An Intact Aftermath

        I was doing some research on the preservation of bodies when I came across this blog post. The body of Jeremy Bentham is described and some indication of its preservation is given. The idea that some bodies can be preserved so precisely is something many anthropologists crave to understand. Even though Bentham's head was not preserved as well as the rest of his body, it is still a miraculous thing. From this idea, I started to think about other cases of preservation and how they are represented today. The national geographic was one of my first locations in which I searched for answers.

A preserved body within Mount Vesuvius

       In my research, I came upon a particularly interesting case that began in "Ancient Roman Life" around 79 A.D.. This particular man was located after a volcanic eruption within Mount Vesuvius which made the town of Pompeii its home. The frozen degree of the mountain, over several years, was able to preserve the bodies of many individuals who fell upon this dire fate. Up until 1748, no research had been done on the Mount Vesuvius eruption. It was not until the 1870's when the town of Pompeii started to clean the eruption's mess but to this day, the entire town has not been cleared.With the excavation of the site, archaeologists are trying to leave the area intact to preserve what they can.

The deserted town of Pompeii

  After reading this article, I was so intrigued about the idea of preservation and how it can last for such an incredible amount of time. It's amazing that these individuals are in such dramatic poses and that they have been able to stay intact with so much detail. They seem so life like; its as though they are not as old as we may believe them to be. I hope that one day the town of Pompeii could be intact once again and that the mystery of these preservation's and the mountain catastrophes could be solved completely.

A preserved body found in the Mount Vesuvius