SKELETON OF MAN FLEEING VESUVIUS ERUPTION DISCOVERED
The bones of a man who was unable to escape the eruption of Mount
Vesuvius in 79 CE have been found in the ancient Roman town of Herculaneum. The skeletal remains were discovered near a stone wall along the ancient seafront, the first discovery of a Vesuvius victim in Herculaneum in 25 years. The bones belonged to a man in his early 40s. He may have died in the final phase of the eruption, when gas and ash rushed through the town at more than 60 miles per hour and around 500 degrees Celsius in a pyroclastic flow.
Researchers found the skeleton with its head towards the sea and surrounded by carbonised wood. A large roof beam found near the body may have crushed the man’s skull. It’s not clear who the man was or what he was doing when he died. He may have been a town resident who left a shelter to look for a rescue boat, only to be caught up in the devastating last moments of the eruption. Or he may have been a soldier with the rescue effort who ended up stranded among those he was trying to save.
The team now plans to remove the chunk of hardened ash that encases the victim’s body and then excavate the skeleton in a laboratory environment. Fragments of metal and fabric near the skeleton may be a bag holding tools, weapons or coins. Investigating the contents of the bag could yield hints to his identity.