THE PEOPLE OF POMPEII
AND HERCULANEUM
SOURCES and EVIDENCE
Historians at work
Ethical issues of display and study of
remains
3. Investigating, reconstructing and
preserving the past
• changing methods and contributions of
nineteenth and twentieth century
archaeologists to our understanding of
Pompeii and Herculaneum
• changing interpretations: impact of new
research and technologies
• issues of conservation and reconstruction:
Italian and international contributions and
responsibilities; impact of tourism
• ethical issues: study and display of human
remains
As you view the presentation, be especially aware of NEW INTERPRETATIONS
about how the people of Pompeii and Herculaneum died, how many people
died and what age groups were involved.
The cast remains of inhabitants of Pompeii (below right) provide evidence of
HOW the people of Pompeii and Herculaneum died.
The skeletal remains of inhabitants of Herculaneum and Pompeii (below left)
provide evidence of the health and social status of these inhabitants.
Pompeii
• The inhabitants of Pompeii had time to
escape because of the ash and pumice
falls over several hours on the day of the
eruption.
• The exact death toll is unknown, and the
usual estimate of several thousand is now
being questioned.
• The people of Pompeii are preserved either in
plaster casts of the hollows left by their bodies in
the volcanic material, or by the remains of their
skeletons.
Using sources: the casts
The archaeologist Fiorelli
introduced the method of
pouring plaster into the
cavities left by the people
and animals of Pompeii.
As a result, the position of
the inhabitants becomes
clear, and deductions
about their deaths are
possible.
Body and
skeleton
decay
leaving a
hollow
Casts The casts shown here are all plaster casts and
include adults and children. The plaster captures their last
moments including physical details and facial details and
emotional state. They offer clues to the cause of death.
How did people die in Pompeii?
Most people living in the area
probably escaped during the
first phase of the eruption
when the high eruption column
deposited about 2.7 metres of
pumice lapilli in the proximity of
Pompeii.
Some inhabitants sheltered in
sealed rooms and waited until
it was too late to escape.
Either they were trapped by
the thick layer of pumice and
ash, crushed by collapsing
buildings or asphyxiated, or
killed by the thermal shock of
the third and fourth surge.
The garden of fugitives is so called
because of the number of people who
were caught sheltering in this area thirteen adults and children were found
huddled together.
Many people who
were still in the towns
to the south of the
volcano, or had come
back, were caught by
surprise by the
second phase and
their bodies are found
above the fall-pumice
layer within the surge
deposit.
Professor
Wallace- Haddrill
points out the
body casts on
top of the lapilli
(pumice layers)
at Pompeii
The Garden of fugitives casts
13 bodies were found here using the cast
method during excavation. They include
adults and children.
Found at the
back of this
garden
The 13 casts are now
protected by a perspex
wall. However the
display provokes
questions about the
ethics of displaying
human remains.
The thirteen people in the Garden of Fugitives were
caught in a moment by the thermal surge and died
instantly
Two casts with part of skull intact, excavated in twentieth century – possibly
a husband and wife.
Two phases of dying at Pompeii
The excavation diaries and journals of the past have been
re-examined and as a result archaeologists have
established that
*394 victims were found in the pumice associated with the
first phase of eruption. 345 were found inside buildings
and 49 outside. These bodies were found at ground level
and slightly higher. They died when roofs collapsed, or
when hit by larger rocks.
*653 victims were found from the second phase of the
eruption, with 334 inside buildings and 319 along roads
or in open spaces. Most of those inside bodies were
found in upper floors or basement spaces trying to
shelter from the ash and pumice while those caught
outside were in the ash layer between fourth and fifth
surges i.e. higher level than ground level. They died of
thermal shock when hit by the surge.
Animals are also captured in their
last moments.
This dog died
in the villa
rustica of
Regina
Other casts show efforts to protect
the body, and also show distress.
Modern
methods
use
silicon
resins
instead
of
plaster
This method enables the excavators to see any skeletal remains which
exist in the cavity through the transluscent resin.
The number of people who died in Pompeii has been reviewed and it is now
generally accepted that most people escaped before the fatal surges and flows.
