In waterfront chambers along the Gulf of Naples, hundreds of victims were buried and killed by an initial surge of fine ash, Petrone said. ADIn October 2018, during one of Petrone’s frequent trips to the Herculaneum ruins to study the college and preserve the man’s bones, the victim’s skull grabbed his attention. The fragments also contained proteins that are common in brain tissue, they wrote, and, crucially, those proteins were found only near his skull. ADADSolid black shards encrusted on the man’s skull contained proteins common in brain tissue, researchers found, and had undergone vitrification and transformed into glass. Archaeologists rarely encounter preserved brain tissue, Petrone said, and when they do, the brain matter is only preserved as a soaplike substance.

Source: Washington Post January 23, 2020 12:25 UTC