Based on Petrone et al., normally such mind matter could be “saponified” by the acute warmth—that’s, turned to cleaning soap (glycerol and fatty acids). However this explicit sufferer’s mind matter had been vitrified, i.e., fused into glass. Petrone et al. estimated that temperatures may have been as excessive as 520° Celsius (984° Fahrenheit) primarily based on proof gleaned from charred wooden on the website.
V is for vitrification
Pier Paolo Petrone
A fraction of the natural glass discovered contained in the cranium of the deceased particular person in Herculaneum.
Pier Paolo Petrone
Guido Giordano et al./Scientific Experiences, 2025
A pattern of the natural glass beneath direct mild.
Guido Giordano et al./Scientific Experiences, 2025
Pier Paolo Patrone
Utilizing scanning electron microscopy (SEM), forensic archaeologists discovered proof of human neurons in 2020.
Pier Paolo Patrone
A pattern of the natural glass beneath direct mild.
Guido Giordano et al./Scientific Experiences, 2025
Utilizing scanning electron microscopy (SEM), forensic archaeologists discovered proof of human neurons in 2020.
Pier Paolo Patrone
Later that same year, Petrone struck once more, claiming the invention of preserved human neurons within the sufferer with the “glassified” mind. He regarded on the genetic expression of beforehand recognized proteins and in addition included the outcomes of utilizing scanning electron microscopy (SEM) to picture vitrified mind and spinal twine stays. They discovered that the pictures revealed distinctive options typical of the human central nervous system, together with proof for neurons and white matter axons.
Mind tissue does generally protect; there are round 1,300 samples worldwide courting again to the mid-Sixteenth and mid-Seventeenth centuries. However the Vesuvian preserved mind studied by Petrone et al. is each very outdated (though not the oldest) and strange when it comes to the speculation proposed in regards to the exact mechanism by which it was preserved. One other 2020 paper documented the preservation of neurocytoarchitecture in a 2,600-year-old Iron Age human cranium excavated in Heslington, York, albeit through a special mechanism than the vitrification claimed by Petrone et al.
So this declare was met with some skepticism by others within the archaeological group, significantly for the reason that uncooked information was not accessible. An alternate idea is that the victims at Herculaneum could have been basically “baked” by lower-intensity warmth, like roasting a joint within the oven.
Pier Paolo Petrone
The archaeological website of Herculaneum, with Mount Vesuvius seen within the background.
Pier Paolo Petrone
Guido Giordano et al./Scientific Experiences, 2025
Annotated picture of the stays of the deceased particular person in situ of their mattress within the Collegium Augustalium.
Guido Giordano et al./Scientific Experiences, 2025
Guido Giordano et al./Scientific Experiences, 2025
FE-SEM photos of mind samples proven at completely different magnifications.
Guido Giordano et al./Scientific Experiences, 2025
Annotated picture of the stays of the deceased particular person in situ of their mattress within the Collegium Augustalium.
Guido Giordano et al./Scientific Experiences, 2025
FE-SEM photos of mind samples proven at completely different magnifications.
Guido Giordano et al./Scientific Experiences, 2025
Now Petrone, Guido Giordano of the College of Roma Tre, and a number of other different colleagues are again with a contemporary evaluation utilizing numerous methods to analyze the particular properties of samples taken from the glass-like materials: area emission scanning electron microscopy, 3D scanning tomography, Raman spectroscopy, power dispersive X-ray spectroscopy, and differential scanning calorimetry.