It is an almost complete set of 'genetic instructions' from people who died when Mount Vesuvius erupted.
"It was all about the preservation of the skeletons," explained Prof Gabriele Scorrano, from the Lundbeck GeoGenetics centre in Copenhagen, who led the study. "It's the first thing we looked at, and it looked promising, so we decided to give [DNA extraction] a shot.
This showed that he shared "genetic markers" - or recognisable reference points in his genetic code - with other individuals who lived in Italy during the Roman Imperial age. But he also had a group of genes commonly found in those from the island of Sardinia, which suggested there might have been high levels of genetic diversity across the Italian Peninsula at the time.
Prof Scorrano said there would be much more to learn in biological studies of Pompeii - including from ancient environmental DNA, which could reveal more about biodiversity at the time.Dr Viva added that every human body in Pompeii was "a treasure". "These people are silent witnesses to one of the most well-known historical events in the world," she said. "To work with them is very emotional and a great privilege for me."
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