Scientists discovered vitrified fragments in human skulls caused by the heat of 520 degrees Celsius during a volcanic disaster in Europe in AD79.
When Mount Vesuvius erupted in AD79 (AD stands for Anno Domini, Latin for the year of our Lord, meaning the number of years since the birth of Jesus Christ), damage occurred in nearby towns. that is very dire. It looks like the extreme heat turned one victim’s brain to glass.
Experts say they have discovered fragments of a shiny, black material found inside a victim’s skull at Herculaneum that appear to be the remains of heat-modified human brain tissue.
Frozen brain fragment. (Photo: Doctor Pier Paolo Petrone/New England Journal of Medicine).
They say the finding is remarkable because brain tissue is rarely fully preserved due to decomposition and it often turns to soap where it is found.
“To date, vitrified brains have never been found,” said Professor Pier Paolo Petrone, a forensic anthropologist at the University of Naples Federico II and a co-author of the study.
Writing in the New England Journal of Medicine, Petrone and colleagues revealed that a glass brain belonging to a man about 25 years old was found in the 1960s lying face down on a wooden bed under volcanic ash. – a pose that suggests he was fast asleep when disaster struck the town.
Archaeological site of Herculaneum in Ercolano, near Naples. (Photo: AFP/Getty).
Petrone said that recently when he was focusing on studying human remains found at the university, he noticed black fragments in the skull of this person.
“I noticed something shining inside the head. This material was preserved in the victim’s skull, so it must be the rest of the brain,” he told the Guardian.
“The detection of vitreous material from the victim’s head, the proteins expressed in the human brain, and the fatty acids present in the human hair suggest thermal preservation of vitrified human brain tissue,” the team wrote.
Vesuvius is the only active volcano in continental Europe. (Image: Getty).
Analysis of burned wood at the site showed it experienced temperatures of up to 520 degrees Celsius during the disaster. This shows that extremely high radiant heat can burn body fat and vaporize soft tissues, after which the temperature drops rapidly.
Mr. Petrone said the findings highlight that the only way to survive an eruption like that of AD79 is to run away because even hiding in buildings, people will die instantly from the heat. High.
Plaster models of victims of the volcanic eruption of Vesuvius, which destroyed the Roman city of Pompeii in 1979. (Photo: Reuters).