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A little less than 2,000 years ago, Mount Vesuvius, a huge volcano in southern Italy, erupted. This gave rise to one of the most famous natural disasters in history: the destruction of Pompeii. The inhabitants of the ancient Roman city, located a few kilometers from the volcano, did not have time to flee and found themselves engulfed by the lava.
The volcanic eruption spared very few people. But according to a recent study, published in Frontiers in Earth Sciencethese survivors were then killed by “a second force of nature”, ScienceFocus says.
The ruins of Pompeii are infamous because some of its inhabitants were frozen in time. After the eruption, rains of ash and rock particles fell on the city for more than eighteen hours, forming a protective shell around the bodies. Recently, while excavations of the site are still ongoing, two new skeletons have been found and these had not been buried under the ash, but above it.
Even the survivors had no chance
Italian experts from the National Institute of Geophysics and Volcanology at the Archaeological Park of Pompeii believe they know the cause: a massive earthquake. The researchers who discovered the two skeletons were excavating a house at the site when they noticed something strange. “All the signs that a volcanic phenomenon had occurred – especially the signs that are usually found in excavations near Vesuvius – were absent”the media reports.
Both male and in their fifties, the bodies had suffered severe fractures and trauma. None of them appeared to have died from ash inhalation or extreme heat. They appeared to have been crushed by the sudden collapse of a large wall. Experts believe that the residents who survived the eruption tried to flee, but that strong earthquakes occurred. More research is needed to fully determine what happened on August 24, 79 AD.
Source: www.slate.fr
