A hypothesis of sudden body fluid vaporization in the 79 AD victims of Vesuvius

PLoS One. 2018 Sep 26;13(9):e0203210. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0203210. eCollection 2018.

Abstract

In AD 79 the town of Herculaneum was suddenly hit and overwhelmed by volcanic ash-avalanches that killed all its remaining residents, as also occurred in Pompeii and other settlements as far as 20 kilometers from Vesuvius. New investigations on the victims' skeletons unearthed from the ash deposit filling 12 waterfront chambers have now revealed widespread preservation of atypical red and black mineral residues encrusting the bones, which also impregnate the ash filling the intracranial cavity and the ash-bed encasing the skeletons. Here we show the unique detection of large amounts of iron and iron oxides from such residues, as revealed by inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry and Raman microspectroscopy, thought to be the final products of heme iron upon thermal decomposition. The extraordinarily rare preservation of significant putative evidence of hemoprotein thermal degradation from the eruption victims strongly suggests the rapid vaporization of body fluids and soft tissues of people at death due to exposure to extreme heat.

Publication types

  • Historical Article
  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Archaeology
  • Body Fluids / chemistry
  • Bone and Bones / chemistry
  • Cause of Death
  • Disaster Victims / history*
  • Fossils / history
  • Fossils / pathology
  • Hemeproteins / chemistry
  • History, Ancient
  • Hot Temperature / adverse effects
  • Humans
  • Italy
  • Mass Spectrometry
  • Proteolysis
  • Proteomics
  • Spectrum Analysis, Raman
  • Volatilization
  • Volcanic Eruptions / adverse effects
  • Volcanic Eruptions / history*

Substances

  • Hemeproteins

Grants and funding

No private funding came to any author for this work. AV and LB acknowledge funding from a State Institution, Regione Campania (POR, Parco Archeologico Urbano Napoli, PAUN), that financially supported this work.