The Catacomb Mystery

Deep beneath the streets of Rome is an amazing underground world: a labyrinth of tunnels and vaults more than 360 miles long.This vast subterranean cemetery was created by ancient Romans nearly 2,000 years ago. Just a few years ago, a previously undiscovered catacomb containing thousands of human skeletons was unearthed, all featuring a burial ritual never seen before in Rome. Now a team of specialists is on a mission to unlock the skeletons’ secrets, using DNA mapping and cutting-edge archaeology to solve the mystery of who these men and women were and how they died. Evidence points to waves of mass death occurring from the late 1st century AD to early 3rd century AD. The bones reveal no sign of physical trauma, so what killed them? An expert in reconstructing ancient DNA joins the team and suspects it may have been the Antonine Plague – an epidemic which devastated the Roman Empire.