More on the Herculaneum skeleton

VESVUIUS WATCH: The Daily Mail has an article on that skeleton found at Herculaneum, the one which could be of a Roman officer from Pliny's Vesuvius rescue mission. The Mail has decent coverage of the story and good new photos. It also touchs on some other Vesuvius-related matters.

Skeleton found in ruins of Herculaneum is identified as Roman officer who was killed while helping to rescue others during the Mount Vesuvius eruption 2,000 years ago (Stacy Liberatore)

Also, Mary Beard has a blog post that registers a healthy note of skepticism. Part of the post is behind the TLS subscription wall, but you can see some of it for free. (HT Rogue Classicism).

Putting a name on a Roman skeleton

You know what I am about to say. There is no reason whatsoever to tie in this skeleton with the report about Pliny. We could not prove that it wasn’t connected. But the number of middle-ranking military types in the disaster zone must have been large, and he could have been any one of them.

Background here.

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