New DNA evidence from Pompeii’s body casts reveals that traditional assumptions about residents’ relationships and origins were often incorrect, showing instead a diverse population with roots in the eastern Mediterranean.

FILE – Jewelry found in the ruins of a house in Pompeii are displayed, backdropped by the casts of two adults and two children who died together in the house in Pompeii, at the exhibition, “Life and death Pompeii and Herculaneum,” at the British Museum in central London, March 26, 2013.

In the ruins of Pompeii, visitors aren’t only able to see the houses, frescos and artifacts of the ancient city’s people. They can also “see” the people themselves: plaster casts of Pompeii citizens’ burned bodies,

A recent DNA study has upended long-held theories about the people who died in the ancient Roman city of Pompeii, revealing unexpected details about the demographics and connections among the victims.