interpretations. During the Iron Age, central Italy experienced the full development of the Picene culture, but in the early years of the III c. BCE Picenes underwent the Roman expansion and the whole region was subjected by Rome. Thanks to agreements already established with the Archaeological Superintendence of the Marche region (ASM), we have collected about 200 Picene ancient samples.
In order to have a complete diachronic picture of the genomic evolution of the ¿Picene area¿, we also acquired Neolithic and Eneolithic (radiocarbon dated) samples from populations living in the same region (before the establishing of the Picene culture) as well as 30 samples from a necropolis of the V c. AD (i.e. after the Roman conquest). In this project, we propose to scan at the level of Whole Genome Sequencing (WGS) a subset of these collected samples in order to describe the genetic origin and evolution of Picenes through the analysis of the genetic diversity of ancient samples living in the same region in different times: Neolithic, Eneolithic, Iron Age (Picenes) and Roman Period.