Embracing Men Buried by Vesuvius
For about 2,000 years, a fossilised couple have been hugging after being killed and buried during the Italian Mount Vesuvius volcano’s violent eruption in 79 AD.
So far, scientists have assumed that the couple were two young women, but new Italian studies headed by Professor Stefano Vanacore surprisingly reveal that they were men.
Scans and DNA analyses of the skeletons show that one is an 18-year-old man, while the other was about 20 years old.
Scientists do not know if they were lovers, but according to the DNA analyses, the two of them were not related.
The embrace, in which one man rests his head on the other one’s chest, indicates that the men sought comfort during the disaster.