Archaeologists of Teesside University in the UK disclosed details about the death of people in the ancient Roman cities of Pompeii and Herculanem during Vesuvius eruptions. This is reported by the Conversation edition.
Studies show that the bodies of the fallen could not evaporate, since the temperature inside the pyriclastic cloud, covered by people, reached 300-400 degrees Celsius, which is even less than during cremation. In such conditions, soft tissues are dehydrated, tightened, as a result of which the body takes the position of the embryo. The skin is smelled, exposing deeper fabrics. Internal organs also destroy, leaving the skeleton that does not turn into the ashes completely.
bones are cracking and fragmented in different ways depending on the presence or absence of soft tissues. They change the color as carbon loss, they are deformed and compressed, while the shrinkage reaches 30 percent. Thus, on the remains, it is possible to determine the circumstances of the death of residents who suffocate and burned in just 17 minutes both in Pompeiy and in Herculaneum.
Analysis of skeletons showed that many residents of Herculaneum managed to escape to the coast where they were hidden in stone boat houses. Men died in an open area, and women and children are indoors. Perhaps these people hoped that they were evacuated on ships, but the temperature quickly rose to critical.