When Mount Vesuvius erupted in AD 79, a wealthy man around 30 or 40 years old and a younger slave man survived the immediate impact, only to die in an explosion. second volcano the next day. Two millennia later, as reported by Angela Giuffrida for the Guardian, archaeologists excavating a mansion on the outskirts of the ancient Roman city have found the remains of the couple, strangely frozen in their ultimate death.
Based on traces of the elderly man’s clothing, including a woolen cape, researchers from Pompeii Archaeological Park say he may have been a man of high status. The body of the young man, aged between 18 and 25 years old, had some pinched vertebrae, indicating that he was a manual worker. Possibly enslaved by his companion, the latter wears a short pleated tunic possibly made of wool. The team found the remains in an underground passageway of the dilapidated structure more than 6 feet below the ash layer.
Massimo Osanna, the archeological park’s general manager, told the Associated Press ‘Frances D’Emilio’ told the Associated Press.
Instead, the duo died in a heatwave and volcanic debris poured into the building
Osanna told Reuters’ Angelo Amante: “It was a death from heat stroke, as well as evidenced by their clenched hands and feet.
Archaeologists have preserved the newly discovered remains using a variation of the technique developed by Italian archaeologist Giuseppe Fiorelli in 1863. The process involved pouring liquid chalk into the stones. cavities left by decomposing bodies; This plaster fills the gaps in preserved bones and teeth, creating a partial body as they look at the moment of death.
Pompeii currently contains the bodies of more than 100 people preserved in the form of plaster casts. Osanna told the Times that the technique captured the fascinating details of the newly discovered bodies, including the “exceptional frills” on their woolen clothes.
“They really do look like statues,” he said.
The new find is located in Civita Giuliana, about 750 yards northwest of the city walls of Pompeii. The mansion is privately owned and government-mandated excavations only began there in 2017, when archaeologists stepped in to help prevent looters from tunneling into the area and stealing. artifacts.
The ruins of Pompeii, a city of about 13,000 people at the time of its destruction, have fascinated people around the world for centuries. Roman judge Pliny the Younger, who witnessed the devastation from a neighboring city, described it as “an unusual and alarming sight”.
The Spanish King Charles III of Bourbon began the first official excavation of the site in 1748. Work has continued since then. (Started in 2012, the $140 million Great Pompeii Project seeks to conduct the largest scientific investigation of the site to date.) Rome, from Pompei’s culinary habits to rituals fertility, and their love.
When Mount Vesuvius erupted in AD 79, a wealthy man around 30 or 40 years old and a younger slave man survived the immediate impact, only to die in an explosion. second volcano the next day. Two millennia later, Angela Giuffrida reports to the Guardian, archaeologists are excavating a mansion on the outskirts of the ancient Roman city…
