The roman mummy of Grottarossa

A. AscenzP, P. Biancol , R. NicolettF, G. CeccariniZ, M. FomaseriJ, G. Graziani3, M. R. Giuliani4,

R. Rosicarello4, L. Ciuffarella4, and H. Granger-Taylor5

1 Department of Human Biopathology, "La Sapienza" University, 1-00161, Rome, Italy 2 Department of Chemistry, "La Sapienza" University, 1-00185, Rome, Italy 3 Department of Earth Sciences, "La Sapienza" University, 1-00185, Rome, Italy 4 Department of Vegetal Biology, "La Sapienza" University, 1-00185, Rome, Italy 5 British Museum, London, U.K.

Historical introduction

The Grottarossa mummy is only the second ever to have been discovered in Rome. According to Stefano In­fessura (1723), the first Roman mummy - of a12- or 13-year old girl- was found in 1485 in a grave near the via Appia about five miles from the city. After its removal, it was exhibited in the Palazzo dei Conservatori near the Capitol in Rome, but Pope Innocent VIII, was afraid of an outburst of popular fanaticism, and ordered it to be reburied at a secret site outside the Porta Pinciana, so that all knowledge of its precise whereabouts was lost.

Mummification has never been a Roman custom, and at present the Grottarossa mummy must be considered a

. . unIque specImen.

Grottarossa is a district on the outskirts of Rome, nine miles north of the Capitol along the via Cassia, and the mummy was discovered there on 5 February 1964. During building work, the mummy and its sarcophagus were in­advertently loaded on to a truck together with rubble to be dumped. When the driver realised he had been transport­ing a body, he immediately informed the police, who thought it might be an archaeological find and notified the "Sovrintendenza alle Antichita" (Monuments and Fine Arts Service, the govern men t agency responsible for all such finds in Italy), and had the mummy sent to the Institute of Forensic Medicine at the "La Sapienza" University, Rome.

The location of the sarcophagus had been a space below a block of building materials measuring 3x2.6x2.6 m, which could have been the foundations of a funerary monument (Fig. 1). This explains why the mummy and its sarcophagus had escaped vandalism over a period of many centuries.

On February 12, encouraged by public interest and the press, Prof. C. Gerin, then Director of the Institute of

Forensic Medicine, convened a press conference to pres­ent the mummy and give some preliminary comments on it based on external inspection, microscopic examin­ation and a conventional x-ray study. He stated his op­position to an autopsy, which would have destroyed an exceptional finding in the history of the Roman world. At the same press conference archaeologists provided in­formation about the sarcophagus itself, and the wrap­pings, jewellery and a doll that were found in it.

The sarcophagus was made of white marble, with a double-weathered lid opening at the front. It is rectangu­lar, and has masks on its corners. Both the sarcophagus and its lid are decorated with ornamental carvings. There is a deer-hunting scene on the long, front side, which continues as a boar-hunting scene on the short, right side. According to E. Paribeni (1964), the scene is in­spired by the Aeneas and Dido episode in Book IV of the Aeneid. A lion-hunting scene is shown on the lid open­ing. Mrica, Venus and a fluvial divinity - the River Ba­gradas near Carthage, according to Andreae (1969) - are displayed in symbolic form on the short, left side; this could indicate the setting of the hunting scenes.

The mummy exhibited jewels having features in ac­cordance with its youthful age: a pair of gold earings, a gold necklace with sapphires and a gold ring. Between the funerary items it is worth remembering an articulated ivory doll, having - as common at that time - features of an adult woman; a small amber shell-shaped box; a small amber pot; a little box with handle; a little amber die.

Considering the special features of the sarcophagus and funerary items, the Grottarossa girl must have lived in the second century A.D. either at the end of the reign of Hadrian, andlor the beginning of the Antonine era, as asserted by Andreae (1969), or during the reign of Ha­drian, as argued by Sapelli (1979), or under the Anto-

K. Spindler et al. (eds.), Human Mummies

© Springer-Verlag/Wien 1996

206 A. Ascenzi eta!.

Fig. 1. The underground location of the mummy sarcophagus in a space below a block of building materials (left). The Gronarossa mummy (right)

nine emperors (160-180 A.D.), according to Borden­ache Battaglia (1983).

The medical experts involved in the earlier examina­tion of the mummy did not publish any account of their observations. From an archaeological viewpoint, a paper by Scamuzzi (1964) is of doubtful value since it contains a great many unsupported assertions (Bordenache Bat­taglia, 1983), as is an article by Castellani (1964). Fully analytical observations on the sarcophagus were pub­lished both by Andreae (1969) and Sapelli (1979). Chapter XII of Bordenache Battaglia's book is funda­mental in providing information on the jewels, funerary items and sarcophagus. A note on the same subject is supplied by pfeiler (1970).

At the end of February the mummy was taken to the Museo delle Terme in Rome. A few years later, when the museum was about to be moved, the mummy was re­turned to the Institute of Forensic Medicine, where it has remained till the present day. Its final destination will be the new Museum of the Roman World in Rome, which will be opening soon.

The unavailability of any interdisciplinary study on the Grottarossa mummy has been a disappointment to

the scientific community. We therefore decided to recon­sider the whole subject and all the available materials, using the following approaches: a) an anthropological and paleopathological study; b) x-ray analysis of the teeth; c) computerized tomography (CT) or CT scan, with sam­pling of superficial and deep tissues using CT-guided needle biopsies; d) light and electron microscopic exam­ination of tissues; e) embalming chemistry; f) studies on the wrappings and other textiles; g) pollen analysis; h) a gemmological inquiry into the jewels and funerary items.

The results achieved by our specially created team ap­pear for the first time in complete form in the present paper.

