Dr. Pompeii, Dr. Pompeii! Emergency! Come right away!
Even ancient doctors occasionally lost patients to weather-related scheduling conflicts.
Even ancient doctors occasionally lost patients to weather-related scheduling conflicts.
This latest discovery involves one of the plaster cast remains of 14 victims found in what is now known as the Garden of the Fugitives, who died when they were overtaken by the pyroclastic flow while trying to flee via the Nocera Gate. Pompeii superintendent Medeo Maiuri excavated the victims in 1961, originally found in three smaller groups, although today the plaster casts are displayed in a line.
Maiuri published a fanciful, largely fictional account of who he believed those bodies to be in National Geographic that same year: a merchant with severe osteoarthritis; a mother and her two young children; a young couple with an infant daughter; and a servant with what appeared to be a shoulder bag, although the “bag” later turned out to just be a malformation in the plaster.
For decades, archaeologists had overlooked a small object trapped within another of the plaster casts that had been kept in storage for decades at the archaeological park. The new analysis with X-ray imaging and CT scans revealed that it was a small case with parts made out of metal—specifically, a toothed wheel operating a locking system. The case contained a coin-filled fabric pouch and several metal instruments similar to what a Roman physician (medicus) might have used, leading the team to conclude the man had likely been a doctor, fleeing Pompeii with his instruments close at hand.
Mount Vesuvius remains opposed to same-day appointments.