Laboratory of Human Osteobiology and Forensic Anthropology, Department of Advanced Biomedical Sciences, Azienda Ospedaliera Universitaria "Federico II" 5, Naples, Italy.
Department of Chemical Sciences, University of Naples "Federico II", Complesso Monte Sant'Angelo, Naples, Italy.
PLoS One. 2018 Sep 26;13(9):e0203210. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0203210. eCollection 2018.
In AD 79 the town of Herculaneum was suddenly hit and overwhelmed by volcanic ash-avalanches that killed all its remaining residents, as also occurred in Pompeii and other settlements as far as 20 kilometers from Vesuvius. New investigations on the victims' skeletons unearthed from the ash deposit filling 12 waterfront chambers have now revealed widespread preservation of atypical red and black mineral residues encrusting the bones, which also impregnate the ash filling the intracranial cavity and the ash-bed encasing the skeletons. Here we show the unique detection of large amounts of iron and iron oxides from such residues, as revealed by inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry and Raman microspectroscopy, thought to be the final products of heme iron upon thermal decomposition. The extraordinarily rare preservation of significant putative evidence of hemoprotein thermal degradation from the eruption victims strongly suggests the rapid vaporization of body fluids and soft tissues of people at death due to exposure to extreme heat.
公元 79 年，赫库兰尼姆镇突然被火山灰雪崩袭击并淹没，所有剩余的居民都因此遇难，这同样也发生在庞贝和维苏威火山 20 公里以外的其他定居点。对从填充 12 个海滨房间的火山灰沉积物中挖掘出的受害者骨骼的新调查，现在揭示了广泛存在的非典型红色和黑色矿物质残留在骨骼上，这些残留物也浸渍了填充颅腔的火山灰和包裹骨骼的火山灰床。在这里，我们通过电感耦合等离子体质谱和拉曼微光谱显示了这些残留物中大量铁和氧化铁的独特检测，据认为这是血红素铁在热分解后的最终产物。从喷发受害者身上发现的血红素蛋白热降解的这种非常罕见的、有意义的假定证据的保存，强烈表明由于暴露在极端高温下，人体体液和软组织在死亡时迅速蒸发。
