HERCULANEUM, Italy
They are poignant snapshots of sudden death: Huddled clusters of
skeletal remains in what were once beachfront warehouses, preserved when
Mount Vesuvius smothered this ancient Roman town in A.D. 79.
”They died of thermal shock as they were waiting to be saved via the
sea,” Domenico Camardo, an archaeologist, said recently as he surveyed
dozens of modern-day skeletal casts of long-ago denizens.
They carried with them jewellery, coins, even “20 keys, because they were hoping to return home,” Camardo added. “They didn’t understand that it was all about to end.”
They carried with them jewellery, coins, even “20 keys, because they were hoping to return home,” Camardo added. “They didn’t understand that it was all about to end.”
First excavated by archaeologists some 30 years ago, the warehouses
were recently outfitted with walkways and gates to provide access to
these chilling tableaus and will soon be open to the public on special
occasions.
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