Can Researchers Crack da Vinci’s DNA Code? Recently Discovered Relics Attributed to the Legendary Renaissance Man May Help

Ancient Origins

A team of Italian researchers claim that they have discovered two relics belonging to Leonardo da Vinci, which could them help in tracing the DNA of the legendary polymath whose work epitomized the Renaissance.

 A Discovery of Immense Historical Importance? Could These be Da Vinci’s Relics? The peculiar relics were spotted during a long-term genealogical study of da Vinci’s family. “I can’t yet disclose the nature of these relics. I can only say that both are historically associated with Leonardo da Vinci. One is an object, the other is organic material,” Alessandro Vezzosi, director of the Museo Ideale in Vinci, told Seeker. The significance of such a discovery – if the relics are authentic– would be of immense historical value, since there are no known traces left of the Italian genius.

According to the “mainstream” version of history, the remains of Leonardo da Vinci, who died in 1519 in France, were scattered before the 19th century. However, in 1863 a corpse and large skull were discovered at the church of Saint-Florentin, where da Vinci was initially buried. Unfortunately, the place was pillaged during religious conflicts back in the 16th century and was entirely ruined in 1808. However, a stone inscription reading LEO DUS VINC was uncovered near the corpse, hinting at da Vinci’s name.

Leonardo da Vinci's Tomb in Saint-Hubert Chapel (Amboise). (CC BY SA 3.0)

DNA Testing Dilemmas
The aforementioned bones, attributed to Leonardo da Vinci, would be rediscovered in 1874 and reburied in the chapel of Saint-Hubert at the Château d'Amboise. What confuses things, however, is that researchers can’t get permission to conduct DNA testing and further analysis of the bones due to ethical reasons.

Ironically, another team of researchers seeking to unveil the true identity of the mysterious model who sat for Leonardo da Vinci’s world renowned painting, The Mona Lisa, had issues with DNA testing as well, but for different reasons. As Liz Leafloor reported in a previous Ancient Origins article, Italian archaeologists claim to own fragments of bone which they are certain belonged to Lisa Gherardini Del Giocondo —the woman thought to have sat for da Vinci’s famous painting — but the remains cannot be DNA tested due to their decayed condition.

Mona Lisa, one of Leonardo da Vinci’s famous paintings. (Public Domain)

Researchers have tried studying the DNA of bone fragments which belonged to Lisa Gherardini Del Giocondo —the woman thought to have sat for this painting — but the remains cannot be DNA tested due to their decayed condition.

On the other hand, historian Agnese Sabato and Alessandro Vezzosi, founders of an organization titled Leonardo da Vinci Heritage to safeguard and promote his legacy, have been searching for biological traces of da Vinci since 2000 without any particular success. “We pieced together an archive of hundreds of Leonardo’s fingerprints, hoping to get some biological material. At that time, cracking da Vinci’s DNA code was just a wild dream. Now it’s a real possibility,” Vezzosi tells Seeker.

An illustration of Leonardo da Vinci's presumed remains in Amboise, France. (Museo Ideale Leonardo da Vinci)

The Hunt for da Vinci’s DNA Will Continue for a Couple More Years
The research is part of a broader project to trace da Vinci’s DNA by 2019, in honor of the 500th anniversary of his death. “The hunt for Leonardo DNA can now rely on a good, well-referenced genealogy,” Sabato told Seeker, explaining that all of the direct descendants come from Leonardo’s father. The researchers will be in communication with many international universities in order to achieve the widest possible scientific investigation on the relics and da Vinci’s descendants. The plan is to conduct DNA analysis on the relics and compare it to da Vinci’s descendants and bones found in recently identified da Vinci family burials throughout Tuscany.

Leonardo da Vinci statue outside the Uffizi, Florence, by Luigi Pampaloni. (Public Domain)

The researchers know that none of this will be easy and there’s a good chance that they won’t be able to extract any usable DNA from the relics.

Despite the difficulties waiting for them ahead, they are optimistic, “We now have a solid Da Vinci genealogy. We also hope the organic relic yields enough usable DNA,” Vezzosi told Seeker and adds, “Whatever the case. This relic has an extraordinary historic importance. We hope we will be soon able to put it on display.”

Top Image: A representation of Leonardo da Vinci. (Deriv.) (CC BY SA) Background: Structure of DNA. (Public Domain Pictures)

By Theodoros Karasavvas

Gladiator Colosseum Found in Tuscany

Discovery News

Italian archaeologists have unearthed remains of an oval structure that might represent the most important Roman amphitheater finding over the last century.

