‘The Two Maidens’, a name given to two doomed residents found embracing thousands of years after Mount Vesuvius erupted in Pompeii, could have been gay lovers, researchers have revealed.
It has long been thought that the two residents were female – sisters or mother and daughter – however new DNA analysis on the bodies has cast doubt on that belief.
Massimo Osanna, director-general of the archaeological site, told the Telegraph: “Pompeii never ceases to amaze.
“We always imagined that it was an embrace between women. But a CAT scan and DNA have revealed that they are men.
“You can’t say for sure that the two were lovers. But considering their position, you can make that hypothesis. It is difficult to say with certainty.”
Writing in their study, published in Current Biology, the researchers said: ‘CT scanning of skeletal elements preserved within the casts led to an age estimate of 14–19 for individual 21 and a young adult age for individual 22.
‘The nuclear genetic analysis was successful only for individual 22 and revealed that he was male, excluding the possibility that the pair of victims were sisters or mother and daughter.’
However, experts have previously said that their relationship can ‘never be verified.’
An eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79AD buried most of the city under volcanic ash and pumice. The ruins of Pompeii were first discovered in the 16th century.
‘When this discovery was made, that they were not two young girls, some scholars suggested there could have been an emotional connection between the pair,’ said Professor Stefano Vanacore, who led a research team examining the pair back in 2017.
‘But we are talking about hypotheses that can never be verified.
‘What is certain is that the two parties were not relatives, neither brothers, nor a father and son.’