
What really happened at Herculaneum? - Thevet
https://www.sapiens.org/archaeology/herculaneum-vesuvius/
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DayDollar
My own little pet theory is, that the idea of the pryoclastic stream coming
down from the volcano is wrong. Its the only one we know so far. But if you
look at the volcanic activity in the area - you will note that the ground of
the ocean floor also rises and falls.

A sort of massive steam release from the ocean - could cook people relatively
fast- and when the pyroclastic stream from the volcano arrived, leave the
bodies sort of "Pre-cremated".

Of course this theory has its own faults. One beeing that such a steam release
usually co-exists with a massive explosion
([https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Krakatoa](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Krakatoa))..
There are no traces of a steam explosion..

~~~
LyndsySimon
I’ve not studied it in detail, but from the images I’ve seen of the human
remains of Herculaneum and Pompeii, I got the impression that those people
died a relatively quick death - some painless, some not so much, but
relatively quickly.

Given the landscape, my hunch is that a heavier-than-air gas - like carbon
monoxide - probably inundated at least some areas, and the people there died
of asphyxiation. I hesitate to say they “suffocated” because that implies (to
me at least) that they felt as if they were suffocating. Instead, it looks to
me like many of them just kinda laid down and went to sleep. That would be
consistent with how people die today in enclosed spaces, like chemical tanks,
when the oxygen in the air is driven out by a heavier gas. Without the buildup
of carbon dioxide in the air there is no indication to the person that
anything is wrong until they fall over from lack of oxygen. In an enclosed
space that’s already filled with the gas before entry, that happens
unexpectedly and immediately. In a space where the oxygen in the air is
replaced gradually - or if not gradually, at least while people are present -
I would expect people to experience drowsiness, lethargy, and perhaps
euphoria.

There are examples of entire families perishing there, and they don’t seem to
be in tortuous poses. I expect that they saw that the people around them were
dying. They didn’t understand why exactly but likely attributed it to the
gods. They felt tired, knew what was coming, and chose to lay down and accept
it with their loved ones. Adults likely did so with the full expectation that
they would die, in order to comfort their children and loved ones.

There are other examples where it’s obvious that the people involved were
desperately trying to crawl away from something. Examples where their mouths
were open, obviously struggling for one more breath. Those I expect died
through asphyxiation by ash, or even by smoke inhalation caused by secondary
fires set by the eruption.

In short, my intuition says that there were likely three major causes of death
from the eruption: “gentle” asphyxiation through the replacement of
atmospheric oxygen, “harsh” asphyxiation through the inhalation of smoke or
ash, and direct inundation with pyroclastic flow.

Again, I’m just a lay person here, and haven’t even spent a great deal of time
studying the topic. It just seems simplistic to me when I read articles that
seem to treat everyone in Pompeii and Herculaneum as having died through a
single mechanism.

