Human corpses as time capsules: new perspectives in the study of past mass disasters

Looking at the corpses of past natural catastrophes can change completely the conception of how to study human bone remains. The recovery of the Herculaneum victims of the 79 AD Vesuvius eruption was an opportunity for me to adopt a new approach in the study of human skeletons and their context of discovery. During two years of field work, my first aim was to investigate the effects of pyroclastic surges on people and things. The conservation of skeletons and their replacement by fiberglass casts were also provided. This "field laboratory" has developed into a palaeoforensic investigation of the mass disaster caused by the 79 AD natural event. Field and laboratory research, later extended to Pompeii plaster-cast corpses, were also carried out on the victims' remains, footprints, huts and objects found in the sites buried by the prehistoric "Avellino pumices" eruption (3780 ± 100 BP). The new results obtained from the study of the causes of death of people hit by pyroclastic surges produced by past Vesuvius eruptions have proved essential in hazard evaluation in the Neapolitan district and other volcanic areas.