Materials and methods

The Grottarossa mummy was examined and the methods and devices of classical anthropometry were applied. A new conven­tional x-ray investigation and a CT scan were carried out. The pan-

oramic x-ray technique was used to examine the state of the teeth. To do this, the mummy was held in a vertical position by being fixed to a wooden board from which the head and neck protruded.

AB permission to carry out an autopsy had been refused, samples for the microscopic examination of some organs were ob­tained under CT control using a Bordier's needle. For histology, specimens were hydrated and fixed according to Sandison (1955) and embedded in paraffin or in glycol-methacrylate. 4-8 11m thick sections from paraffin and I-211m thick sections from gly­col-methacrylate were stained using the following methods: He­matoxylin-eosin, van Gieson for collagen, Weigert for elastic fibers, phosphotungstic acid-hematoxylin for fibrin, Ziel-Neelsen for acid-fast bacteria. For electron microscopy, hydrated and fixed specimens were post-fixed in OS04 and embedded in Aral­dite. Semithin sections for light microscopy survey were stained with methylene blue-azure II. Thin sections were contrasted with U/Pb.

Photographs taken during the first press conference in 1964 show that the upper limbs of the mummy were wrapped but by the time the mummy was delivered to us, no wrappings were left. Tex­tile material was, however, found lying on each side of the body. It was impregnated to varying degrees by a brownish, aromatic sub­stance and showed small clots of resin of the same colour. The tex­tiles1 turned out to comprise seven units. Four of these (Nos. 2, 3, 4,5) corresponded to rolled up wrappings and two (Nos. 1,6) had an incomplete tubular shape. A seventh (No.7) was a shapeless cloth fragment folded many times over and compressed. It too was deeply impregnated by resin.

To study the weaving pattern and the fibers of the yarn making up the textile materials, the optical conventional microscope, the stereo microscope and the scanning electron microscope were used (Gianolio, 1987). The fiber identification was also confirmed by microchemical tests using a solution of zinc-iodide reagent (methods ASTM D276-77).

Analytical chemical data about the mummifYing procedure were obtained ftom (a) hair, (b) skin, (c) powder obtained by scratching the rectum, (d) textiles and the small clots sticking to them, (e) resinuous material contained in a little box belonging to the funerary equipment.z

The sampling of material from the rectum was prompted by the remark ofPazzini (1964) that at the time of discovery aromatic liquid dripped from the anus.

Volatile aromatic substances for "head space analysis" were col­lected from the textiles.

All the above materials were processed as follows.

Solid samples

After extraction with exane and/or methanol, the solutions were submitted to gas-chromatography (GC) and gas-chroma­tography/mass-spectrometry (GC/MS). GC was performed using a Hewlett-Packard system, with helium as carrier gas and hydrogen flame detector. A silicone coated capillary column 20 m long and 0.32 mm in diameter was used. Starting at temperature of 50°C, this was progressively raised to 250°C at a rate of 3°C/min.

GC/MS analysis was carried out using a similar capillary col­umn operating the conditions reported above. Mass spectra were recorded both by electron impact at 70 eV and by the chemical ionization system.

1 Extensive papers on textiles are in preparation. 2 Here chemical methods and results are presented in a sum­

marised form. An extensive paper on the subject is in preparation.

The roman mummy of Grottarossa 207

To identifY abietic acid derivatives, that is, the terpenoids con­sidered as specific markers for the coniferous resin, standard pro­cedures were used involving dissolution in 10 % methanol-ether, methylation with diawmethane before injecting in the gas-chro­matograph, according to Schlenk and Gellerman (1960) and Mills and White (1989).

As suggested by the black colour of hairs and skin, the possibil­iry that bitumen may have been used for mummification was con­sidered; extraction of the solid material therefore was attempted using CSz and an analysis for demonstrating Mo, Ni and V (el­ements commonly present in bitumen) was carried out using in­ductively coupled plasma spectroscopy.

Volatile samples

After the textiles had been sealed in boxes, the volatile sub­stances present were trapped in absorbing coal using a flux of ni­trogen. After thermal de-absorbing the same substances were con­veyed to the column of the gas-chromatograph where the initial temperature was 50°C; it was then raised to 150°C at a rate of 10 °C/min and finally to 250°C at the rate of3 °Clmin.

Besides a small amber box containing resinous materials, the investigations on the funerary items and jewels were restricted to the golden necklace with sapphires and an amber die because the remaining items had already been studied at the archaeo­logical laboratory at the "Sovrintendenza Roma I" (Andergassen, 1983).

In studying the necklace, consisting of thirteen blue sapphires joined with elongated golden pieces, care was taken to collect in­formation about the possible origin of the sapphires. To achieve this a sapphire sample was subjected both to optical observations and standard gemmological tests. Its chemical composition was de­termined using an electron micro-ptobe Oeol ]SM-50A). Minor element concentrations were measured by carrying out the micro­analyses along alignments with scanning steps of 10 and 20 11m and a time count of 100 sec. Synthetic and natural standards were used, with online corrections performed according to a modified version of the MAGIC IV program (Colby, 1968).

The absorption spectrum in the visible region between 340 and 800 nm was recorded on a Varian Cary 219 double-beam spectro­photometer.

To determine the site of origin of the amber die, the surface was gently scratched with a needle to obtain small quantiry of powder. Samples resulting of powder (3 mg) dispersed in KBr (150 mg) were tested in a Perkin Elmer 257 spectrophotometer under the following conditions: spectrum range 4,000 to 600 cm-1; scanning time 6 min; slit 2 : 2. AB standards, ambers of different origin were used.

A pollen analysis was carried out on the clots found sticking to the textiles, and the resinous material contained in a box that was part of the funerary equipment. The method applied was the con­ventional one: an alcohol wash to remove possible superficial con­taminating pollen; dissolution in alcohol for 24 h; centrifugation; acetolysis according to the method ofErdtman (1969) modified by Moore and Webb (1978); conservation in glycerol.

