Ancient Romans were known for creating delicious sauces, including Garum-famous fish-based condiment. Scientists studying ancient DNA of Roman era saltation plant in Spain has found that European sardines are the key ingredient.
Fish was an important part of the ancient Roman diet, and Romans worked their capture for long-term conservation in coastal fish-sale plants called Cetariae. There, they crushed and fermented small fish into pastes and sauces like the iconic umami-flavored Garum. Today, fermented fish-based sauces remain popular, whether in the form of classic Worcestershire sauce or the many fish sauces produced in Southeast Asia.
Analyzing the fish used in Roman condiments could give an understanding of the diets and culture of ancient people as well as information about fish populations of the time, but the intense processing that occurred at the jumping plants, among other things, makes it almost impossible to identify species of their remains.
To overcome this limitation, an international team of researchers tested a different approach: DNA analysis. Despite the fact that grinding and fermentation accelerate genetic degeneration, they were able to sequence DNA of fish remains found in fish-sala Vat at Cetaria in northwestern Spain. This achievement illuminates light to Roman-era sardines and opens the door for future investigations into archaeological fish.
“The funds of fish-sale watts offer myriad remains, yet one of the biggest challenges to study pelagic fish from these contexts is the small size of the bone material,” the researchers wrote in a study published today in Antique. “To our knowledge, genome studies still need to use the vast potential of this data source for the release of past fish consumption and the population dynamics of commercially related fish species.”
To test the validity of genetic analysis in this context, the team successfully extracted and sequenced DNA from the small bone remains of previously identified European sardines discovered at an ancient Roman fish-salad plant in the Spanish archaeological site of Adro Vello. Co-author Paula Campos researcher at the University of Porto specializing in ancient DNA-and her colleagues then compared the ancient DNA sequences with genetic data of contemporary sardines. They concluded that ancient sardines were genetically similar to their modern counterparts in the same region. This is remarkable, considering that the species is known for its spreading skills.
“Here, the authors prove that despite being crushed and exposed to acidic conditions, usable DNA can be recovered from Iktiological [fish] Remains at the bottom of fish-sale watts, “the researchers explained.” Analysis of this data has the option to open a new research avenue to the subsystem economies, cultures and diets of past human populations and to provide information about fish populations that cannot be obtained from fishing data or modern samples. ”
Ultimately, the study emphasizes a successful way of accessing an overlooked archaeological resource. It also confirms that in ancient Rome, fish were not friends – they were very eating.
