Their deaths are horrifying to consider, but were mercifully quick as the extreme temperature of the air blast killed them instantaneously. Regardless of the shelter they occupied as they waited for rescue, the intensity of the heat cooked them as soon as it reached them, causing the brain to boil and burst out of the skull, as well as damaging bones and destroying teeth. Their flesh was vaporized and the skeletal remains preserved under a layer of volcanic ash. According to Dr. Pier Paolo Petrone of the University of Naples Federico II:
“The residents in this seaside town, which was just six kilometers from Vesuvius, were not suffocated by the ash. The reality was they were killed in less than a fraction of a second by searing heat, before they even had time to display a defensive reaction. Their hands and feet underwent thermally induced contraction in about one second, and the positions of their bodies were fixed by the sudden deflation of the ash bed occurring over the next few seconds. As the scorching heat fell, water from the corpses caused the ash deposit to cool and harden. Centuries later, we found these skeletons, cleaned to the bone, perfectly preserved and in a three-dimensional frozen pose.”
Now, one man who perished in that ancient disaster is getting some new attention as part of a joint project between scientists in Italy and Brazil who have worked to recreate his face based on his skull. His face was officially revealed in Priverno, Italy as part of an initiative by the Association for Research and Education in Art, Archaeology, and Architecture (AREA3) and shows an olive skinned man with a full head of curly black hair.
Leading the initiative is Gianfranco Quaranta, who explained the idea behind the project:
“This is the beginning of what we’re hopping will be an on-going project to reveal the faces of the ancient Roman inhabitants of Herculaneum and Pompeii. This summer we’re running fieldwork courses, here in Italy, for students from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in America who will learn how to use data collected with a 3D camera and a 3D scanner to reconstruct the face of a person. For many, it will be the first time they have used anything like this in the field of cultural heritage. By revealing a snapshot of life at the moment it expires, we can learn more about the people who died.”
“I faced a few challenges because the skull had no teeth. So, I used the dentures of a compatible virtual donor placing it on the cranium to get an idea of their positioning and the region for the lips. I consulted a study that measures the thickness of the skin of hundreds of present day Europeans and placed the corresponding markers for a man of his age. It is a complicated process, but rewarding when you see the final face appear.”
Would this fifty-year-old victim of Vesuvius recognize himself in the facial reconstruction? It’s impossible to know, but what is for certain is that it gives the skull a firmer place in our understanding that these were people who lived, and died, as part of the unfolding of human history. Thanks to 3D technologies, we are able to learn and understand more about those in Herculaneum and Pompeii when Vesuvius erupted. Discuss in the Mount Vesuvius forum at 3DPB.com.
[Source: Daily Mail / Images: Cicero Moraes/Caters News via Daily Mail]