What happened that day during the eruption of Vesuvius in 79 A.D. inside the arcades of Herculaneum? Who were those bodies found huddled together, seeking safety from the catastrophic eruption? Did they not manage to escape when the eruption began?
For nearly two centuries, it was believed that Herculaneum had been evacuated in time, unlike Pompeii. It was thought that its streets, seemingly devoid of human remains, told the story of a successful escape by sea. But in reality, archaeological discoveries have revealed something else; they have shed light on what happened on that terrible day in 79 AD.
It was a day that began like any other, but was turned upside down by an unexpected event. Ash and lapilli suddenly began spewing from the crater of Vesuvius, and due to the direction of the winds, Pompeii was the first to be struck. But the eruption did not stop there; it continued the following day with the arrival of a powerful pyroclastic flow, which first engulfed Herculaneum, located closer to the crater of Vesuvius. And it was during this phase that many residents of Herculaneum perished in the eruption. Although they were not the first to be struck and the eruption had begun the previous day, unfortunately many of them were unable to escape!
It was right inside the arches of Herculaneum that the most shocking discovery was made in 1980. Over 300 people were crammed into the darkness, waiting for rescue ships that would never arrive! Yes, because those 300 people had taken refuge there, inside the boat shelters on the ancient beach of Herculaneum, waiting for rescue by sea, which never arrived in time.
Terror in the Arches of Herculaneum
For decades, we have read and heard about the instantaneous deaths of the people of Herculaneum, who were instantly vaporized by the extreme heat of the pyroclastic clouds. But the most recent data reveal a far more tragic and profound picture: an agonizing wait that lasted for hours.
In fact, before the volcano’s fury swept over the coast, those 300 people crammed into the arcades endured hours of sheer terror, in the dark, in the dampness of the shoreline, listening to the muffled rumble of the earth.
People clinging to one another in search of protection and comfort. Young mothers hunched over their children to shield them from the ash, using their own bodies as a shield. People wearing their most precious jewelry and carrying bags full of coins and house keys in their pockets. They didn’t just want to save themselves, they truly believed they could go back and reopen the door to their lives. A painful and unsettling image that bore witness to the harshest aspect of that terrible event.
Examination of the Bodies at Herculaneum
But that’s not all, because the most macabre discovery for many scholars came when they examined the skeletons.
The high temperatures caused the blood to boil, the skulls to vitrify, and the skulls to explode. Laboratory analyses revealed that the stains found on the skeletons were caused by blood that literally boiled and vaporized instantly inside the blood vessels.
But that’s not all: microfractures were found on most of the skulls examined in the caves, identical to those caused by a sudden and extremely sharp increase in internal pressure. The brain tissue and intracranial fluids instantly came to a boil, causing the skulls to explode before the bodies could even collapse.
But the most sensational discovery was the vitrification of the skull. The impact with the fiery cloud and the subsequent, extremely rapid cooling caused by the volcanic mud froze the organic matter through a process of vitrification. It is the only known case in the world in which a human brain has been transformed into actual black glass.
Herculaneum and Pompeii never cease to amaze us. Join one of our expert guides to discover the bodies preserved in the arches and the history of the ancient city of Herculaneum, book your guided tour today.
