This skeleton of a roman man, who was crushed by a flying stone slab during the eruption of Mount Vesuvius nearly 2000 years ago, was discovered in May of 2018.
The man was believed to be a resident of Pompeii, which was quite literally frozen in time when it was buried under 19.7ft (6m) of volcanic ash – the result of the mount going super saiyan and unleashing high speed pyroclastic flows of hot gas and volcanic matter.
The vicious mountain assault did not begin until the second day of the eruption, giving the majority of residents ample time to evacuate with as many valuables as they could carry. Which would explain why only 1150 of an estimated 30,000 inhabitant’s bodies have been found on site.
The 300kg stone that sits upon this man’s upper chest and head is believed to be part of a stone doorway, that was launched into the air by the force of the fast moving current of volcanic ash and super heated gases as it raced down the mountainside.
If this is how he died, I would consider this man one of the lucky ones, as the remaining residents were killed by the immense heat of the eruption. They were quite literally cooked where they stood and then buried in the ash for almost 2 millenia.
Archeologists discovered that the decaying bodies had left voids in the ash, and used them as moulds to make plaster casts of the final gruesome moments of these ghosts of Pompeii.
You can see these and more by visiting the UNESCO world heritage site set up to protect this area, just outside of Naples, Italy.