New DNA analysis of skeletal remains from Pompeii reveals that victims of Vesuvius’s eruption have been wrongly identified.

When you buy through links on our articles, Future and its syndication partners may earn a commission. Ancient DNA taken from the Pompeii victims of Mount Vesuvius' eruption nearly 2,000 years ago reveals that some people's relationships were not what they ...

In mere minutes, the giant cloud of ash and gases killed an estimated 2,000 people, many of whom were unearthed more than a thousand years later. Their decomposed bodies were preserved by the ash, and archaeologists were able to reconstruct their forms using plaster casts of the cavities they left behind. More than 100 casts have been made to date.