A man and child
found near one of
Pompeii’s gates.
Historians make deductions
• Forty one complete casts were examined by Peter
Baxter who has deduced that their boxer’s pose is
consistent with exposure to high temperatures – the
limbs are flexed and the spine extended. This pose
implies exposure to temperatures of 200-250 degrees
Celsius.
• Other casts do not have this pose but have been caught
at death in a spasm which did not wear off because their
bodies were covered so soon after death.
• The main cause of death therefore appears to have been
hot gas avalanche – the pyroclastic surges which
preceded the flows which covered the sites.
Source 2: deductions made by
historians- some examples.
• Two gladiators were found chained in a prison cell. Historians
deduce they had been charged with a misdemeanour and then
forgotten in the panic which followed the eruption.
• A woman wearing jewels was found in the gladiators barracks
amongst skeletons. She was probably a prostitute although she
could also have been a wealthy Pompeian woman looking for help
amongst the gladiators.
• The inhabitants of the House of the Faun took too long to gather
their valuables and were trapped by molten material and the roof
weighed with burning ash. They died in the dining room.
• A steward dismissed slaves of the household, (some of whom died
in the molten flow of the street), and then locked himself and his
daughter into a room by the entrance to the house where they died.
Click here for a link to the legends of the eruption.
Using sources: Pompeii’s skeletal
remains
Apart from the casts,
skeletal remains have
also been found at
Pompeii. Generally these
bones were ignored by
early excavators, placed
in storage around
Pompeii and ignored.
This was not a systematic
storage of complete
Dr Estelle Lazer examines the remains of
skeletons, but great
300 skeletons stored in the Sarno Baths.
mounds of bones all
jumbled together.
Estelle Lazer- making deductions
• Estelle Lazer, an Australian archaeologist and physical
anthropologist, is a leading physical anthropologist studying the
human remains from Pompeii.
• The bones of over 300 victims were put in the Sarno baths.
• Estelle Lazer has applied techniques of forensic medicine and
anthropology in examining the 300 skeletons from the Sarno Baths
in order to determine sex, age, height, signs of illnesses and
possible social classes.
• (Skeletal remains from Ancient Rome are rare because the Romans
cremated their dead, so the skeletons of Pompeii and Herculaneum
are a major source of information about health in Ancient Rome.)
What the skeletons revealed
From her study of these bones, Lazer has
challenged the conventional interpretation that
the people who were left behind to die in
Pompeii were the very old, the very young,
women and those too sick or weak to escape.
She believes that the victims were a good
representative sample of the population, a
balance of male and female, young and old.
There may have been more children among the
victims than the skeletons suggest, because not
all children's bones would have been recovered.
Health
•
The bones show that the people of Pompeii were well-nourished and
healthy and similar in size to the people who live in Naples today.
•
Many of the skulls examined by Lazer have teeth which show considerable
wear compared to teeth today. Some are worn down to the gumline,
exposing the nerve. The wearing down of teeth was probably caused by
traces of grit and stone in the bread which came from the millstones used to
grind the wheat into flour. Some teeth have cavities and others have a
heavy build-up of plaque which would have caused bad breath. There are
signs of gum disease and abscesses related to decayed teeth. There is no
sign of dental intervention such as extractions, fillings, crowns or false
teeth.
•
About 10 per cent of the skeletons show signs of arthritis, some having a
form of arthritis usually associated with old age. About 11 per cent of the
female skeletons reveal symptoms of a minor hormonal disorder called
hyperostosis frontalis interna, a condition which occurs today most
commonly in postmenopausal women. These and other signs suggest
that the people of Pompeii lived well into their fifties and sixties
Causes of death
The casts and skeletons suggest three causes of
death:
• asphyxiation, which killed victims through
suffocating dust and fumes.
• concussion from projectiles or falling masonry or
timbers, evident in breaks and fractures in the
bones of a small number of victims.
• thermal shock, which is evident in the posture of
many of the plaster casts with their clenched
fists and extended spines (pugilistic pose)
The casts (and
skeletons) indicate
that thermal shock
was a major cause of
death i.e. high
temperatures.
