By George Dvorsky on 23 Jan 2020 at 10:30AM
A novel analysis of the skeletal remains of Vesuvius victims who sought shelter during the catastrophic eruption 2,000 years ago suggests they endured a slower death than is typically appreciated.
Like the nearby settlements of Pompeii, Stabiae, and Oplontis, the ancient Roman city of Herculaneum was devastated when Mount Vesuvius erupted in 79 CE. The ash and pumice that settled onto the city resulted in its remarkable preservation, making it an important site for archaeologists.
In the early 1980s, archaeologists stumbled upon a gruesome scene while excavating the city’s beach and nearby boat chambers, known as fornici. During the eruption, hundreds of people fled to the beach in a desperate attempt to escape the volcano’s wrath, some of whom managed to cram inside the vaulted stone fornici. Over the years, archaeologists have uncovered the charred skeletal remains of 340 individuals, all of whom perished on the beach or inside one of the dozen boat chambers.
A conventional theory said that the residents who sought shelter in the boat chambers died an instant death. The tremendous heat generated by the volcano’s pyroclastic flow – a fast-moving wave of hot gas and volcanic materials – caused the soft tissue in their bodies to instantly vaporise, according to a theory promulgated by Pierpaolo Petrone from the University Federico II in Naples, Italy. In 2018, Petrone co-authored a PLOS One paper, in which he argued that intense heat from the eruption caused skulls to explode and skin to turn directly into ash. Petrone and his colleagues estimated that the heat inside the chambers got as high as 500 degrees Celsius (932 degrees Fahrenheit).
More:
https://www.gizmodo.co.uk/2020/01/victims-of-ancient-vesuvius-eruption-were-baked-not-vaporised-according-to-new-research/
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