In the year 79, a volcano called Vesuvius erupted. The Roman town of Pompeii was buried under ash. Later, people made plaster figures from holes in the ash where bodies had been. For many years, people believed one figure was a mother holding her child.

But in 2024, scientists studied DNA from the bones. The adult was actually a man, and he was not related to the child.

In 79 AD, Mount Vesuvius erupted and buried the Roman town of Pompeii. First, pumice and ash fell for hours, and then fast, extremely hot flows of gas and ash swept through the town, killing many people. Their bodies left empty spaces in the hardened ash, and in 1863 an archaeologist filled them with plaster, creating famous figures.

People imagined stories about them, such as a mother holding her child. In 2024, an international team extracted DNA from bones inside the figures. They found that the "mother" was actually an adult man with no family link to the child. The study warns that modern assumptions can shape how we interpret the past.

When Vesuvius erupted in 79 AD, Pompeii was first buried by hours of falling pumice and then engulfed by pyroclastic flows, avalanches of scorching gas and ash that killed most remaining residents. As the victims' bodies decayed, they left hollows in the hardened ash, which archaeologist Giuseppe Fiorelli began filling with plaster in 1863. Visitors have long read emotional stories into these figures.

However, a 2024 study in Current Biology, which extracted ancient DNA from bone fragments inside the casts, challenged several of them. An adult wearing a gold bracelet and holding a child, traditionally described as a mother, proved to be genetically male and unrelated to the child, and at least one of two supposed sisters was male. The authors argue that modern assumptions about gender and family shaped these narratives, a problem made worse by restorations that altered the casts' poses. But the findings have limits: genetic sex does not reveal social roles, and households might have included adopted children or servants. The analyzed individuals also showed mainly eastern Mediterranean ancestry, though too few were studied to represent the entire town.