(ANSA) - ROME, MAY 9 - A man in uniform, whom the volcano's
ferocity had thrown to the ground and killed in a few seconds,
his face thrust into the sand, his arms bent forward seeking
support. New excavations are set to begin at Herculaneum in the
next few weeks, and archaeologists have returned to the ancient
beach to complete searches which started 40 years ago, in the
early 80s, when the remains of 300 fugitives were found right in
this spot. The digs are aimed at conserving the ancient UNESCO
site but will also serve to bring to light in its entirety the
ancient path that led from the beach to the majestic Villa of
the Papyri.
Just recently site director Francesco Sirano conducted a dig
that sheds fresh light on the identity of one of the victims who
was discovered and catalogued in the first campaign. Initially
identified as a simple soldier, the director tells ANSA, this
man, with the preserved remains of part of his armour and the
tools he carried in a sort of knapsack, may have had a more
important role.
"He may be," Sirano explained, "an officer of the fleet that
took part in the rescue mission launched by Pliny the Elder to
help the people in the towns and villas nestled on this part of
the Bay of Naples". A navy soldier who came to rescue the
desperate people of Herculaneum, crammed in their hundreds for
hours on the beach and inside the 'fornixes' or storing
containers which were normally used for stowing nets and fishing
equipment. A man who didn't make it, he too was killed in a few
devastating instants by the pyroclastic surges that swept down
from Vesuvius and here engulfed houses, people and things at a
speed of 80-100 kilometres per hour, also pushing dozens and
dozens of bodies into the sea.
One of the peculiar aspects of the archaeological site of
Herculaneum is the fact that the conditions of the eruption, due
to a different interplay of volcanic flows from that in nearby
Pompeii, enabled the conservation of organic material, ranging
from furniture to fabrics. The skeleton that is the protagonist
of this story, classified with the number 26, was found with the
traces of armour and a shoulder bag, a sort of rectangular
knapsack, containing an assortment of small carpentry tools.
Around his waist he wore a leather belt richly decorated with
silver and gold plates, from which hung a sword, also decorated
and fitted with a precious ivory hilt. There was an equally
precious dagger on the other side of the body. And next to the
corpse a considerable haul of coins, 12 silver denarii and two
golden ones in all, a sum which at the time corresponded to the
monthly wages of a Pretorian Guard.
Bone analysis has revealed that he was a man aged between 40 and
45, used to physical activity and in good health. A soldier,
then, but from what corps? The notion that he was stationed at
Herculaneum has been ruled out, Sirano says, "because army
garrisons in the Vesuvian area are not reported". So only two
possibilities remain: that he was either a Pretorian or a member
of the rescue fleet. The presence of Pretorians in the first
century AD has been documented in the Bay of Naples and also in
Pompeii, the director adds, but always on special duties. There
are, however, two elements that appear to favour the second
hypothesis, that he was a fleet soldier, indeed an officer
tasked with the impossible mission of saving the people of
Herculaneum: on the one hand the richness of his panoply of
arms, very similar to those found in 1900 in a dig at Pompeii's
Bottaro area and worn by what seems to have been a high-ranking
officer or perhaps even the admiral of Pliny the Elder's fleet;
and on the other hand the work implements that were in the
knapsack that the Herculaneum man was carrying on his back and
would identify him as a 'faber navalis', a well-known figure on
Roman military ships, the engineers, the highly specialised
carpenters. And last but not least, Sirano says, there is the
hefty sum of money he had with him and the fact that the man's
remains were found a short distance from the remains of a
military vessel.
Pending the completion of the new restoration work on the
weapons of the Herculaneum soldier, all hypotheses remain open.
But the novelties that have emerged from the dig, Sirano
underscores, are already confirmation of the truly exceptional
historical and archaeological interest of an excavation on
Herculaneum's ancient beach. The dig may produce many new
elements contributing to a historical and archaeological
reconstruction of Ancient Rome's military corps.
In the meantime, thanks to collaboration with the Packard
Foundation, the new digs will get under way in a matter of days.
The works will cover an area of around 2,000 metres and will see
professionals from the Herculaneum Conservation Project working
alongside the Park's experts. The expectations, 40 years after
the first campaign, are very high. (ANSA).