Results

The Grottarossa mummy may be considered to be satisfactorily preserved (Fig. 1), although the right big toe, the distal phalanx of the left big toe, the distal phal­anges of the 2nd, 3rd and 4th right toes, and the distal

208 A. Ascenzi etal.

phalanx of the 2nd left toe are all missing. These post mortem amputations are most probably due to the trau­matic action suffered by the body during the excavation of the grave and its removal to the dumping site.

All of the body is wrinkled by complete dehydration. .A5 a result its weight is only 4,960 g in spite of an overall length of 120 cm. The muscles show conspicuous rigidity, so that the body can be lifted as if it was a board.

The tough, stiff skin reveals an intense brownish col­our and its surface is free from any type of crystals. The few hairs are 3-5 cm in length. Their colour is black with a reddish tint. The ears are regularly developed. The eyes are wrinkled and collapsed, especially the right one, which is closed. The nose is deformed with the tip pushed backward and to the left. The wrinkled lips un­cover the crown of incisors, which reveal a few defects in the enamel. In spite of its deformations the face shows a caucasian look.

The external genitalia are female, with very poorly preserved labia.

In the anterior aspect of the right thigh, a rectilinear incision 9 cm long sutured with sewing thread is to be at­tributed to the withdrawal of samples from the femur and the surrounding soft tissues soon after the discovery. There are no incisions over the remaining surface of the body. More specifically, this is true of the orbital, occipi­tal, abdominal and perineal regions. Probably because of the wrappings, the chest volumes low and the sternum is

Fig. 2. Panoramic x-ray film (a) and sketch (b) of the teeth of the Grottarossa mummy

displaced backward with respect to the anterior end of the ribs.

On the hands the whorls and ridges of the fingers are present, and the finger nails are well preserved.

The external examination of the mummy was com­pleted by the collection of some anthropometric data, which are reported in Tables 1 and 2. It is worth pointing out that these measurements are somewhat atypical be­cause they were not taken directly from the skeleton and at the same time the dehydration of the soft tissues does not allow any comparison with measurements obtained from a living body. The body height was measured going from the bregma to the middle of the inferior surface of the calcaneum. This last reference point was also chosen as representative of the ground surface for measuring the height of other anthropometric markers.

Table 1. Cranial and facial indexes with their corresponding conformational types

Indexes

Cephalix index Height" to length index Height" to breadth index Facial index Nasal index

a Auricular height

85.2 71 83.3 83 64.9

Conformational types

Brachycephaly Hypsicephaly Metriocephaly Mesoprosopic Leptorrhine

Table 2. Measurements in mm of body height, head, trunk, and limbs

Body height Head Trunk Upper limb Lower limb

1160 (1) 169 (4) 905 (8) 965 (13) 625 (3) 144 (6) 560 (9) 750 (15) 295 (6) 112 (27) 345 (10) 605 (16) 30 (8) 80 (35) 200 (11) 485 (54) 595

(13) 24 (40) 180 (45) 480 (55) 330 (15) 120 (46) 360 (56) 265 (18) 93 (47) 215 (21) 37 (48) 145

(49) 120

The measurements are given using Martin's numbering placed here between brackets

Head: (1) maximum cranial length, (3) maximum cranial width, (6) maximum inter-zygomatic distance, (8) gonion-gonion distance, (13) inferior nasal width, (15) auricular height of the head, (18) nasion-gnathion distance, (21) nasal height.

Trunk: (4) height of the sternal jugular notch, (6) height of the symphysial crests, (27) anterior length of the trunk, (35) acro­mion-acromion distance, (40) distance between the iliac cristae.

Upper limb: (8) height of the acromion, (9) height of the hu­mero-radial joint, (10) height of the radial styloid process, (11) height of the apex of the middle finger, (45) length of the upper limb, (46) length of the upper limb excluding hand, (47) length of the arm, (48) length of the forearm, (49) length of the hand.

Lower limb: (13) height of the anterior superior spine, (15) height of the knee joint, (16) height of the apex of the medial mal­leolus, (54) length of the lower limb excluding foot, (55) length of the thigh, (56) length of the leg.

The conventional x-ray examination and the CT scan show a regularly developed skeleton. There is persistence of the epiphyseal cartilages in long bones. With the ex­ception of the pisiphorm all the remaining primary ossi­fication centers of the carpus are present, indicating that the age of the girl may well have been 8.

The panoramic x-ray film of the teeth (Fig. 2) shows that the upper and lower first permanent molars are fully erupted. On the other hand, the upper and lower de­ciduous canines and molars are persistent, while the per­manent canines, premolars and second molars are une­rupted. The third permanent are not appreciable. This stage of dental development corresponds to that of a sub­ject about 8 years old.

In the skull the encephalon is persistent although deeply wrinkled and displaced into the occipital region. In a few areas a honeycomb appearance suggests a gas­eous putrid state (Fig. 3). The histological examination of an encephalon sample taken through a little hole opened in the occipital bone showed only disorganised amorphous material without recognisable tissue struc­tures.