Herculaneum
skeletal remains
Herculaneum was buried
under 23 metres of an
unsorted mixture of rock
fragments and finegrained tephra that
became a hard rock after
deposition. These
deposits of pyroclastic
flows have made
excavation very difficult.
Within the 8 square blocks of Herculaneum that have been
excavated it first appeared that most of the residents had escaped
but new excavations near the shoreline have have found
boatsheds - arched chambers - and within these chambers 296
have been found
The boathouses in which skeletal remains
were found
• The skeletons of the
victims of Herculaneum
have been preserved
because of the volcanic
mud coating which kept
them airtight. Two
hundred and ninety six
skeletons have been
unearthed, most found in
the boat chambers at the
beachfront. The principal
physical anthropologist
examining these
skeletons was Dr Sara
Bisel.
The Herculaneum
skeletons were preserved
in the volcanic mud as it
solidified.
Care in
excavation
Science assists in
preservation
A number of the skeletons show
evidence of burning with
blackened edges where
fractures occurred, cracking of
teeth.
Other skeletons show no signs
of this burning.
These skeletons are in much better shape
than those of Pompeii because they have
been more carefully excavated and stored.
The skeletal evidence indicates that the
people died instantaneously from the high
temperature of a surge – the first surge
which had a temperature of about 500
degrees Celsius.
These people probably died from
sudden exposure to extreme heat (not
from asphyxiation) so they have been
caught in the moment and show no
signs of spasms or suffering.
Making
deductions –
using the source:
two females
Young woman holding baby of
the wealthy class?
1. Was she the mother? Nono skeletal indications of
pregnancy experience.
2. Was she the sister? The
baby wore jewellery and so
was wealthy. The young
woman did not and her
bones and teeth indicated a
life of relative hardship.
3. Bisel concluded she was a
slave girl.
Woman on the beach
1. She was carrying a lamp indicating that the day had turned dark because
of the volcanoe.
2. She wore an expensive armband indicating she was from the wealthy class
3. She had been hurled off the terrace by the surge but was already dead
before she hit the beach. Bisel concluded this because of the twisted
skeletal remains.
REPORT IN ARCHAEOLOGY
New Finds at Herculaneum February 2, 2000 ( article by Kristin M. Romey )
• Forty-eight additional victims of the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in A.D. 79
have recently been found and, according to anthropologists at Naples
University, they didn't die the way that we think they did.
• Scholars have generally assumed that the people who sought refuge from
the eruption on the beach of Herculaneum suffocated on the enormous
amounts of ash generated by the volcano. By studying the bone fragments
and the positions of the remains of the new 48 victims from the beach site,
the anthropologists argue that they have established "beyond a doubt" that
they died in a fraction of a second after being exposed to blast of 750degree Fahrenheit heat.
• Like other victims of Mt. Vesuvius that have been recovered from
Herculaneum and Pompeii, the remains of the 48 consist of moulds created
when ash and boiling mud covered the bodies and subsequently hardened.
Casts of the victims are created by injecting silicone rubber into the moulds.
• The position of the remains indicates that adults were attempting to shield
children at the time of death. Thirty-one of the moulds were complete. A
bracelet in the shape of a snake, money, and metal fittings from shoes were
also recovered.
Herculaneum Meltdown Vesuvius' eruption didn't so much smother people as vaporize them, says new
research By Neil Sherman
THURSDAY, April 12) -- It wasn't suffocation, but the heat of the 750°F ash from the eruption of Mt. Vesuvius that killed so many
people when it erupted in 79 A.D., says a new study.
And this theory may go a long way toward explaining why the inhabitants of Herculaneum and Pompeii died instantly, frozen in
postures that indicate they weren't in agony or trying to defend themselves. They died so fast, in fact, that their vital organs
stopped before they could react to the crisis, says the report in the April issue of Nature
By studying bone breaks and the positions of the remains of 80 people who hid -- and died -- in boat chambers along the
Herculaneum beach, a team of researchers shows that they were washed by a nearly 40 mph superhot surge of ash. They
died instantly of thermal shock -- their flesh and internal organs vaporized before they had time to react.
