DNA analysis of victims in Pompeii who died in Mount Vesuvius' eruption reveals some unusual relations between the people who died together.

A study published Thursday retold some famous stories about Pompeii citizens before they died from the eruption of Mount Vesuvius.

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

Ancient DNA recovered from Pompeii shows that people found holding one another beneath the volcanic ash weren’t related in the ways we think.

Modern DNA analysis is rewriting the history of Pompeii, revealing unexpected truths about the lives and identities of the ancient victims buried under ash from Mount Vesuvius's eruption in A.D. 79. Long-held assumptions about the relationships and sexes of those preserved in the Roman town have been debunked by researchers,

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.

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.

It’s one of the many stories told by observers of the victims of the tragedy that struck the ancient town. But DNA evidence recently published in Current Biology suggests things were not as they seem.