At the x-ray examination thoracic and abdominal vis­cera are recognisable although frequently wrinkled and

Fig. 3. X-ray lateral film of the skull of the Grottarossa mummy showing a shapeless opaque material in the occipital region (left). At CT scan the opaque material in the skull corresponds to the wrinkled and displaced encephalon showing gaseous putrid cavities (right)

Fig. 4. CT scan of the mummy chest: Bilateral pleural effusion in the back side and collaps of the lung by pneumothorax (left). CT scan of the chest showing the two parietal discontinuities produced by the Bordier's needle. On the right side the dis­continuity partially involves the collapsed lung (right)

The roman mummy of Grottarossa 209

deformed. In the chest a central mass is assumed to re­present a dessicated heart with partially collapsed lungs. This last finding is mainly due to a pneumothorax and to a minor extent to pleural effusions which appear at the CT scan as two opaque semilunar figures in the posterior and inferior regions, one on each side (Fig. 4). As the ef­fusions are completely dehydrated, no change occurred in their seat and morphology when the body was moved from the supine to the prone position. In order to have information about the nature of the effusions, a bilateral puncture was carried out (Fig. 4). The cylindrical samples of the collected material, examined under the light and electron microscope, provided the following findings in going from the deepest to the superficial layers. (a) Well preserved lung tissue with bronchi, vessels and many small foci of anthracosis (Fig. 5 a, c); (b) a pleural cavity fully filled with unorganised fibrils suggesting fibrin (Fig. 5 b, d). The fibrils were mixed with myelin figures and an enormous number of varied bacterial species, probably not all pathogenic, but re­sponsible for the putrid state; (c) structures lining the thoracic walls, such as muscles, fat-tissue and skin.

X-ray examination of the abdomen reveals opacities attributable to shrunk liver, spleen and kidneys, while

210 A. Ascenzi et al.

Fig. 5. (a) Microscopic section of the lung: alveolar cavities of irregular width with few foci of anthracotic pigment. x 110. (b) Thick inter­lacing of fibrin from pleural effusion. x 120. (c) Cartilaginous structure of a bronchial wall. X 110. (d) Fibrils of fibrin with residual cross­banding. TEM, x 130,000

the pancreas was not identified. Especially at the CT scan there was evidence of the stomach and intestine out­lines, but it would be unsafe to state that the intestine persists in its totality or has been panially destroyed by putrid processes or the possible inoculation of aromatic fluid in the rectum.

Radiology has also revealed pathologic changes in the skeleton, which is uniformly porotic. The femurs in par­ticular show obvious Harris' lines suggesting episodes of infection or malnutrition during life.

Under the optical microscope, textile material samples from units Nos. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6 showed fea­tures of linen fibers. They were 12-25 11m in diameter and showed a narrow central cavity, thickened walls and the so-called "beat marks" (Fig. 6 b, c). The violet col-

our caused by staining reaction of the zinc-chloro-io­dide solution confirmed the vegetable nature of this fibers (cellulosic material). Textile fibers from unit No. 7, made of protein material, assumed instead, a yellow colour caused by the reaction of the solution mentioned before. In fact these last fibers showed features of silk fibers (single filaments, smooth, nearly sttuctureless) with an almost constant diameter averaging 20 11m (Fig. 6d).

Of the textile material found, the four rolled up wrap­pings (Nos. 2, 3, 4, 5) showed a circumference appar­ently corresponding to that of the upper limbs. They proved to be linen which has a rather coarse texture but retains an appreciable degree of elasticity. In each wrap­ping the selvedge is present only along one edge, while

Fig. 6. (a) Weaving pattern of the linen wrappings with Z-spun direction as seen under SEM. X 100. (b) Linen fiber with "beat marks". 220. (c) Linen fiber showing central cavity. x 350. (d) Silk fibers from the cloth in close contact with the skin of the mummy. x 100

the other edges are frayed. This finding raises the suspi­cion that the wrappings may have been recycled from worn-out tissue. Textile units Nos. 1 and 6 show fine linen without selvedge, possibly cut out of larger pieces of cloth. Small fragments of fine linen of the same type are found glued with resin to wrappings of coarse linen and proved that the wrappings were of various different qualities. All the linen textiles have a Z-spun direction for spinning (Fig. 6 a).

Textile unit No. 7 turned out to consist of silk whose very bad state of preservation was due to deep imbibition with resin. The high resin content suggests that this tex­tile was the remnant of a cloth in close contact with the skin of the mummy.

Lastly, no crystals to be attributed to natron were found in any of the textiles examined.

Going on to review the results of the chemical ana­lyses whose aim was to yield data on the material used for mummification, one main finding was that the GC and GC/MS analyses both from the "head space" and from solutions of extracted solid material (Fig. 7) showed the presence of p-cimene (ClOH14) and of sesquiterpenes

The roman mummy of Grortarossa 211

(C1S) with a molecular weight ranging between 192 and 238, as revealed by chemical ionization. Electron impact spectra obtained were compared with those reported in the Wiley/NBS mass spectra cathalog (McLafferty and Stauffer, 1988). Only a-cariophyllene was identified, while the nature of the other sesquiterpenoids remained uncertain.

Abietic acid derivatives were identified in textiles, resin cloth, skin and rectum.

The existence of triterpenoids (C30) can be ruled out. The impossibility of obtaining a CS2 soluble frac­

tion from the solid material, the absence of character­istic straight-chain hydrocarbon pattern in the gas chromatograms and the presence of Mo, Ni and V in almost undetectable quantities (0.01, 0.09 and 0.08 ppm, respectively), all indicate that bitumen, if pres­ent, is a negligible component of the embalming ma­terial.

The resinuous substance contained in the small box that was part of the funerary equipment showed no dif­ference in composition with respect to that found in the other solid materials mentioned.

212 A. Ascenzi et al.

II) G) u C 1\1

" C :::J .c 1\1 G)

> :;:; 1\1 Qj c::

5 10 15 Retention time in min.

Pollen analysis gave inhomogeneous results. In some of the wrappings Pinus pinaster type (Fig. 8 a) is domi­nant, with 35 pollen grains, followed by Quercus type with 20 grains; of the plants represented by one or two grains, the Cupressaceae (Fig. 8 b) arouse some interest. In the remaining textiles Pinus and Quercus are sporadic: among other abundant pollen grains, myrrh (Commi­phora sp.) deserves particular attention. Lastly, some pollen grains have been ascribed to the families of Ruta­ceae, Chenopodiaceae (both known as vermifuges) and Cistaceae. One grain of Abies and two grains of Artemisia were present too.

