Skeleton Found in Pompeii Belonged to Child Seeking Shelter from Deadly Volcanic Eruption

Ancient Origins

Among the ruins of the ancient city of Pompeii, archaeological excavations have revealed the skeleton of a child who died in a volcanic eruption. Mount Vesuvius erupted in 79 AD and destroyed the city of Pompeii, a busy port, along with neighbouring Herculaneum. For many centuries the city lay under the earth, forgotten, near the bustling city of Naples. However, since the eighteenth century it has been extensively excavated and is now a massive archaeological site. Skeletons have been preserved in the ash and debris of Pompeii, and many have been recovered by archaeologists over the years. Pompeii's director Massimo Osanna announced the discovery of the child’s skeleton on the 25th of April.

The child skeleton was found in crouching position in the bath complex of the town. Image: Parco Archeologico de Pompeii

A Child in Hiding
The child is estimated to have been seven or eight years old and was discovered in a crouching position. The skeleton was found in the public thermal bath complex, which was one of the most important public buildings in Pompeii. It is speculated that the child died here while seeking shelter from the volcanic ash, gas, and pumice. The skeleton is relatively intact, and this would suggest that the child was killed by the flow of hot ash and gas that descended upon Pompeii. Those who did not flee the volcanic ash cloud would have perished.

It is estimated that some 10% of Pompeii’s population died, approximately 2000 men, women and children. The majority of them, like the child whose skeleton has been discovered, died either as a result of the pyroclastic flows or they were suffocated by poisonous ash. A pyroclastic flow is a current of hot gas and volcanic matter that is emitted by an erupting volcano and that moves at a great speed. They are often impossible to escape by foot.

The remans of the child were found in one of the baths of the bath complex. Image: Parco Archeologico de Pompeii

Analysis of the Scene
It appears that the pyroclastic flow that swept down from Vesuvius and descended upon Pompeii after the eruption is what has preserved the remains of the child. It is theorized that the flow of hot gas and ash flooded through the windows and doors into the bath complex. The ash and gas flow buried the child, and this solidified over the body when rain fell, encasing the young victim. The skeleton had been sealed in the bath by the pyroclastic flow, according to the American publication Archaeology. This allowed the skeleton to remain undisturbed for millennia.

Maintenance Work Prompted the Find
The find was made during a sweep of the bath complex by a team of archaeologists using the latest scanning equipment, a videoscope. The archaeologists surveyed the area with the equipment as efforts were being made to prevent the ruined walls of the thermal bath from falling. The new technology enabled the archaeological team to investigate areas of the sprawling site that had not been investigated in many decades. With the aid of the videoscope they were able to detect something unusual beneath the surface and this persuaded them to dig in the baths. The thermal baths of the ruined city had, it was believed, already been excavated and the discovery of the skeleton was a surprise to the archaeologists. According to Phys.org, there is speculation that the skeleton had been previously found in the nineteenth century. This was based on the fact that the leg bones appeared to have been placed next to the body, presumably by a person. However, for some reason they had not been removed or even recorded.

Pompeii Director, Massimo Osanna and a colleague inspect the find. Image: Parco Archeologico de Pompeii

A Rare Find for Pompeii
The skeleton was unearthed in February, but the discovery was not publicized at the time, which is standard practice with such finds. It is the first complete skeleton uncovered in two decades and the first child’s skeleton to be uncovered in fifty years. The remains of the child have been removed to a laboratory in Naples for further investigation. The skeleton will undergo a series of extensive tests by an interdisciplinary team of experts. It is hoped that the tests will allow the sex of the child to be established by analysis of its DNA. There will also be tests that seek to determine the age of the child and its general health. The fact that this is the first child to be discovered in fifty years means that experts can now learn more about the lives of the children of Pompeii. The team examining the remains are using the latest technology to discover as much as possible about the skeleton and also what it can tell about life in Pompeii before its fiery destruction.

 Top image: The child skeleton recently discovered at Pompeii. Source: Parco Archeologico de Pompeii

By Ed Whelan

2,000-Year-Old Public Laundry in Pompeii, Restored and Opened to the Public for the First Time

Ancient Origin

In Pompeii, the well-preserved Roman city inundated by hot volcanic gas and then covered with ash in 79 AD, experts have renovated and opened to public viewing several buildings, including a public laundry where people once washed their clothing in urine.
The buildings feature colored frescoes on the walls and mosaics on the floors featuring birds, flower vases and other scenes. Some of the buildings were damaged during World War II bombing.
The restoration of the six buildings cost about 105 million euros or about $115 million. The European Union had pledged millions to restore Pompeii, and the Italian government kicked in a lesser amount, but squabbling among bureaucrats and mismanagement meant that just a fraction had been spent by October 2015 with deadlines looming. Restorers began working around the clock to avoid losing the grants.
The United Nations had threatened to remove Pompeii from UNESCO's World Heritage Site status because of mismanagement. But that threat appears to have been rescinded as the Italian government, under archeologist Massimo Osanna, has turned the project around in two years.

