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The Fosse Ardeatine massacre was a mass execution carried out in Rome on March 24, 1944 by Nazi German occupation troops during the Second World War as a reprisal for a partisan attack conducted on the previous day in central Rome. The 335 civilians were taken to the "Cave Ardeatine" and they were shot. Only 323 corpses out of 335 have been identified. The aim of this work is the genetic and anthropological analysis of the remains exhumed from grave number 329 of Fosse Ardeatine's Shrine to assess their identity. So far, such remains have been supposed to belong to MM but mitochondrial analysis excluded a biological relationship to two living maternal relatives. Our analysis indicated that remains recovered in grave number 329 do not belong to MM. This result suggests that genetic analysis of the remains should be also applied to the other 12 unknown corpses to elucidate their identity.

Introducción. Los restos óseos arcaicos son fuente privilegiada de información biológica y sucaracterización genética permite confirmar o descartar filiaciones propuestas por otrasaproximaciones científicas. La historia precolombina de los Andes orientales se divide en tresperiodos principales: i) un poblamiento temprano por parte de grupos cazadores-recolectores;ii) un periodo intermedio (Herrera) de pueblos con agricultura incipiente, y iii) un periodo tardíode pueblos chibchas, agrícolas y alfareros (agroalfarero).Objetivo. Analizar el ADN mitocondrial de restos óseos del periodo Herrera.Materiales y métodos. Se analizaron 11 individuos pertenecientes al yacimiento arqueológicoMadrid 2-41, con una edad aproximada de 2.000 años. Un fragmento (192 pb) del segmentohipervariable I fue amplificado y secuenciado, siguiendo criterios estrictos de autenticidad deADN arcaico. Las secuencias se compararon con las existentes en bases de datos deNorteamérica y Europa usando herramientas bioinformáticas.Resultados. Todas las secuencias resultaron idénticas y fueron clasificadas como haplogrupoB. Esto puede relacionarse con el tipo de entierro ritual practicado en Madrid 2-41, es decir,probablemente los individuos analizados hagan parte de una familia jerárquicamente importanteen la antigua sociedad Herrera. La búsqueda de secuencias homólogas en las bases de datosestadounidense y europea no arrojó coincidencias exactas, aunque existe el reporte de unindividuo amazónico de ~4.000 años de antigüedad (Brasil) cuya secuencia coincide con lahallada en Madrid 2-41.Conclusión. Los individuos del yacimiento arqueológico Madrid 2-41 están estrechamenteemparentados entre sí por línea materna y presentan una secuencia aparentemente ausenteen poblaciones actuales Introduction. Ancient bone remains constitute an important source of biological information,and their genetic characterization allows the confirmation or rebuttal of human affiliationsproposed on the basis of non-molecular approaches. Pre-Columbian history of the EasternAndes in Colombia has been divided into three main periods: (i) an early colonization bygroups of hunter-gatherers, (ii) an intermediate period “Herrera” characterized by primitiveagriculture and (iii) a late stage of Chibcha-speaking groups, with agriculture and ceramics(“agroalfarero”).Objective. The mitochondrial DNA on ancient bone remains of the Herrera period were analyzedfor comparison with modern and other ancient DNAs.Materials and methods. Mitochondrial DNA was extracted from 11 Herrera individuals [~2,000years before present (YBP)] found in the Madrid 2-41 archaeological site near Bogotá, Colombia.A 192 bp segment of the hypervariable segment I was amplified and sequenced, following stringent archaic DNA authenticity criteria. The sequences were compared with those inAmerican and European databases using bioinformatics tools.Results. All individuals had identical sequences and were classified as haplogroup B. Thisidentity may be related to the type of ritual burial performed in the site, probably exclusively formembers of a hierarchically important family of the ancient Herrera society. The search forhomologous sequences in the American and European mtDNA data bases produced noidentical coincidences, although a Brazilian Amazonic individual (~4,000 YBP) was recordedwith a matching sequence.Conclusion. Individuals buried in the Madrid 2-41 site were maternally closely related andshowed a mtDNA sequence that is apparently absent in contemporary populations