One finding to be stressed is the irregular crowding of the pollen grains of the same species at various points in the silk textile, suggesting possible human interference. The identification of such grains has been not easy. They can be probably ascribed to Peganum genus (Zygophylla­ceae).

In the resinuous material contained in the small box, pollen was very scanty, although some grains of Quercus, Carpinus, Pinus and Rosaceae (Fig. 8 c) were found.

As regards the necklace, a drilled sapphire was chosen as a sample. This is an asymmetrically cut cabochon with

18

20 25

Fig. 7. Gas-chromatogram recorded from a metanol solu­tion of the extracted material sticked to the wrappings. Peaks from 2 to 17 are representative of sesquiterpenes having mole­cular weights ranging between 192 to 238 as indicated by GC/MS analysis

Fig. 8. (a) Pollen of Pinus pina­ster type. X 670. (b) Pollen of Juniperus type. X 1,500. (c) Pollen of Rosaceae family. x 1,500

a pure hue ranging between middle and deep blue. The average refractive index is 1.76 and the specific gravity 4.03. At the hand spectroscopy the line of the iron at 450 nm is present. The optical microscope reveals a pseudo­hexagonal symmetry in conformity with the crystal growth steps, as proved by differences in the blue hue. Minute acicular stout needles of rutile are present too. They are associated in various ways, occasionally giving rise to sporadic milky stripes. There are sporadic 'feathers' of sealed fluid remnants. Opaque anhedral crystals (probably sulphides) and transparent dark crys­tals (probably pyroxenes) are also visible.

Since this set of findings was insufficient to allow identification of the original site of the sapphire, the method suggested by Poirot (1992) was applied. Using an electron probe the trace elements were identified and the absorption spectrum in the visible region was record­ed, focusing in particular on the region between 460 and 360 /Jm. As these techniques showed the presence of gal­lium, chromium and titanium, and, besides the peak at 693 nm, a shift to 400 /Jm of the peak situated at 377 in Burmese sapphires, it was concluded that this sapphire probably came from Sri Lanka (Ceylon).

The amber die shows a brownish-red colour and under microscopic examination reveals swirl marks and globular cavities sometimes collected in clusters of crumps. At the range between 1,200 and 800 cm-1 the infrared spectrum provides the characteristic trend of the Baltic amber, al­though somewhat reduced in sharpness when compared with that of the yellow Baltic amber. This finding may support the view that the brownish-red colour of the die is a consequence of the antiquity of the amber.

Discussion

The investigations reported above refer to the follow­ing topics, which will now be discussed separately: (a) de­scription of the Grottarossa mummy, (b) the cause of death, (c) the preservation technique, (d) the site where mummification was performed, (e) why the mummy should have been inhumed in Rome. On the first topic, there is little doubt that the mummy was an 8-year-old girl, as revealed by the dentition, body height (120 cm), and skeletal ossification (in particular there was no pisiform ossification center). Even allowing for some shrinkage, this last figure is in line with the modern standards laid down by the National u.s. Center for Health Statistics and com­monly used in Italy, too, according to which 125+ 11 & -10 cm is the range of body height for a 8-year-old girl.

The morphological and anthropometric features all support the view that the girl was of caucasian race, even if her skin has been discoloured, taking on a dark brown tinge.

Fig. 9. Exact copy of a photograph of the Grottarossa mummy taken from an amateur few after the discovery and reproduced in some newspapers at that time (left). The present aspect of the mummy (right)

The roman mummy of Grottarossa 213

According to the eye-witness accounts of the few people who were able to examine the mummy immedi­ately after its discovery, before it had been taken to the Institute of Forensic Medicine, the body was apparently well hydrated and its features resembled those of a white living subject. A drawing obtained from a photograph taken on this occasion and reproduced in the newspress is shown in Fig. 9. The same people who first examined the mummy stated that the body became wrinkled and discoloured while they were watching it. As a result, when the mummy was first presented at a press confer­ence at the Institute of Forensic Medicine, its features were similar to those seen at the present time and de­scribed here. To explain this deterioration, it has been supposed that the sudden exposure to air of a mummy previously kept in an air-tight setting may have led to rapid dehydration, which could have activated the dis­colouring capability of the resin impregnating the skin and its wrappings.

In examining the problem of the origin of the Grotta­rossa mummy, it seems useful to consider the anthropo­metric data obtained from the cranium, especially its prominent brachicephally. The geographical distribution of the cephalic index yields evidence that brachicephal is a rare condition among the populations living around the southern Mediterranean coasts. This is especially true of Egypt, where dolicocephaly is prominent (Martin and Saller, 1957, 1959). This makes it unlikely that the girl was born of Egyptian parents; she probably had Italic parents who came from the center or possibly the north

214 A. Ascenzi et aI.

of the peninsula, where brachicephaly is common (Livi, 1896; Sergi G., 1905; Martin and Saller, 1959). This in­terpretation is strengthened by the appearance of the sar­cophagus and funerary equipment which, according to Andreae (1969), Sapelli (1979) and Bordenache Batta­glia (1983) are typically Roman.

Considering now the topic of the cause of death, there is no doubt that the main pathologic finding is a bilateral pleural effusion clearly showing the features of a pleuritis, possibly associated with a septic pneumotho­rax. One of two alternative pathogenetic mechanisms may account for this: (a) the pleuritis is secondary, that is, an infection originated in another organ, and then spread to the pleura; (b) the pleuritis is primitive, that is, the infection began in the pleura. The commonest cause of a secondary pleuritis spreading from an adjacent organ is pneumonia. In the samples obtained by puncturing the thoracic walls neither lung appeared to be affected. This finding does not rule out the possibility that the pleuritis originated from a pneumonia, because a single small sample is not representative of a whole lung. As re­gards the transmission of an infection from other sites, a tubercular pleuritis cannot be excluded, but cannot be demonstrated either. No tubercles were observed, and the high quantities of various types of microorganisms in the pleura do not at present constitute a clear demonstra­tion of a tubercular bacillus.

