Drawing on multiple studies demonstrating that it is possible to retrieve DNA from both human and animal remains in Pompeii, they managed to extract genetic information from some of those plaster casts containing highly fragmented skeletal remains,

Plaster casts of calcified Pompeii residents have long been used by archaeologists to tell the stories of the last, desperate moments of ancient Romans before they were buried and preserved in pyroclastic ash from Mount Vesuvius in A.

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