When a volcanic eruption buried the ancient city of Pompeii, the last desperate moments of its citizens were preserved in stone for centuries.
Observers see stories in the plaster casts later made of their bodies, like a mother holding a child and two women embracing as they die.
But new DNA evidence suggests things were not as they seem — and these prevailing interpretations come from looking at the ancient world through modern eyes.
“We were able to disprove or challenge some of the previous narratives built upon how these individuals were kind of found in relation to each other,” said Alissa Mittnik of the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Germany. “It opens up different interpretations for who these people might have been.”
Mittnik and her colleagues discovered that the person thought to be a mother was actually a man unrelated to the child. And at least one of the two people locked in an embrace — long assumed to be sisters or a mother and daughter — was a man. Their research was published Thursday in the journal Current Biology.
The team, which also includes scientists from Harvard University and the University of Florence in Italy, relied on genetic material preserved for nearly two millennia. After Mount Vesuvius erupted and destroyed the Roman city in 79 A.D., bodies buried in mud and ash eventually decomposed, leaving spaces where they used to be. Casts were created from the voids in the late 1800s.
Researchers focused on 14 casts undergoing restoration, extracting DNA from the fragmented skeletal remains that mixed with them. They hoped to determine the sex, ancestry and genetic relationships between the victims.
There were several surprises in “the house of the golden bracelet,” the dwelling where the assumed mother and child were found. The adult wore an intricate piece of jewelry, for which the house was named, reinforcing the impression that the victim was a woman. Nearby were the bodies of another adult and child thought to be the rest of their nuclear family.
DNA evidence showed the four were male and not related to one another, clearly showing “the story that was long spun around these individuals” was wrong, Mittnik said.
Researchers also confirmed Pompeii citizens came from diverse backgrounds but mainly descended from eastern Mediterranean immigrants – underscoring a broad pattern of movement and cultural exchange in the Roman Empire. Pompeii is located about 150 miles (241 kilometers) from Rome.
The study builds upon research from 2022 when scientists sequenced the genome of a Pompeii victim for the first time and confirmed the possibility of retrieving ancient DNA from the human remains that still exist.
“They have a better overview of what’s happening in Pompeii because they analyzed different samples," said Gabriele Scorrano of the University of Rome Tor Vergata, a co-author of that research who was not involved in the current study. “We actually had one genome, one sample, one shot.”
Though much remains to be learned, Scorrano said, such genetic brushstrokes are slowly painting a truer picture of how people lived in the distant past.
The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Science and Educational Media Group. The AP is solely responsible for all content.
FILE - A view of Pompeii, a buried and ruined Roman city near modern Naples in Italy, is seen in 1979. (AP Photo/Jim Bourdier, File)
FILE - A view of Pompeii, a buried and ruined Roman city near modern Naples in Italy, is seen in 1979. (AP Photo, File)
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. (AP Photo/Lefteris Pitarakis, File)
UNITED NATIONS (AP) — The deadliest place for women is at home and 140 women and girls on average were killed by an intimate partner or family member per day last year, two U.N. agencies reported Monday.
Globally, an intimate partner or family member was responsible for the deaths of approximately 51,100 women and girls during 2023, an increase from an estimated 48,800 victims in 2022, UN Women and the U.N. Office of Drugs and Crime said.
The report released on the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women said the increase was largely the result of more data being available from countries and not more killings.
But the two agencies stressed that “Women and girls everywhere continue to be affected by this extreme form of gender-based violence and no region is excluded.” And they said, “the home is the most dangerous place for women and girls.”
UN Women’s Deputy Executive Director Nyaradzayi Gumbonzvanda told a news conference launching the report that women have been killed by their loved ones for a long time and the trend is continuing because underlying issues haven’t been addressed — especially gender stereotyping and social norms.
“This is killing which is associated with power over women,” she said, and it continues because of the continuing impunity for violent attacks against women.
Gumbonzvanda, a Zimbabwean and longtime advocate for women’s rights, said there is “a lot of perpetrator anonymity” when it comes to the killing of women by partners or family members because “it means the family members have to bring justice against another family member.”
UN Women is campaigning for those with economic and political power and for leaders in various traditions not to use their power to perpetuate violence. “Power should be used to facilitate options for prevention,” she said.
According to the report, the highest number of intimate partner and family killings was in Africa – with an estimated 21,700 victims in 2023. Africa also had the highest number of victims relative to the size of its population — 2.9 victims per 100,000 people, it said.
There were also high rates last year in the Americas with 1.6 female victims per 100,000 and in Oceania with 1.5 per 100,000, it said. Rates were significantly lower in Asia at 0.8 victims per 100,000 and Europe at 0.6 per 100,000.
