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Pompeii victims suffocated to death

Photo: Giorgio Cosulich
Photo: Giorgio Cosulich (Getty Images)

X-ray analysis of the remains of six people from the doomed city of Pompeii revealed that they asphyxiated during the volcanic eruption that buried the town in 79 CE. Previous research had suggested other causes of death in the cataclysm, but the research published in August posited that inhaling toxic gases may have done the residents in.