sent to Pompeii from across the Roman Empire. “It’s always good when we have new data,” Gallello said. “This opens again the doors [to] a new way to think about the history of the population at Pompeii.”

This new study probed the DNA evidence that has been taken from some of these bodies. The team used the same strontium isotopes that were used to date the DNA samples to get a better understanding of the diversity and origins of Pompeii’s residents.

In 79 A.D., a volcanic eruption engulfed a town’s residents. They weren’t all who scientists thought, newly extracted genetic material suggests.

The surprising identities of some of the doomed inhabitants of ancient Pompeii have been revealed by a new analysis of their DNA, re-writing the life histories of these unfortunate souls. Based on their findings,

Now, scientists have used ancient DNA collected from the casts that have been made to better understand the Pompeii residents and their origins. What they found alters history that’s been written since Pompeii’s rediscovery in the 1700s.

Genetic analysis of five individuals preserved as plaster casts in the ruins of Pompeii contradicts established beliefs about the people and their relationships

The sex and ancestry of five people who died in the eruption are revealed by genetic material embedded in the casts.