Outside Pompeii's Porta Stabia gate, an older man lay curled on his side beside a broken terracotta mortar, with an oil lamp, an iron ring and 10 bronze coins. The team suggests the bowl was his overhead shield — it fractured. A body 1.5 m away lay higher in the ash ✨
Two men died outside Pompeii's Porta Stabia gate during the 79 CE eruption
ItalyExcavationNew Research
Site mentioned
Key facts
- Outside Pompeii's Porta Stabia Gate, archaeologists found an older man curled on his side, right arm raised beside a broken terracotta mortar, with an oil lamp near his left hand, an iron ring on his body and 10 bronze coins near his pelvis.
- The excavation team proposes in its report that the man held the grinding bowl over his head as a shield and carried the lamp for visibility in poor conditions.
- Pumice fell on Pompeii for hours during the eruption of 79 CE, and the man was found within the pumice close to the top of the deposit, placing his death near the end of the falling-pumice phase, in the early morning of the eruption's second day.
- His bowl was fractured, indicating it failed to protect him.
- A second body lay about 1.5 metres (5 feet) away, from an individual aged 18 to 20, with iron hobnails around the feet indicating studded footwear.
- The younger man's remains lay higher in the ash above the pumice, showing he survived the phase that killed the man with the bowl.
- The report suggests he sheltered in a building that resisted collapse under pumice weight, then tried to escape during a lull, possibly driven out by earthquakes and further building collapses.
- A pyroclastic current swept the area, and a thin layer beneath the younger man indicated he died as the current first arrived.
Sources
Archaeologists at Pompeii use AI to reveal the face of a ...cbsnews.com
Archaeologists found the victim holding a terracotta mortar, which they interpret as an improvised attempt to shield his head.
The Porta Stabia neighborhood at Pompeii. Volume Ibmcr.brynmawr.edu
Spreading over an area of 4,500 m2 adjacent to the entertainment district, the two city blocks are among the smallest and are notable for lacking atrium house ...
(PDF) The Porta Stabia Neighborhood at Pompeii. Volume Iacademia.edu
This volume brings together the results from the University of Cincinnati's archaeological excavations of the Porta Stabia neighborhood at Pompeii.
Pompeii Excavations: PARP:PS - UC Classicsclassics.uc.edu
Abstract: This volume brings together the results from the University of Cincinnati's archaeological excavations of the Porta Stabia neighborhood at Pompeii.
Pompeii: remains of two men found in the Porta Stabia ...initaly.it
A terracotta mortar found beside one skeleton, showing clear fractures and likely used to shield the head from falling debris. A ceramic oil lamp, useful ...
Was this story useful?
Keep exploring
Every site on this page sits on the globe, and the people who research them are on the Discord.
3D Globe · Sites by country · Story Archive · Research Library · Weekly Journal · Search
AI-generated text · images from the original sources · always verify with the sources.