(ANSA) - ROME, NOV 8 - For centuries, the remains of an adult wearing a gold bracelet found buried in the ancient Roman city of Pompeii following a volcanic eruption in 79 AD were believed to belong to a mother who had died while trying to shield her child.
    Now a study carried out thanks to ancient DNA collected for the first time from bits of human bones of victims has revealed that the adult was actually a man who was unrelated to the child he was trying to protect.
    This is just one of the many stories rewritten thanks to the study led by Harvard University, with the participation of the University of Florence, which has been published by the journal Current Biology.
    The genetic data collected by scientists comes from bone fragments recovered by scientists through plaster casts of people who died in the eruption.
    Their findings challenged old assumptions about the victims' identities, ancestry and family relationships, originally made starting from the mid-1700s, when archaeological research began in the city. (ANSA).