Incredible skeleton found of man decapitated by falling rock in Pompeii as he tried to flee Vesuvius eruption
THE skeleton of a disabled man crushed to death by an enormous rock as he tried to flee the devastating explosion at Mount Vesuvius 2,000 years ago has been dug up in Pompeii.
The 35-year-old victim was seemingly beheaded by a hurtling stone that also crushed his thorax, experts claim.
But archaeologists have not been able to track down his head.Officials said the man suffered an infection of the tibia, which may have caused walking difficulties, hindering his escape.
The archaeological site’s general director, Massimo Osanna, called it “an exceptional find,” that contributes to a better “picture of the history and civilization of the age.”
Pompeii officials released an image showing the skeleton protruding from underneath a 300-kilo block of stone believed to be a door jamb.
The destruction of Pompeii – what happened in 79 AD?
- Pompeii was an ancient Roman city near modern Naples, in the Campania region of Italy.
- It was destroyed, along with the Roman town of Herculaneum and many villas in the surrounding area, and buried under volcanic ash in the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 AD.
- The violent explosion killed the city's inhabitants, with the site lost for around 1,500 years until its initial redsicovery in 1599 and broader redesicovery almost 150 years after that.
- The thermal energy released from Vesuvius was said to be a hundred thousand times that of the nuclear blasts at Hiroshima-Nagasaki.
- The remains beneath the city have been preserved for more than a millenium due to the lack of air and moisture in the ground.
- During excavations, plaster was injected into the voids in the ash layers that once held human bodies, allowing scientists to recreate their exact poses at the time of their deaths.
- Mount Vesuvius is arguably the most dangerous volcano on earth.
- It had been inactive for almost a century before roaring back into life and destroying Pompeii.
- Since then, it has exploded around three dozen more times - most recently in 1944 - and stands in close proximity to three million people.
- Although its current status is dormant, Vesuvius is an "extremely active" and unpredictable volcano, according to experts.
- To this day, scientists are finding cultural, architectural and human remains on the banks of Mount Vesuvius.
- Excavations at thermal baths in Pompeii's ruins in February revealed the skeleton of a crouching child who perished in the 79 AD eruption.
They claim the "volcanic cloud" would have "violently thrown" the massive rock during the eruption that left around 30,000 people dead in 79 AD.
The skeleton was discovered at a recently uncovered area of the Pompeii archaeological site near Naples, Italy.
It follows a series of major finds over the past several weeks.
The body was found close to the alleyway of balconies unearthed earlier this month that experts plan to restore into their original state for public tours.
Before that, archaeologists dug up an ancient horse outside the city walls, to the north of Pompeii proper, which they were able to cast to complete its figure.
This process involves injecting liquid plaster into the cavities left behind when bodies encased in volcanic ash from the eruption decomposed.
The same technique has been used to recreate the final poses of dozens of Pompeii's victims.
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