The foundations of the colosseum, which is oval-shaped like the much larger arena in the heart of Rome, were found in the town of Volterra and might date back to the 1st century A.D.  Amphitheaters like these were used during Roman times to feature events including gladiator combats and wild animal fights.

The archaeologists estimate this structure measured some 262 by 196 feet, although only a small part of it has been unearthed.

“This amphitheater was quite large. Our survey dig revealed three orders of seats that could accommodate about 10,000 people. They were entertained by gladiators fights and wild beast baiting,” Elena Sorge, the archaeologist of the Tuscan Superintendency in charge of the excavation, told Discovery News.
By comparison, the Colosseum in Rome could seat more than 50,000 spectators during public games.
“The finding sheds a new light on the history of Volterra, which is most famous for its Etruscan legacy. It shows that during the emperor Augustus’s rule, it was an important Roman center,” she added.
Photos: Bronze-Age Battle Frozen in Time
One of the most powerful Etruscan cities, Volterra fell under Roman rule in the 1st century B.C.
The most striking monument dating to the Roman period is a theater built in the Augustan age, which is one of the finest and best preserved Roman theaters in Italy. It stands about a mile from the newly discovered arena.
With the help of ground penetrating radar and a digital survey by Carlo Battini, of the University of Genoa, Dicca Department, the archaeologists were able to estimate that much of the amphitheater lies at a depth of 20 to 32 feet. So far the survey dig has been funded by the Cassa di Risparmio bank of Volterra.
“We are hoping to find more sponsors and funding to excavate this wonder. We believe that within three years it could be fully brought to light,” Sorge said.
Roman Gladiators Drank Ash Energy Drink
The amphiteater was made from stone and decorated in “panchino,” a typical Volterra stone used since Etruscan time to build the town’s walls. It features the same construction technique used to raise the nearby theater.
The archaeologists have so far brought to light a large sculpted stone and the vaulted entrance to a cryptoporticus, or covered passageway. Such corridor would have possibly housed the gladiators just before they entered the arena
“It’s puzzling that no historical account records the existence of such an imposing amphitheater. Possibly, it was abandoned at a certain time and gradually covered by vegetation,” Sorge said.
by Rossella Lorenzi 

Ruins of luxurious imperial Roman villa to share its majesty once again

Ancient Origins

The ruins of an imperial Roman luxury villa that had heated floors, lavishly decorated rooms and a dramatic marble staircase leading down to a beach, is ready to share its majesty with the world once more.  The ancient villa has reopened to the public after 15 years. The villa, on an island off Tuscany, Italy, has been under renovation since 1989, but red tape has slowed its reopening.
Villa Domitia is on the 4.83 km (3-mile-long) island of Giannutri in the Tuscan Archipelago. Discovery News describes it as a rocky crescent of an island inhospitable to humans because of a lack of water. In ancient times laborers carried water from the mainland to the luxury villa.
"The villa was built on a harsh, uninhabited site," said Paola Rendini, an archaeological superintendent in Tuscany, to Discovery News. "There is no water spring on the island, and raw materials had to be carried from the mainland. It was a huge task. Giannutri was the first island after Ostia, the port of Rome, thus relatively easy to reach. The villa was likely used by the emperors Domitian, Trajan and Hadrian.” These men ruled Rome between 81 and 117 AD.

Map of Tuscan archipelago with Giannutri at the southernmost end. The island has no spring, so in ancient times rainwater was collected in cisterns. Laborers also carried water from land to the Roman aristocracy who visited the villa on the island. (Norman Einstein map/Wikimedia Commons)

Today the island, the southernmost in the Tuscan Archipelago, is still largely privately owned. It is home to seagulls and a small number of villa owners, who catch rainwater in ancient cisterns and carry water from the mainland. The Italian Ministry of Cultural Heritage has the villa and its annexes under its control.
“Today the ruins represent a bright yet fragmented evidence of the once sumptuous villa, showing impressive flights of steps, granite columns, intricately-sculpted capitals, pieces of precious marbles and long stretches of thick walls in opus reticulatum (small squared stones laid diagonally to form a net-like pattern). Spreading for about 10 acres, the villa was built on different terraces on a property which most likely belonged to the prominent Domitii Ahenobarbi, Nero’s family,” Discovery wrote.
“Although the villa has been the focus of several restoration and conservation campaigns since 1989, overlapping regulations have basically prevented its opening to the public, slowing procedures and interventions.”

