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# Roman Well Mystery: Seven Bodies, Four Different Ancestry Profiles
- URL: https://romanempiretimes.com/roman-mursa-well-seven-bodies-four-genomes-varied-ancestry/
- Published: 2026-10-09T12:27:04.000Z
- Updated: 2026-10-09T12:27:04.000Z
- Description: Ancient DNA from four of seven men buried at Roman Mursa shows varied ancestry. Bone wounds point to violence, while the burial’s exact cause remains uncertain.
- Author: George Liapis
- Tags: Roman Empire News, DNA, Pannonia, Osijek, Croatia, Mursa, Gallienus, Ingenuus, roman army

An ancient DNA study of seven men buried in a disused well at Mursa, now Osijek in eastern Croatia, produced usable genome-wide results for four men, that had distinctively different ancestry profiles. The finding adds a specific human dimension to a burial that researchers associate with violent events on Rome’s Pannonian frontier.

The skeletons were excavated in 2011\. A peer-reviewed study published in PLOS One on 15 October 2025 brought together their archaeological context, radiocarbon dates, bone injuries, dietary isotopes and ancient DNA. The research team proposed that the men were soldiers and that their deaths may be connected with fighting near Mursa in the mid-third century CE.

[Our earlier account of the seven skeletons in a Roman well](https://romanempiretimes.com/a-well-full-of-war-skeletons-in-croatia-may-be-victims-of-romes-forgotten-battle/) covered the battle hypothesis when the paper appeared. A closer look at the genetic sample shows why four results cannot be described as the ancestry of all seven men, even though all seven were examined for other evidence. It also shows how the team compared the burial with people from other Roman contexts in the same city.

## A well outside the Roman city

![Two-panel figure: a regional map marks Osijek in eastern Croatia near the Drava, and an excavation plan circles the Roman well at Mursa.](https://storage.ghost.io/c/aa/80/aa80281a-abce-4f35-865f-05153c8cc335/content/images/2026/10/mursa-osijek-well-location-map-2000.jpg)

Mursa at modern Osijek (left), and the well’s location within the excavation (circled, right). Figure 1 in [Novak et al., PLOS One (2025)](https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0333440.g001?ref=romanempiretimes.com), CC BY 4.0; base map credited in the study to USGS.

Mursa stood near the Drava River in the province of Pannonia Inferior, within the wider Danube military zone. The settlement developed beside an auxiliary camp and became a Roman colony under Hadrian. Its roads, river crossing and administrative role connected the city with movement along the frontier; those features provide a historical setting for the burial without identifying the dead.

Excavators found the remains at the site of a planned university library in Osijek. The shaft, recorded as well SU 233/234, was about two metres across and three metres deep. It had ceased to serve as a water source before it was used to hold the bodies. Seven complete, articulated skeletons lay at different depths and in different positions inside it.

The study interprets their positions and the well’s fill as **a single burial episode**. The articulated bones suggest that the bodies were placed there before their joints separated, rather than being moved as old, disarticulated remains. 

## Four usable genomes from seven skeletons

All seven skeletons were assessed as adult males on anatomical grounds. The researchers sampled a tooth or part of the inner-ear bone from each for ancient DNA. One sample contained too little authentic human DNA for the next stage. Six produced genome-wide data, but two of those failed the team’s contamination checks. Their main ancestry analyses therefore used four individuals, labelled SK 2, SK 3, SK 4 and SK 7.

The paper reports the genetic sex for the four retained individuals and finds it consistent with the skeletal assessment. The four retained samples also had different paternal-line markers. The authors used broader genome-wide comparisons to study ancestry, including previously published Roman-period individuals from Mursa and earlier Iron Age individuals from Croatia. After those finds, claims about all seven sharing one genetic background is now out of the question.

## Several backgrounds in one burial

![Stacked-bar ancestry models for four men from the Mursa well, SK 2, SK 3, SK 4 and SK 7, shown above earlier published Mursa individuals; colours represent ancient reference groups.](https://storage.ghost.io/c/aa/80/aa80281a-abce-4f35-865f-05153c8cc335/content/images/2026/10/mursa-ancestry-model-fig7-2000.jpg)

Statistical ancestry models for four men from the well (top), compared with previously published Mursa individuals (bottom). The colour labels name ancient reference groups, not the men’s birthplaces. Figure 7: [Novak et al., PLOS One (2025)](https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0333440.g007?ref=romanempiretimes.com), CC BY 4.0.

In the study’s statistical comparisons, none of the four well-burial genomes could be modelled using the sampled local Croatian Iron Age group alone. That contrasts with most of eight previously published Roman-period individuals from other Mursa contexts, whose results were more consistent with the earlier local variation.

Two of the four well-burial individuals were most closely modelled with ancestry represented by northern or central European Iron Age reference groups. Another required a combination involving eastern European references and the local Iron Age group. The fourth fitted a model with a component represented by eastern Mediterranean groups. The paper offers alternative reference populations for some of these models, rather than tracing any man to one exact modern country, like Croatia, Turkey, Ukraine and Denmark (as seen in the above graph).

Ancestry reflects inherited population relationships over generations. Someone with a profile modelled against distant reference groups need not have travelled from that region himself. The study did not measure childhood residence using strontium or oxygen isotopes, and it did not establish a regiment from DNA. [Research on post-Roman communities elsewhere in Pannonia](https://romanempiretimes.com/ancient-dna-post-roman-pannonia-communities/) likewise illustrates why genetic ancestry, movement and social identity must be assessed with separate evidence; it concerns a later period and different sites.

