For an update of the find, suggesting that the first proposed scenario was wrong, read Kristina Killgrove's story.
The first human remains in Pompeii were discovered in April 1748. In the following centuries, more human and animal bones have been found, preserved in the volcanic deposits of the disastrous 79 AD eruption of Mount Vesuvius. More than 1,150 victims have been excavated in the ruins of the former Roman city so far, with some hundreds of other remains of bodies that were discovered but later lost.
Most of Pompeii is still buried today. In a street excavated just last week, a team of Italian archaeologists made a dramatic discovery, telling the last and tragic moments of one of Vesuvius’s victims.
The skeleton of a man who may be at least thirty-years-old, was found under a large rock, believed to have crushed the victim's chest during the eruption. The head was not found. Traces found on his bones suggest that the man was suffering from a painful infection of the leg-bones, which may have caused difficulties walking and impeded his escape.
For more about the find and the team of archaeologists at Pompeii, read Kristina Killgrove's story.
From both the stratigraphic record of the eruption and historical descriptions by Pliny the Younger, a Roman historian who survived the catastrophe, we know that it was at first volcanic ash, blown southeast by the wind, that started to bury the city of Pompeii. After some hours, the weight of the pulverized rock caused the first buildings to collapse.
The young man hiding in one of the buildings up until this moment realized he could no longer stay there. He probably waited until the early morning of the second day of the eruption, when the rain of ash and pumice lessened in intensity for some hours. Still falling ash obscured the sun and the streets were covered by an almost seven feet thick layer of ash and rubble. Desperate and in pain, the man ventured into the dark streets. The worst was yet to come.
The eruption of Mount Vesuvius generated a sequence of six pyroclastic surges (S1 to S6) with increasing power. A pyroclastic surge is an avalanche of hot gases and rocks descending at 99 mph the slopes of the volcano, causing widespread building collapse and fatalities around Vesuvius.
The fourth pyroclastic surge caused most of the fatalities in Pompeii (even though the resulting deposit is just one inch thick) because it was the first surge to actually reach and bury the city. This man, probably one of the last trying to flee from the doomed city, was surprised by this surge at approximately 7:30 AM. It was not the intense heat of a pyroclastic flow to kill him, as no signs of spasms are apparent, but the force and speed of the surge caused the buidlings surrounding the street to collapse. A 600-pound heavy block likely fell from the second-story of a building, hitting the man from behind, crushing him and tearing his head off.