Pleuritis is not the only disease demonstrable in the mummy; other pathologic conditions, such as Harris' lines and diffuse osteoporosis, have been detected. The general consensus of opinions is that Harris' lines suggest episodes of infection or malnutrition. In young subjects osteopo­rosis may be due to a variety of causes, most importantly, primary or secondary malnutrition. In the case of the Grottarossa girl, primary malnutrition is hardly credible; it seems much more likely that osteoporosis was the result of malnutrition induced by a disease. The possibility of a tu­bercular pleuritis discussed above could explain osteopo­rosis, especially if it made necessary a long stay in bed. However, yet another hypothesis should be considered. Osteoporosis possibly associated with Harris' lines may be the result of a juvenile diabetes of protracted course, as re­ported by Morrison and Bogan (1927) and later confirmed by other authors (Albright and Reifenstein, 1948); Hern­berg, 1952; Berney, 1952; Menczel et a/., 1972).

If the Grottarossa girl did suffer from diabetes, which reduces immunological resistance, she would have been particularly susceptible to infectious diseases (tubercular or not).

Two other results of the paleopathological studies de­serve a word of comment. First, the x-ray image of the skull was identical to those previously observed in other mummies (Cockburn and Cockburn, 1980), and at­tributed to post-mortem relocation of embalming ma­terial instilled through the nose after extraction of the

brain. The CT scan demonstrated in our case that the brain was in situ and shrunk, and it was indeed respon­sible for the crescent-like image in standard x-ray images.

Second, the finding of rather abundant anthracotic pigmentation in the lungs is of surprising in view of the age of the girl and of her environment.

As to the mummification technique used, it should be described sensu strictiori as "embalming" (i.e. "treatment with balms") as revealed by the absence of any trace of sectioning or residual thin crystals to be attributed to na­tron on the skin or in the wrappings, the persistence of all the internal organs and the aromatic odours exhaled from the body at the time of its discovery, with the pres­ence of resin in the wrappings. This technique was com­monly applied in Egypt during the last period, including the Roman era (Lucas, 1989; Cockburn and Cockburn, 1980; Proefke et al., 1992) when the Grottarossa girl was alive. On this point the statement of Sandison (1969) is clear: " ... continued deterioration [in mummies] set in after the XXVIth Dynasty so that by Roman times pres­ervation was usually mediocre and largely achieved by covering the body with hot resinous substances often de­scribed as bitumen" (p. 490). The chemical analyses con­firm the view that this kind of treatment was used.

The presence of abietic acid derivatives provided evi­dence that coniferous resins were used in the embalming procedure. This conclusion is also supported by the pres­ence of pollen grains of Pinus pinaster type found inside the resin clots. The finding of sesquiterpenoids cannot be univocally interpreted until they can be identified more precisely. Many compounds of this class are known to be contained in essential oils and some of them are typically found in Cupressaceae. The possible use of prod­ucts from Cupressaceae, especially Juniperus, was there­fore considered with special attention, all the more so since an oil from Juniperus is mentioned in Pliny the Elder as being used by the Romans for the preservation of corpses. There is already some evidence that this prod­uct was among those used to embalm the Grottarossa girl because a-cariophyllene was identified together with p­cimene in the "head space". Both substances are known to derive from Juniperus. On the other hand the presence of p-cimene could be explained on the basis of the greater chemical stability of this aromatic monoterpene, as compared with that of a-pinene, which was not found in the materials examined.

The finding of pollen grains from Myrrh (Commi­phora sp.) raises the question whether it too was em­ployed in this case. So far we have not found evidence of the characteristic terpenoids.

The resinous material found in the small box belong­ing to the funerary equipment did not differ from the materials mentioned above, but the presence of a pollen grain from Rosaceae might indicate the presence of a per­fume.

The type of mummification shown by the Grotta­ross a girl closely resembles that used for the Egyptian boy who died between the ages of seven and nine, and has re­cently been studied by Proefke et al. (1992). In this last mummy bitumen was demonstrated to be present, and the ratios of metal characteristic of petroleum (vana­dium, nickel and molybdenum) were similar to those re­ported for Dead Sea and Mesopotamian bitumens.

At this point it appears worth recalling that according to Lucas (1989):

"The word mummy [ .... J was applied at a late date to the em­balmed bodies of the dead in Egypt, owing to the mistaken idea that because the body so preserved was black and looked as though it had been soaked in bitumen, therefore the preservative agent em­ployed must always have been bitumen, which, however, was not so, though in one mummy of the Persian period bitumen has been found" (p. 271).

This is especially true of the Grottarossa mummy, which, in spite of the absence of bitumen, revealed an in­tense brownish colour attributable to the action of the resin. However it cannot be excluded that the discolour­ation produced by resins could have been by dehy­dration, if credence can be given to the eye-witness ac­counts that, when it was discovered, the mummy looked fresh and well hydrated, whereas shortly afterwards, when dehydration took place, the skin took on a deep brownish colour (Fig. 9).

