Have you tried contacting 23 and Me (www.23andme.com) to see if there's any mutual interest in funding and/or research collaboration?

By Mauro Lollo Nov 11th, 2011 at 01:42 PM EST

Mauro - I considered it but haven't yet contacted them. Fundraising is going so well that I think at this point, we'll be limited by time - extracting ancient DNA is time-consuming. But I'll think about it!

By Kristina Killgrove Nov 11th, 2011 at 03:40 PM EST

what type of DNA will you be sequencing? Will you be looking at Y-DNA?

By Paul Roche Nov 11th, 2011 at 07:31 PM EST

Congratulations Kristina! Way to go!

By Shermin de Silva Nov 11th, 2011 at 08:51 PM EST

Paul - we're planning to start with mtDNA, but there's definite interest in doing yDNA at some point as well as sequencing a whole genome.

By Kristina Killgrove Nov 12th, 2011 at 06:05 PM EST

Are there many DNA samples from the same time period of people from other areas, like north Africa, Gaul, Germania, Illyricum, farther east,etc. to allow you to compare against and determine region of origin? Is there anything worthwhile to be learned from comparing DNA of moderns living in those areas to the ancient DNA? What, if any, developing technology do you know of or envision that will help garner even more information on these people in future? Are precautions being taken (not just this project but as a norm in the scientific field) to preserve remains so that future advanced technology will have uncontaminated source material to work with? What caused the movement from cremation to burial from republican to imperial Rome? Is this a predictable or cyclical phenomenon in societies as they develop? Thanks for your work in this area, Dr.

By Joy McCracken Nov 15th, 2011 at 10:18 AM EST

Hi, Joy. There are some other DNA studies from similar periods - two in Italy, actually (only one of which has been published so far). With this pilot phase, we're going to look at mitochondrial DNA and work out people's haplogroups - which means we'll be able to tell if someone has genetic background from Africa, Asia, or the Iberian peninsula, for example. Eventually, this project will evolve into studying other types of DNA (such as Y-DNA, which is passed on through the father) and even whole genomes. But there are other isotopes that can be tested as well that might reveal where people were coming from. For DNA analysis, we only need tooth roots, which saves the enamel for isotope work (and saves the bones for palaeo-dietary research), so scientists have found great ways to test one small tooth for multiple isotopes and DNA. In Rome, there were always inhumation burials. Cremation was expensive, since you had to buy a lot of wood. Burial involves just a pit. So inhumation was always a rite for the poor. During the Empire, tradition shifted back for a number of reasons, one of which was the growing interest in Christianity, one of which may have been the growing number of poor, slaves, and freed slaves who made up the population and couldn't afford a fancier burial rite. But as you suggest, burial traditions are often cyclical in societies as well. We can't really predict what will be the dominant burial rite and can't always figure out the proximate cause for the change, though. Thanks for all your questions and your support for the project!

By Kristina Killgrove Nov 15th, 2011 at 10:43 AM EST

Hello Kristina, I just contributed a modest amount to your very interesting project. I was wondering two things and I hope you can answer them. First I understand you plan to use mtDNA to determine the haplogroups. I wondered how far your analysis will go. Are you going to do a full mitochondrial sequencing or only the hypervariable region ? Also I wanted to talk about your project to other people, but I'd like to be able to tell them what their money would be used to. Since you already have almost twice more money than what you needed, could you tell what you plan to do with this extra money (or what you could do if you got still some more) : test more samples from the same period, test more samples from older periods, start Y-DNA testing, something else ? Thank you very much for this project. I am quite impatient to see what the results will be. Sincerely, Itaï Perez.

By Perez Nov 27th, 2011 at 02:35 PM EST