Researchers has found intact brain cells of a young man who died almost 2,000 years ago during the eruption of Mount Vesuvius.
The man is believed to be about 20 years old when he was killed in the volcanic eruption in AD 79. His body was found in the 1960s in Herculaneum lying face-down on a wooden bed, buried in volcanic ash with his skull cracked and charred. Wood found near the body allowed researchers to estimate that the site reached temperatures higher than 900 degrees, hot enough to ignite body fat and vaporize soft tissues.
The heat of the eruption turned the man’s brain into black glass. The extremely high temperatures from the volcano liquefied the victim’s brain, which quickly cooled into shards of glass through a process called vitrification. As the team continued to examine the brain using an electron microscope, they found intact brain cells. Researchers said the study found that the process of vitrification had “frozen” the man’s central nervous system and preserved it.
“The discovery of brain tissue in ancient human remains is an unusual event. But what is extremely rare is the integral preservation of neuronal structures of a 2,000-years-ago central nervous system, in our case at an unprecedented resolution.”
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