Victim of the eruption

Pompeii, Italy with Mt. Vesuvius in the background. Pompeii was founded sometime between the 8th–6th centuries BC. After numerous conquests, it eventually became a Roman town. It was destroyed in, 79 AD when Mt. Vesuvius erupted. Most people are believed to have died by the searing heat (250 degrees C). Afterwards, the town was covered in layers of ash, which preserved the ruins. The eruption was documented by Pliny the Younger who watched it from across the Bay of Naples.

The town was eventually forgotten about and it was not until 1599 that it was rediscovered during an project to divert the Sarno River. It was then forgotten about until 1748. Major excavations continued for years thereafter.

In the mid 19th Century, Giuseppe Fiorelli led the architctural recovery. He determined that spaces in the ash layer containing human remains had been left by the decomposed bodies. He injected plaster into the spaces to recreate the forms of Vesuvius's victims.

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