The last topic to be discussed is the site of mummifi­cation. The lack of funerary inscriptions makes it diffi­cult to be specific. According to the archaeologists (Pari­beni, 1964; Andreae, 1969; Sapelli, 1979; Bordenache Battaglia, 1983) some of the scenes carved on the sar­cophagus allude to Mrica. They are: a symbol of that continent, the Aeneas and Dido episode, a lion hunting, and a fluvial divinity tentatively interpreted by Andreae (1969) as alluding to the Badagras river. But these scenes might do no more than allude to the circumstance that the girl was born or lived for a time in that continent. If so, mummification could have been carried out else­where, possibly in Rome. At that time the foreign faiths, especially the Egyptian ones, had made such inroads in Rome (Malaise 1912 a, b; Roulet, 1972) that an Egyp­tian-style mummification could have been performed there. At this point a question arises: does any specific finding indicate that the Grottarossa mummy was pre­pared in Rome? The lack of hard and fast clues to this problem makes it hard to give a positive answer.

The absence of bitumen on the body and wrappings does not justifY the view that mummification was carried out in Rome, since Lucas (1989) argues that many Egyp­tian mummies were not treated with this substance.

Nor do the jewels or funerary equipment offer many clues to the identification of the site of mummification. According to the archaeologists (see Bordenache Batta­glia, 1983) the jewels were typically Roman; on the other

The roman mummy of Grottarossa 215

hand the sapphires in the necklace surely came from Sri Lanka (Ceylon). The same uncertainty applies to the fu­nerary equipment, especially the die, despite the Baltic origin of the amber. Lucas (1989) states that sapphires were not used by the ancient Egyptians and: "That amber may have been used by the ancient Egyptians, es­peciallyat the late date, is not denied, but that all the ob­jects termed amber are indeed amber has not been proven" (p. 387). But even if the jewels and the funerary equipment are to be considered of Roman workmanship, it is still possible that the girl died and was mummified in Egypt.

In contrast, when the textiles are considered, some well-grounded suspect arise that mummification has been carried out in Rome. This is the opinion of Granger-Taylor who on our invitation attentively exam­ined all the textiles and provided us detailed in­formations about it. From her conclusive report we sum­marize here the following most important points.

The lump of silk textile, thoroughly impregnated with the embalming resin (No.7), suggests it lay directly against the skin. We cannot know whether the girl was dressed in it or simply wrapped with it, but its integrally­woven contrasting band (or bands) makes it virtually cer­tain to have been tunic. Roman tunics were made with the warp running horizontally in the made up garment and as a rule had two isolated contrasting bands, clavi, running from the shoulder to the hem (Granger-Taylor, 1982).

The method of grouping the warp threads for the band on silk textile is typical of textiles of the Roman period, more particularly of items woven on the two beams upright loom, and is found on recovered textiles of both wool and silk (Sheffer and Granger-Taylor, 1993). Contrasting bands with grouped warp threads occur on two other silk textiles (Granger-Taylor, 1987) and in a silk dalmatic preserved in the church of St. Am­brose in Milan which probably belonged to St. Ambrose himself who died 397 A.D. (Granger-Taylor, 1983).

As forthe use of silk, we should not be surprised to find it in this context: although not acceptable for men until some time later, by the 2nd century A.D. Roman ladies had long been wearing silk clothing. The silk itself, called by the Roman sericumor "Chinese", was probably been woven in Rome as well as in the other large cities of the Empire.

As regards the linen textiles (No. 1-6), the crucial bit of evidence is the spin direction. They have Z-spun yarns in both warp and weft. In Roman Italy the normal direc­tion for spinning wool and silk was Z while linen could be S- or Z-spun. In Egypt linen cloths were woven of yarns that were almost invariably S-spun. Elsewhere in the Near East wool was sometimes Z-spun but linen threads was again virtually always S-spun. The only Mediterranean country besides Italy where we have good evidence for the Z-spinning of linen in Classical An­tiquity is Greece (Beckwith, 1954).

216 A. Ascenzi et al.

In conclusion, the textiles furnish data indicating that the site of the mummification of the Grottarossa girl may have been Rome. In this case, if the girl was Roman (or Italic) as suggested by her anthropological features, the most probable reason for her Egyptian-style mummifi­cation is that she or her parents were believers in the Egyptian religion, as a result of a period of residence in Mrica, or because they had become familiar with it while living in Rome.

Acknowledgements

The authors are greatly indebted to the following colleagues: Prof. Gualdi G., Dr. Gualdi G.-F. and Prof Leccisotti A. for the preparation of the conventional radiological and CT material; Prof. Cartoni G. for his supervision of gas-chromatographic and mass­spectrometric diagrams; Prof. Follieri M. for her supervision in the pollen analysis; Dr. Varoli R. for the coordination of the textile working group of the Italian Central Institute for Restoration, in collaboration with Dr. Anuradha Dej. A special thank is due to Dr. Balbi De Caro S. of the "Sovrintendenza aile Antichitit Roma I" for the facilities she kindly offered in studying some funerary items. Finally the authors are obliged to Mr. Virgilii L. for his skilful help in preparing the photographic material. This study was supported in part by a research grant of the "La Sapienza" Universiry, Rome.

Summary

During building work in 1964 the mummy of an 8-year-old girl was discovered at Grottarossa, on the northern outskirts of Rome. Since only one other mummy has ever been found in Rome, the vir­tually unique nature of this discovery suggested that a series of an­thropological, archaeological, chemical and pathological investi­gations should be carried our to identifY the reason for mummifi­cation, the procedure used, the cause of death, the medical condi­tions involved, and the girl's cultural background. The mummy can be dated between 150 and 200 A.D. The girl was a caucasian, prob­ably of mid- or north Italic origin. Her body was embalmed and preserved using procedures characteristic of Egypt's Roman period; her brain and viscera were in situ and could be viewed easily by CT scan. She may have lived in Africa, but it cannot be concluded that she died there. She had suffered from several infectious or nutri­tional conditions, as shown by the series of Harris' lines in her long bones, associated with a certain degree of generalised osteopenia. The ultimate cause of death was a bilateral fibrinous pleuritis of un­certain nature. The site of and the reason for the mummification procedure are both discussed in detail and it appears likely that mummification was carried our in Rome or in Italy anyway.

