First DNA from Pompeii body casts illuminates who victims were

Remains recovered from plaster casts of five people who died in the eruption of Mount Vesuvius have overturned some old assumptions about who they were. For example, a victim wearing an intricate golden bracelet had been described as a mother who died while holding their child. In fact, the adult was male and the two people were not related. Many of these narratives were designed to boost public interest in the site, notes archaeologist Steven Ellis. DNA evidence confirmed more scholarly interpretations, based on cultural artefacts, that Pompeii had a genetically diverse population descended from immigrants from the eastern Mediterranean.