Unluckiest man in Pompeii: Archaeologists unearth skeleton who had fled Vesuvius
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A man who managed to escape the first eruption of Vesuvius in 79 AD died after being crushed beneath a huge boulder.
Archeologists working at the ancient Roman city of Pompeii, Italy, found the man's remains almost 2,000 years after he died.
They believe the man, who appeared to be aged about 30, was caught beneath a block of stone hurled by an explosive volcanic cloud.
The revelations comes after new excavations at the site.
Remarkable pictures show a skeleton pinned beneath the stone.
(Image: Italian Ministry for Arts and Culture)
The impact crushed the top of the man's body.
His head might still be buried beneath the block of stone.
It appears that the man survived the first phase of the eruption and fled along an alley.
But there he was hit by the massive stone block -- perhaps a doorjamb -- possibly hurled at him by the force of the pyroclastic flow.
According to CNN, Massimo Osanna, general director of the Archaeological Park of Pompeii, said: "This discovery has shown the leaps in the archaeological field.
(Image: Italian Ministry for Arts and Culture)
"The team on site are not just archaeologists but experts in many fields; engineers, restorers and (have) the technical tools like drones and 3D scanners.
"Now we have the possibility to rebuild the space as it once was. This is the first time an excavation happens with all of these tools. In the 1800s and 1900s, they dug in the area where we found the skeleton, but they did not go as deep as we did.
"Because of the experts we had, we knew how to do it."