Herculaneum is southwest of the volcano at the foot of Vesuvius; Pompeii is about an equal distance from the volcano, but lies
inland and southeast of it.
"This is the first time an interdisciplinary team including an anthropologist, an archaeologist, a vulcanologist and others have
worked together during an excavation on a very large group of victims of an eruption," says study author Giuseppe
Mastrolorenzo, a vulcanologist with the University of Naples' Federico II Vesuvius Observatory in Naples, Italy. "Before our
paper, there were just some general reports on the descriptions of the effects of a volcanic eruption. Now, with this approach,
we have demonstrated that the victims of the 79 A.D. eruption died from extreme heat."
The residents of both communities fled the eruption; only 2,000 people died in Pompeii, from a population of 20,000. While
Herculaneum was also evacuated, archaeologists discovered 300 skeletons near the beach. The natural posture of the
skeletons was preserved.
These victims did not display "any voluntary self-protective reaction or agony contortions," Mastrolorenzo says, "indicating that the
activity of their vital organs must have stopped within a shorter time than the conscious reaction time, a state known as
fulminant shock." Some of the skeletons reveal the telltale signs of incineration, he adds.
Blame pyroclastic flows and surges for their incineration, says Stephen Nelson, a professor of geology at Tulane University in New
Orleans. "These surges travel close to the ground and are made up of a mixture of hot gases like water vapor, carbon dioxide
and a little bit of sulfur as well as fine-grained volcanic ash. The temperature inside these flows ranges from 1,200°F to no
cooler than 500°F and travel at velocities of 40 miles an hour. They engulf people very rapidly."
Below: the skeletons as found
in the boathouses at
Herculaneum
ETHICAL ISSUE-HUMAN
REMAINS
• Types of remains - casts and skeletons
• Study of remains – reason for value, study
of casts, study of skeletons, Estelle Lazer,
Sara Bisel, current Italian work.
• Display of remains – Italian perspective,
tourism, twentieth century perspective,
current actions
Ethical issues; study and display of
human remains
• Study of human remains
– Why is this more significant to archaeological
anthropologists? Cremation factor
– No cultural aversion to study of remains
– State of remains as a result of earlier archaeological
methods (discarding skeletons, Sarno baths;
neglecting skeletons Herculaneum)
– Academic interest / causes of death, state of health in
Ancient Roman/Italian town
– Work of Estelle Lazer and Sara Bisel / health and
social class information.
– Work of Italian anthropologists on Herculaneum
skeletons – reveal cause of death.
Ethical issues -display
• Display of human remains: Italian perspective
– Italian attitude differs from contemporary world
attitude; the display of the dead does not have the
cultural sensitivity and significance found in other
cultures.
– Reason for display – attract tourist, sensationalise
sites
– Based on the concept of human remains of the
ancient past as objects (casts not seen as human).
– Italian tradition can be respectful e.g. display of
Monks in Rome in an ossuary; accepted as
respectful.
Negative perspective
– Reason for negative reactions - respect for
human remains, recognition of remains as
people not exhibits, sensitivity
– Issue of the casts; are casts remains? Are
modern moulds of skeletons classed as
remains?
– Herculaneum special problems associated
with leaving skeletons on display in boat
houses (see Sarah court comment).
Display – current actions
• International Code of Ethics for Museums 2004: does not ban
displays but encourages display that is consistent with professional
standards and takes into account the cultural beliefs of the
community from which the remains originated.
• Change in how remains are displayed; At Pompeii, skeletons and
casts have been displayed both in houses in which they were found,
in site buildings and in museums. There are two figures in the
Macellum, and six in the storage building of the forum. Sometimes
the remains have been presented in tableaux for the titillation of
important visitors to the site. Change: Casts are still displayed in
glass cabinets in a number of houses and public buildings on the
site but there is a gradual change to protect remains, reduce
insensitivity. In the garden of fugitives 13 casts have been encased
in a glass barrier to keep visitors at bay.
• The finds at Herculaneum have been treated differently. The original
skeletons have not been displayed but casts have been made to
replicate them, so that the actual remains can be protected.
Boatsheds now not accessible by tourists.