## Injuries on the bones

![Two close-up photographs of SK 4 from the Mursa well: a broken upper front tooth on the left and a cut across the shaft of a left upper-arm bone on the right.](https://storage.ghost.io/c/aa/80/aa80281a-abce-4f35-865f-05153c8cc335/content/images/2026/10/mursa-bone-trauma-fig3-2000.jpg)

A broken upper right front tooth (left) and a cut on the left upper-arm bone (right) from individual SK 4\. Figure 3: [Novak et al., PLOS One (2025)](https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0333440.g003?ref=romanempiretimes.com), CC BY 4.0.

The skeletons supply evidence independent of the genetic models. All seven men were adults, and several had skeletal changes associated in the study with sustained physical activity. Two, SK 4 and SK 5, had wounds without signs of healing around the time of death. SK 4 had a puncture through the upper breastbone and cuts to an arm and rib; SK 5 had a puncture to the pelvis. The authors interpret these as evidence of intentional violence.

![Two archaeological bone photographs: a puncture on the front of SK 4’s upper breastbone at left and a puncture on the back of SK 5’s right pelvic bone at right.](https://storage.ghost.io/c/aa/80/aa80281a-abce-4f35-865f-05153c8cc335/content/images/2026/10/mursa-puncture-wounds-fig4-2000.jpg)

Puncture wounds documented on SK 4’s upper breastbone (left) and SK 5’s right pelvic bone (right). Figure 4: [Novak et al., PLOS One (2025)](https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0333440.g004?ref=romanempiretimes.com), CC BY 4.0.

Other injuries had a different timing. SK 1 and SK 5 had healed cranial trauma, while SK 4 had unhealed rib fractures that the paper records separately from its wounds around death. Keeping those categories apart prevents older injury from becoming evidence that every man died in the same fight.

The researchers also found changes on the inner surfaces of all seven men’s ribs that they discuss as possible signs of respiratory disease, without identifying a specific infection. Their combined reading of ages, body build, physical changes and weapon injuries favours a military setting. 

## A similar diet, despite varied ancestry

![Scatterplot of carbon and nitrogen isotope measurements: seven Mursa men appear as crosses clustered at similar values, with coloured symbols for animal comparison groups.](https://storage.ghost.io/c/aa/80/aa80281a-abce-4f35-865f-05153c8cc335/content/images/2026/10/mursa-diet-isotopes-fig5-2000.jpg)

Carbon and nitrogen isotope values for all seven men from the Mursa well (crosses), plotted against an animal baseline. Figure 5: [Novak et al., PLOS One (2025)](https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0333440.g005?ref=romanempiretimes.com), with faunal data adapted from Lightfoot et al.; CC BY 4.0.

The team sampled the same rib position in each of the seven skeletons for carbon and nitrogen isotope analysis. Unlike the filtered genetic comparison, this dietary series includes every man in the well. The measurements clustered closely, suggesting broadly similar food consumption during the last years of their lives. A similar diet is compatible with shared circumstances, although it cannot establish that the seven ate together or belonged to one Roman army unit.

The authors interpret the measurements as consistent with diets based on a mix of plants such as wheat and millet, with limited terrestrial animal protein and little marine protein. The paper compares them with earlier work on Roman-period diets in Croatia, but acknowledges that it lacks a direct isotope comparison group of identified Roman soldiers.

Carbon and nitrogen isotopes inform dietary patterns, not the place where someone grew up or the unit to which he belonged. The four usable genomes show varied ancestry while the seven isotope results are relatively uniform. Alongside age and injuries, the diet is part of the researchers’ military interpretation.

## A date that permits more than one history

Four skeletons were directly radiocarbon dated, from different depths in the well. Their calibrated ranges extend across parts of the third and early fourth centuries. A sestertius minted at Viminacium under Hostilian in 251 CE was found in the fill. Together, the dates and coin place the burial after the coin was made and make a mid-third-century episode plausible.

The research team favours a connection to the battle in which Gallienus defeated the claimant Ingenuus near Mursa, conventionally dated around 260 CE. The city was also near other violence in this troubled period, including incursions into Pannonia. A separate academic account of the province notes that ancient sources and modern reconstructions differ over whether Ingenuus’s revolt belongs in 258 or 260\. [Our account of Gallienus’s reign](https://romanempiretimes.com/gallienus-the-emperor-who-reformed-rome-amid-ruin/) provides broader context for the emperor.

The study itself considers casualties of the invasion by Sarmatians and Quadi as another possibility. It also notes a second nearby mass burial with injured adult males whose full genetic analysis was still underway when the paper appeared. The four genomes establish variation among the men who could be tested; the injuries establish violence for at least two; and the burial context suggests a rapid collective deposit. Which specific event brought these particular men to the well, remains a mystery.

🏛️

****Sources used:**  
  
[Novak et al. (2025), “Multidisciplinary study of human remains from the 3rd century mass grave in the Roman city of Mursa, Croatia,” PLOS One.](https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0333440&ref=romanempiretimes.com)  
  
[Péter Kovács (2024), “The ‘loss’ of Pannonia in 260,” Ausonius Editions.](https://una-editions.fr/the-loss-of-pannonia-in-260/?ref=romanempiretimes.com)