According to the report, the intentional killing of women in the private sphere in Europe and the Americas is largely by intimate partners.
By contrast, the vast majority of male homicides take place outside homes and families, it said.
“Even though men and boys account for the vast majority of homicide victims, women and girls continue to be disproportionately affected by lethal violence in the private sphere," the report said.
“An estimated 80% of all homicide victims in 2023 were men while 20% were women, but lethal violence within the family takes a much higher toll on women than men, with almost 60% of all women who were intentionally killed in 2023 being victims of intimate partner/family member homicide,” it said.
The report said that despite efforts to prevent the killing of women and girls by countries, their killings “remain at alarmingly high levels.”
“They are often the culmination of repeated episodes of gender-based violence, which means they are preventable through timely and effective interventions,” the two agencies said.
Women's rights activists set orange pair of shoes on the pavement for every attempted or successful killing of a woman by partner violence during the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women, the start of the Orange Days in Cologne, Germany, Monday, Nov. 25, 2024. (AP Photo/Martin Meissner)
Pro-Palestinian activists perform during a march marking the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women, in Santiago, Chile, Monday, Nov. 25, 2024. (AP Photo/Esteban Felix)
Women march during the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women in Buenos Aires, Argentina, Monday, Nov. 25, 2024. (AP Photo/Rodrigo Abd)
A woman chants slogans during a march marking the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women in El Alto, Bolivia, Monday, Nov. 25, 2024. (AP Photo/Juan Karita)
People reenact "The Handmaid's Tale," a novel, during a march marking the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women march, in Asuncion, Paraguay, Monday, Nov. 25, 2024. (AP Photo/Jorge Saenz)
Members of the Palestinian Medical Relief Society mark the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women, in the West Bank city of Bethlehem, Monday, Nov. 25, 2024. (AP Photo/Mahmoud Illean)
Women demonstrate to mark the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women, as the trial of dozens of men accused of raping Gisele Pelicot while she was drugged and rendered unconscious by her husband goes on, Monday, Nov. 25, 2024 in Avignon, southern France. (AP Photo/John Leicester)
Red shoes placed on the ground as a symbol against the violence on women, during a rally marking the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women, in Berlin, Germany, Monday, Nov. 25, 2024. (AP Photo/Markus Schreiber)
Women demonstrate to mark the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women, as the trial of dozens of men accused of raping Gisele Pelicot while she was drugged and rendered unconscious by her husband goes on, Monday, Nov. 25, 2024 in Avignon, southern France. (AP Photo/John Leicester)
A graffiti, reading "no more feminicide" is sprayed on the wall of a house in Gelsenkirchen, Germany, on the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women, Monday, Nov. 25, 2024. (AP Photo/Martin Meissner)
A young woman walks on the Chords Bridge at the entrance to Jerusalem, illuminated in red to mark the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women, Monday, Nov. 25, 2024. (AP Photo/Maya Alleruzzo)
Women attend a rally to mark the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against women, in Milan, Italy, Monday, Nov. 25, 2024. (AP Photo/Luca Bruno)
Turkish police officers detain a woman during a protest marking the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women, in Istanbul, Turkey, Monday, Nov. 25, 2024. (AP Photo/Emrah Gurel)
An activist shouts slogan as she leads a rally to mark the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women, in Kolkata, India, Monday, Nov. 25, 2024. (AP Photo/Bikas Das)
Demonstrators take part in a rally ahead of the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women which will held on Nov. 25, in Rome, Saturday, Nov. 23, 2024. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini)
Demonstrators take part in a rally ahead of the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women which will be held on Nov. 25, in Rome, Saturday, Nov. 23, 2024. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini)
People take part in a rally ahead of the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women, in front of the Colosseum in Rome, Saturday, Nov. 23, 2024.. (Roberto Monaldo/LaPresse via AP)
People take part in a march marking the upcoming International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women, in Lima, Peru, Saturday, Nov. 23, 2024. (AP Photo/Guadalupe Pardo)
People take part in a march marking the upcoming International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women, in Lima, Peru, Saturday, Nov. 23, 2024. (AP Photo/Guadalupe Pardo)
CGT union secretary general Sophie Binet, center, attends a march during the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women in Paris, France, Saturday, Nov. 23, 2024. (AP Photo/Thibault Camus)
A woman holds a torch during a rally marking the upcoming International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women, in Istanbul,Turkey, Sunday, Nov. 24, 2024. (AP Photo/Emrah Gurel)
Demonstrators take part in a rally ahead of the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women which will be held on Nov. 25, in Rome, Saturday, Nov. 23, 2024. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini)
Ariana Campos takes part in a march marking the upcoming International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women, in Lima, Peru, Saturday, Nov. 23, 2024. (AP Photo/Guadalupe Pardo)