Ancient Laundry Facility

The laundry facility, estimated to be about 2,000 years old, had large tubs or baths for cleaning clothes. It also had stone basins for dyeing and a press used to iron clothing. People collected the urine, used to wash tough stains from tunics, from public urinals. The Pompeiians dried their laundry on the roof of the facility by laying their clothes out in the sun.

Pompeii was a flourishing city entombed in volcanic ash. Many people are believed to have escaped the eruption of Mount Vesuvius, but some people and many buildings, including this grand theater, were preserved in ash. (Photo by Radomił/Wikimedia Commons)

Luxury Pompeiian Villas

Another building that opened on Christmas Day is the Casa del Criptoportico, a luxury villa with a garden that also was restored. The ancient home features four thermals baths covered in stucco and mosaics of Bushmen. The name Criptoportico comes from the long, covered corridor of the house. It has large windows to allow light into an adjacent sitting room, says an article in the Telegraph.
Four other homes were opened to the public on Christmas: la Casa di Paquius Proculus, la Casa del Sacerdos Amandus, la Casa di Fabius Amandio and la Casa dell’Efebo.

Pompeii, the City Frozen in Time

Pompeii, the city frozen in time by an eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 AD, had been placed under the protection of the Italian government from degradation by the elements and looters, including possibly the organized-crime group, the Camorra, which Ancient Origins reported earlier this year. Numerous restoration and construction projects are underway.
The restorations of the ancient city were being carried out with a 130 million euro ($143 million) budget that was also used to produce a museum exhibit of plaster casts of some of the bodies of people frozen in their last moments of life. Many artworks, statues, frescos and papyrus scrolls were preserved by the volcanic eruption that inundated the town, which had 2.7 million visitors in 2014.
Pompeii was a flourishing Roman city from the 6th century BC until it became preserved by the layers of ash that spewed out from the eruption of Mount Vesuvius. Although Pompeii was initially rediscovered at the end of the 16th century, it was only properly excavated in the 18th century.

One of the sexually explicit frescoes that shocked the re-discoverers of Pompeii in the latge 1500s (Photo by Fer.filo/Wikimedia Commons)

Excavators were startled by the sexually explicit frescoes they were unearthing, so they quickly covered them over.
When excavations resumed nearly two centuries later, archaeologists found the city almost entirely intact – loaves of bread still sat in the oven, bodies of men, women, children and pets were found frozen in their last moments, the expressions of surprise and fear still etched on their faces, and the remains of meals remained discarded on the pavement. The discovery meant that researchers could piece together exactly what life was like for the ancient Romans of Pompeii – the food they ate, the jobs they performed and the houses they lived in.
Featured image: The walls of the laundry and other buildings were damaged by World War II bombing. (Photo: D’Auria)
By Mark Miller

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882 Marinus I was elected Roman Catholic pope, replacing the murdered John VIII.

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431 Henry VI of England was crowned King of France at Notre Dame in Paris. Though young Henry had been proclaimed king at age ten months, it was not until he was ten years old that he was officially crowned at Notre Dame Cathedral.

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79 Mount Vesuvius ( a stratovolcano on the Bay of Naples, Italy) began to stir, on the feast day of Vulcan, the Roman god of fire.

93 Gnaeus Julius Agricola, Roman Governor of Britain died.

406 Battle at Florence: Stilicho's Roman army beat Radagaisus' Barbarians. Radagaisus King of the Goths (East Germanic tribe of Scandinavian origin) was captured and executed.

476 Germanic warrior Odoacer was elected King of Byzantium.

686 Charles Martel, grandfather of Charlemagne, was born.

1305 William Wallace, Scottish patriot, was executed for high treason by Edward I of England.

History Trivia - Englands Henry VI crowned King of France at Notre Dame in Paris

December 16

882 Marinus I was elected Roman Catholic pope, replacing the murdered John VIII.

955 Ottaviano (age 18), the only son of Duke Alberic II of Spoleto, who ruled Rome, became Pope John XII when his father ordered his election. John's pontificate lasted nine years.

1431 Henry VI of England was crowned King of France at Notre Dame in Paris. Though young Henry had been proclaimed king at age ten months, it was not until he was ten years old that he was officially crowned at Notre Dame Cathedral.

1485 Catherine of Aragon, Spanish princess and first wife of Henry VIII was born.

1631 Mount Vesuvius, Italy erupted, destroying 6 villages & killing 4,000.

1653 Parliamentarian general Oliver Cromwell became lord protector of England, Scotland and Ireland.