A recent study reveals that the hot wave released by Vesuvius at the eruption of 79 had catastrophic effects on people. In the skull of a victim was discovered "a new and bright substance" - glass.
When Vesuvius erupted nearly two millennia ago, hundreds of people from the nearby Herculaneum City fled to various rooms along the coastline, hoping to avoid the catastrophic explosion. It was a desperate plan that failed to save them from a terrible end.
Plaster cast of a victim from Herculaneum. Unlike Pompeii, where the molds (produced by filling the body prints in the ash deposit with plaster) took over the features of the victims' bodies, at Herculaneum, the shape of the bodies could not be reproduced due to vaporization and rapid destruction of soft tissue in hot ash ( over 500 ° Celsius). Photo: Pinterest
Among the few who remained in the city was a man about 25 years old, whose ash-covered remains were discovered in the 1960s on a wooden bed.
A study recently published in the New England Journal of Medicine concludes that the bright black fragment found in the victim's skull is remnants of the victim's brain. The brain was exposed to such a high temperature that it turned into glass.
Located about 18 kilometers north of Pompeii, Herculaneum was a prosperous coastal city that housed between 4,000 and 5,000 people before being destroyed by the eruption of Vesuvius.
Many inhabitants tried to escape, but the man on whose remains the research was carried out chose to remain in the city, in the College of the Augustals , "an imperial order dedicated to the Roman emperor Augustus".
The bright black fragment found in the skull of the victim of Herculaneum represents the remains of the brain. It was exposed to such a high temperature that it turned into glass. Photo: Pier Paolo
The victim, probably a college guard, was killed by the first pyroclastic eruption of the volcano (clouds of ash and volcanic gas moving at the speed of a hurricane and having temperatures of several hundred degrees Celsius).
In October 2018, Pierpaolo Petrone, a forensic anthropologist, professor at the University Federico II of Naples, was examining the man's remains, when he noticed "something shining in his crushed skull".
Petrone immediately suspected that it was brain tissue that had undergone vitrification, a process that occurs when the tissue is quickly burned at a high temperature and turned into glass or enamel.
Archaeologists rarely find remains of the human brain . When discovered, this organ is usually preserved in the form of a fine, soap-like substance.
Herculaneum, which can be seen in this image, was buried under volcanic matter at the eruption of Vesuvius. Photo: Getty Images
The fatty tissue of the brain reacts with charged particles from the environment, turning the organ into "soap" over time. Petrone and his colleagues believe that those unusual conditions caused by the eruption of Vesuvius led to a different phenomenon.
"The extreme heat emitted managed to ignite body fat and vaporize the soft tissues - a rapid drop in temperature followed," the researchers write.
This explosion of heat, followed by the sudden cooling of the body, turned the man's brain tissue into glass. Several clues show that Petrone's suspicion was correct.
First, the glassy material appeared only in the man's skull and nowhere else on his skeleton, in the surrounding volcanic ash or elsewhere in the archeological site.
Victim of Pompeii . Photo: Flickr
The charred wood found in the college indicates that the temperatures reached almost 520 degrees Celsius - which clearly shows that one of the factors that led to the man's death was, indeed, "extreme radiant heat".
Also, testing the glass samples revealed fatty acids similar to those in human hair. However, animals and plants also contain such substances, so the results are not conclusive.
More convincing was the discovery in samples of several proteins "present in large numbers in human brain tissue," according to the researchers.
The new study offers a new (and awful) perspective on how the victims of Vesuvius died, a topic that continues to generate controversy and amaze even experts.
Victim of Pompeii. Photo: Flickr
Another study, recently published in the journal Antiquity , suggests that these ancient unlucky people suffocated with the toxic emissions of the volcano, and their bodies "baked" after they died.
In fact, this research contradicts a 2018 study , led by Patrone, which found that the pyroclastic outbreak led to the boiling of the victims' blood and the explosion of their skulls.
In light of the new findings, Patrone hopes that the glass fragments of the brain can tell us even more about the identity of the unknown victim.
Previously, ancient DNA had been used to establish kinship between those who died in the eruption of Vesuvius.