The residence had bedrooms and a large living room with a view of the sea built on three terraces around a courtyard or peristylium. The columns have Corinthian capitals. (Photo by Paola Agazzi / Rossella Lorenzi)

Rendini said it was a luxury or otium (leisure) villa with many comforts, including cisterns that still collect rainwater for the island's residents, a heating system under the floor, two harbors and a facility for salting fish. The complex included slave quarters.
The villa was rediscovered in 1928 when a flight of marble steps going to the sea (see photo at top) was excavated by woman visiting the island and an archaeologist. They also found rooms with frescoes, mosaics and polychrome marbles. One mosaic showed a marine vista with dolphins and another showed the mythological figures Theseus and Ariadne in the minotaur's labyrinth at Knossos. These artworks have been moved to the archaeological superintendency's storerooms, but Rendini wants to open a museum on the island.
The island may be visited by 75 people per day in three groups of 25 at a cost of 8 euros ($9) per person.
Featured image: The Roman port on the island of Giannutri off the coast of Tuscany, where the ruins of a leisure villa owned by Nero's family is being opened to the public. The villa has been under restoration and conservation since 1989, but red tape has slowed the work and prevented the villa's opening to the public. (Photo by Aldo Ardetti/Wikmedia Commons)

Villa Owned by Ben Hur's Rival Identified

Rossella Lorenzi

Discovery News

 

 

 

The remains of a swimming pool once encircled by a colonnaded porch reveal the magnificence of the site. Unfortunately little has remained of the villa’s original decorations, apart from fragments of white, grey and black mosaic floor

Archaeologists investigating the Tuscan island of Elba have identified the remains of the villa belonging to the real-life individual that inspired one of the principal characters in the epic tale of Ben-Hur.
Overlooking Portoferraio’s bay, the once magnificent 1st-century B.C. estate, known as Villa Le Grotte (the Caves) because of the shape of its vaulted facades facing the sea, has long been believed to have been owned by Marcus Valerius Messalla Corvinus, portrayed as Ben-Hur in the Hollywood blockbuster starring Charlton Heston.
While Ben-Hur was a fictional villain dreamed up in Lew Wallace's 1880 novel and immortalized in the 1959 MGM movie, the Messalla character was based on a real-world historical figure.

Photos: Excavating the Ancient Villa

Marcus Valerius Messalla Corvinus was a member of one of the oldest and most important families in Rome, the patron of the poet Ovid, and a commander at the battle of Actium in 31 B.C., fighting for Octavian against the forces of Mark Antony and Cleopatra.
According to archaeologists Laura Pagliantini, Luisa Zito and Luisa Quaglia, of the Archeo Color Association, the now ruined villa, which is currently closed to the public, has long been associated to Messalla’s patrician family but no evidence was ever found to confirm the speculation.
“The poet Ovid of whom Messalla was patron, recounts how he went to visit Messalla’s son on Elba prior to his exile to Tomis on the Black Sea, but he doesn’t provide any detail about the place he was staying,” Pagliantini told Discovery News.
The villa where Ovid stayed as a guest could have been one of the three monumental residences which are known to have been built on Elba.

Photos: Ancient Water Basin Found in Rome

Startling evidence about Le Grotte’s owner came when archaeologists led by Franco Cambi, professor of methodology of archaeological research at the University of Siena, excavated the area just below the villa.
“We were looking for ancient furnaces used in the production of iron, but we ended up with a surprising finding,” Cambi told Discovery News.
Along with the remains of a large collapsed building, the archaeologists found five dolia -- large earthenware vases -- complete with their covers. Each vase could hold between 1,300 and 1,500 liters of wine.
“Clearly, the site was a farm serving the Roman villa above,” Cambi said.

Chianti Wine Ancestor Found

by Rossella Lorenzi

Waterlogged grape seeds retrieved from the Cetamura well.

Gaetano Di Pasquale

 

 

U.S. archaeologists may have found the ancestor of Chianti wine in an ancient well in the Chiantishire region of Tuscany.
Found in Cetamura, an ancient hilltop near Gaiole in Chianti in the province of Siena, the 105-foot-deep well yielded a bonanza of artifacts such as bronze vessels, cups, statuettes, coins and game pieces. The objects span a period of more than 15 centuries and embrace Etruscan, Roman and medieval civilization in Tuscany.
The most precious material, though, might be some 500 waterlogged grape seeds.

