Volcanoes, Bones, and Heat

The study of the victims of past natural disasters is able to influence the perspectives of anthropological studies and analysis. The human remains found in the Roman towns buried in AD 79 by the Plinian eruption of Vesuvius are clear evidence of this. The Roman towns buried by the AD 79 eruption represent a unique historical and an archaeo-anthropological heritage.

The first ever discovery of the buried city of Herculaneum was the theatre, during the excavation of a well in 1710. The human remains from Herculaneum, exceptionally preserved over time, can be considered “time capsules,” capable of revealing the details of an unexpected and sudden catastrophe. Although hot surges have been mostly accepted as a major cause of mortality in the AD 79 eruption, there are some differences in interpretation depending on the distance from the volcano and, within the same site, on the place where victims were found.