One of the year’s discoveries rewrites the history of the Pompeian victims in an archaeological sense. The latest DNA analysis of recovered remains corrects years of misinformation about who is who in many of the most “famous” deaths. Now that we know that the woman with the child in her arms is neither the woman nor her child, it is useful to remember the story of the most “unfortunate” victim of the incident. We’re talking about the guy who almost managed to escape but got blocked on the head, or wasn’t that the case?

Discovery. In 2018, archaeologists in Pompeii discovered and spread news that spread like wildfire. Error: One of those images that is worth more than a thousand words. It concerns the apparent death of one of the Pompeii victims, the remains of a man trapped under a block of stone while trying to escape the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in AD 79.

The news went viral for obvious reasons. Almost 2,000 years after his death, researchers discovered the skeleton with its head trapped beneath a rock, likely thrown up by an explosive volcanic cloud. The gap created by that mass of stone, which detected the head under the impact, was enormous.

Detail. Investigators later said the man, who was at least 30 years old, managed to survive the initial phase of the explosion and escape through an alley despite a bone infection in his leg that likely made it difficult for him to escape. However, before he could declare victory, he was struck by a huge block of stone, likely thrown by the force of the pyroclastic flow, a deadly mixture of gas and lava fragments.

This victim, who appeared to have been rescued in an alley, quickly became known as “the unluckiest man in Pompeii”. Massimo Osanna, director of the Pompeii Archaeological Park, emphasized that the discovery shows advances in the field of archaeology.

However, the story would bring us one last surprise.

Bad luck. Later research revealed that his skull and torso were in fact intact beneath the rock, disproving the entire initial theory. Yes, as it turns out, the next team of archaeologists who analyzed the scene discovered that a small tunnel dating back to the Bourbon period had been found just below the body.

This tunnel had collapsed, causing the ground to shift and creating an “optical” illusion of rock falling on top of it. Thus, archaeologists concluded that the “unluckiest” man in Pompeii, like thousands of others in Pompeii, died of asphyxiation caused by pyroclastic flow.

In other words. The man ran away and reached the alley where the tunnel collapsed. Here, we assume he died from asphyxiation, but the theory is that the rock immediately followed the collapse, though it wasn’t what killed him, perhaps immobilizing him further to escape.

Even so, although his death was not as “violent” as first thought, his “unfortunate” name will remain forever and his fate, as originally thought, remains a reflection of the tragic devastation of that historical event. .

Image | Pompeii Archaeological Park

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