Found in at least three different levels of the well, which include the Etruscan and Roman levels, the perfectly preserved pips can provide key insights into the history of viticulture in a region now famous for its bold reds.
"The seeds were found at levels ranging from the third century B.C. to the first century A.D. Since they are not burned, they might carry preserved DNA," Nancy de Grummond, a professor of classics at Florida State, told Discovery News.
De Grummond, who has performed work at Cetamura since 1983, has been excavating the well for the past four years under the supervision of the Archaeological Superintendency of Tuscany and with the help of the Italian archaeological firm of Ichnos, directed by Francesco Cini.
The seeds were subjected to analysis at the lab of vegetation history and wood anatomy of the University of Naples Federico II. There, researchers led by Gaetano di Pasquale processed the obtained data with statistical software in order to highlight differences of size and shape for each pip.
It is known that seeds of wild grape (Vitis vinifera subsp. Sylvestris), the ancestor common to all cultivated species, is smaller and rounder, while cultivated grapes have bigger and elongated pips.
"The first results seem to indicate the Etruscans had a more advanced viticulture compared to the Romans. Roman seeds appear to be wild, suggesting less cultivated species were grown at that time," Di Pasquale told Discovery News.

"In any case, it is very likely that different grapes grew in Cetamura in Etruscan and Roman times," he added.
The recipe for Chianti Classico was standardized by Baron Bettino Ricasoli in the mid-19th century and called for 70 percent Sangiovese to be blended with 15 percent red Canaiolo and 15 percent white Malvasia.
Whether the Etruscans or the Romans used a composition similar to modern Chianti is not known.
The challenge for Di Pasquale's team is to identify and name the waterlogged seeds.
"An answer could come from ancient DNA analysis, but we are still at an experimental stage," Di Pasquale said.
Meanwhile, archaeologists were able to put into context the grape pips as they unearthed many objects associated with wine serving and drinking and numerous ceramic vessels related to wine storage.
"A curious detail is that the grape seeds were often found inside the bronze buckets, perhaps indicating a ritual element," de Grummond said.
She noted the seeds were also found at the very bottom of the well, along with olive pits and hazel nuts, very likely offerings made at the time when the well was completed.
A large amount of well-preserved wood, probably also part of the offerings, was also recovered from the bottom.
"Many of the pieces of wood were worked, and already several objects have been identified: parts of wooden buckets, a spatula or spoon, a spool, a rounded object like a knob or child's top," de Grummond said.
These and other finds -- from animal bones to numerous worked and unworked deer antlers -- suggest that cult activity took place at the well.
"Like other water sources in antiquity, the well was regarded as sacred," de Grummond said.
"Two Etruscan gods, named Lur and Leinth, were worshiped in a nearby sanctuary of Cetamura as gods of good fortune. They were probably the deities of the place," she added.
Offerings found in the well included hundreds of miniature votive cups, some 70 bronze and silver coins, and numerous pieces used in games of fortune, such as astragali, which are akin to jacks.

Among the most notable finds are 14 Roman and Etruscan bronze vessels, of different shapes and sizes and with varying decorations, that had been used to extract water.
One of the Etruscan vessels, actually a wine bucket, appears finely tooled and decorated with figurines of the marine monster Skylla, while another is adorned with a bronze finial of the head of a feline with the mane of a lion and the spots of a leopard. African heads, probably sphinxes, worked as handle attachments.
"This rich assemblage of materials and remarkable evidence of organic remains such as the grape seeds, create an unparalleled opportunity for the study of culture, religion and daily life in Chianti and the surrounding region," de Grummond said.
http://news.discovery.com/history/archaeology/chianit-wine-ancestor-found-1408111.htm

History Trivia - Pope Alexander VI divides the New World between Spain and Portugal

May 4

1256 The Augustinian monastic order was constituted at the Lecceto Monastery in Tuscany when Pope Alexander IV issued a papal bull Licet ecclesiae catholicae.

1415 Religious reformers John Wycliffe and Jan Hus were condemned as heretics at the Council of Constance.

1471 Wars of the Roses: the Yorkists defeated the Lancastrians at the battle of Tewkesbury.

1493 Pope Alexander VI divided the New World between Spain and Portugal along the Line of Demarcation.