Zusammenfassung

1m Jahre 1964 wurde bei der Aushebung eines Fundaments im Rahmen von Baumagnahmen in der Ortschaft Grottarossa in der nordlichen Peripherie Roms die Mumie eines achtjahrigen Mad­chens entdeckt. Da es sich urn den bisher einzigen archaologischen Fund dieser Art handelt, wurde eine Reihe von anthropologischen, archaologischen, chemischen und pathologischen Untersuchungen

vorgenommen, urn den Grund fur die Mumifizierung, das ange­wandte Verfahren, die Todesursache und die damit verbundenen medizinischen Implikationen sowie schlielSlich das kulturelle Um­feld des Madchens zu klaren. Auf Grund der archaologischen Fundstiicke wird die Mumie auf die zweite Halfte des 2. Jhs. n. Chr. datiert. Das Madchen, das morphologische Charakteristiken kaukasischen Typs aufWeist, stammte wahrscheinlich aus Mittel­oder Norditalien. Der Korper war mittels Einbalsamierung konser­viert worden, und zwar mit Hilfe eines wahrend der Epoche der ro­mischen Kolonisation .Agyptens vielfach angewandten Verfahrens, bei dem Gehirn und Eingeweide nicht entfernt wurden. Diese Or­gane konnten in der Tat mit Hilfe einer Computertomographie nachgewiesen werden. Es ist moglich, dag das Madchen in Afrika gelebt hat, es mug aber nicht unbedingt dort gestorben sein. Har­ris-Linien auf den langen Knochen der Gliedmagen deuten in Ver­bindung mit einer Osteopenie auf Infektionen und Mangelernah­rung hin. Die Todesursache ist in einer bilateralen fibrinosen Pleu­ritis unbestimmter Natur zu sehen. Der Ort, an dem die Mumifi­zierung durchgefiihrt wurde, sowie das Verfahren, das hierbei an­gewandt wurde, werden im Detail untersucht. Aus diesen Untersu­chungen geht hervor, dag die Mumifizierung mit groEter Wahr­scheinlichkeit in Rom oder jedenfalls in Italien durchgefiihrt wor­den war.

Resume

En 1964, au cours d'un creusement pour jeter les fondements d' une construction en localite Grottarossa, a la periferie septentrio­nale de Rome, la momie d'une fillette de 8 ans a ete mise a jour. S'agissant d'une piece archeologique actuellement unique dans son genre, une serie de recherches anthropologiques, archeologiques, chimiques et pathologiques ont ere mises au point dans Ie but d' etablir la raison de la momification, Ie procede applique, la cause de la mort ainsi que ses implications medicales et, enfin, Ie milieu culturel dans lequel la fillette avait vecu. D' apres les donnees archeologiques la momie remonte a la deuxieme moitiee du deuxieme siecle apr. J. c. Ses traits morphologiques sont de type caucasien et il est possible qu' elle ait ete originaire de I'Italie cen­trale ou septentrionale. Le corps avait ete preserve par embaume­ment, c' est a dire appliquant un procede commun au cours de la periode Romaine de I'Egypte. En effet Ie cerveau et les visceres n'avaient pas ete enleves, ci-bien qu'ils etaient appreciables a l'exa­men radiologique. Lenfant pouvait avoir vecu en Afrique, mais cela ne veut pas dire qu'elle y soir necessairement decedee. Au ni­veau des os longs des membres, l'association de lignes de Harris et d'une condition d'osteopenie font penser a des affections de type infectieux ou ayant rapport avec une mauvaise nutrition. La cause de la mort s'identifie en une pleuresie fibrineuse bilaterale d'origine incertaine. Le lieu OU la momification a ete effectuee et Ie procede adopte sont discutes en detail, et il parait vraisemblable que la mo­mification ait eu lieu a Rome ou, de toute fa<;:on, en Italie.

Riassunto

Nel 1964, durante 10 scavo delle fondamenta per la costruzione di un edificio in localita Grottarossa, alIa periferia settentrionale di Roma, venne rinvenuta una mummia di bambina dell' eta di 8 anni. Trattandosi di reperto archeologico attualmente unico nel suo genere, si e provveduto ad una serie di ricerche rispettivamente antropologiche, chimiche e patologiche nell'intento di stabilire il

motivo della mummificazione, il procedimento usato, la causa della morte con relative implicazioni mediche e, da ultimo, l'am­biente culturale della bambina. Sulla base dei reperti archeologici la mummia viene fatta risalire alIa seconda meta del secondo secolo d.C. La bambina che mostra caratteristiche morfologiche di tipo caucasico, era probabilmente originaria dell'Italia centrale 0 setten­trionale. II corpo era stato conservato per imbalsamazione, cioe fa­cendo ricorso ad un procedimento comunemente applicato nel pe­riodo Romano dell'Egitto. Infatti il cervello ed i visceri non erano stati asportati e si rendevano apprezzabili con la TAC. La bimba poteva essere vissuta in Mrica, rna non si puo ritenere che vi sia ne­cessariamente deceduta. Lassociazione, a livello delle ossa lunghe degli arti, di linee di Harris e di una condizione di osteopenia, ori­entano verso sofferenze di tipo infettivo e nutrizionale. La causa di morte va individuata in una pleurite fibrinosa bilaterale di natura indeterminata. La sede in cui la mummificazione e stata eseguita ed il procedimento adottato vengono discussi in dettaglio e da essi si evince che con ogni verosimiglianza la mummificazione abbia avuto luogo aRoma 0, comunque, in Italia.

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Correspondence: Prof. Dr. Antonio Ascenzi, Universita "La Sa­pienza", Sezione di Anatomia Patologica, Policlinico Umberto 10 ,

Viale Regina Elena 324,1-00161, Rome, Italy.