Everything we know about Pompeii has been turned on its head

Some of the people who died in Pompeii when Mount Vesuvius erupted almost 2000 years ago may have been misidentified, new evidence suggests.

Mount Vesuvius erupted in 79 AD, releasing a 20-ft-deep layer of ash and sediment that provided the correct conditions to capture dozens of bodies in their dying state.

Although the eruption decimated the southern Italian city, the pyroclastic deposits preserved the victims, buildings and art.

Archaeologists used the impressions which were formed and created replicas of the victims, which were made into narratives that formed films and books.

One of the most famous, a sculpture showing an adult holding a child in their last moments, was long thought to be a mother holding her baby.

But now, years and years later, a new study conducted by researchers has revealed that the sculpture is actually a man holding a young boy – and they’re not even related.

One of the researchers, Alissa Mittnik of the Max Planck Institute, said: ‘Our findings have significant implications for the interpretation of archaeological data and the understanding of ancient societies.

‘We were able to disprove or challenge some of the previous narratives built upon how these individuals were kind of found in relation to one another.

‘It opens up different interpretations for who these people might have been.’

14 casts of victims of the disaster near Naples were subjected to DNA testing by researchers, who were able to discern defining features of the figures.

They discovered that two of them had brown hair and one was of a dark complexion with black hair. They too revealed that the Romans killed at Pompeii were descendants of Turkey, Sardinia, Lebanon and Italy.

Interestingly, not far away from the presumed mother and child, two more adult sculptures had long been thought to be the rest of the family.

Scientists, though, were able to debunk this theory by showing that the four were all male and not even related.

David Caramelli of the Universita di Firenze, the study’s co-author, said: ‘This study illustrates how unreliable narratives based on limited evidence can be, often reflecting the worldview of researchers at the time.’

The researchers are now planning to further examine the DNA in order to gain a greater understanding of what actually happened at Pompeii.

The re-discovery of Pompeii in 1748 has been a huge inspiration for the world of art, literature and culture.

Some of the most famous paintings to depict the eruption include Joseph Wright’s Derby’s Volcanic Canvases and Karl Briullov’s The Last Day of Pompeii.

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