Five years ago, Italian researchers published a study on the eruption of Jabal Fisovius in the year 79 AD. This may be explained in detail how a victim of the explosion, a man who is supposed to be in his mid -twenties, was found nearly a place in the coastal settlement of the heracolanium. He was lying in the face and buried ashes on a wooden bed at Augustalis College, a public building dedicated to the worship of Emperor August. Some scholars believe that the man is the Chargé d’Affaires and was asleep at the time of the disaster.
In 2018, one of the researchers discovered shiny shiny shirts included in the skull of the Chargé d’Affairs of the Chargé d’Affairs. The paper, published in 2020, speculated that the explosion heat was so huge that it merged the victim’s brain tissue into glass.
The forensic analysis of alphabet -similar chips revealed proteins common in brain tissue and fatty acids found in human hair, while part of the charred wood that was discovered near the skeleton indicated a thermal reading of up to 968 degrees Fahrenheit, almost the temperature of the Napolitan wooden dome. The only known case of soft tissues – much lower than any organic substance – was naturally preserved as glass.
On Thursday, a paper published in Nature is achieved that the fragments are already a glass brain. Using techniques such as electronic microscope, spectrum analysis of the dispersed X -ray of energy and differential scanning calibers, scientists examined the physical properties of samples taken from glass fragments and showed how they were formed and preserved. “The unique result means unique operations,” said Guido Giordano, volcanic doctor at Roma University and the new study author.
Above all between these processes is the evaluation, through which the materials are burned in a high fire until they are flowing. To harden in the glass, the material requires a rapid cooling, and hardening at a temperature higher than its surroundings. This makes this make the formation of organic glass a challenge, as it requires very specific conditions at a temperature and the liquid shape must be cooled quickly enough to avoid crystallization while it is.
Dr. Giordano and his colleagues concluded shortly after Vesuvius started to collect debris, a poisonous cloud of ash and white light, flashed across Hercules, killing its residents immediately. Claudio Skarbati, a volcanic specialist at Napoli Federico Second University, suggested that the alleged resolution intensity stream was the third 17 -year -old who started from Vizovius.
Pulses of cold volcanic debris, followed by the area. “The inhabitants of Hercules have already died by the time they were buried.”
Although a short -lived ash cloud left only inch or two debris and a little structural damage, it is said to heat the temporary acting brain to much higher than 950 degrees, glass transition temperature; This breaks the soft tissues into smaller pieces without destroying them. Dr. Gyrordano said that the bones of a man’s skull and spine may have given some protection to the brain.
As the ash cloud is wasting, temperatures quickly returned to normal. In the open air, at 950 degrees, the brain of its actions is fossilized into glass. Dr. Giordano said that the parts of the body that contain some can overcome the liquid can shine, and for this reason the temporary bones remained intact.
The 2020 study was met with some doubts by other scientists, to a large extent that raw data was not available. Perhaps Tim Thompson, a scientist of forensic medicine at the University of Mainooth in Ireland, was the most vocal doubt. This time, the results were raised. “I enjoy a lot of seeing new scientific methods that apply to the archaeological context,” he said.
But Dr. Thompson wants to see more evidence and more original data: “It is possible that heating and cooling inside Hercules after the explosions are complicated, and the investigation results certainly support their conclusions. It depends only on whether the material is the brain.”
