Herculaneum Project

This is a collaboration with scholars from the University Museum, in Chieti, Italy intended to continue analyses of the people of Herculaneum, who were killed by the eruption of Mt. Vesuvius, in AD 79. This is a unique population because everyone died on the same day. Collaborators include Ruggero D'Anastasio, Luigi Capasso, and Joan Viciano. Projects to date include DMTA, dental non-metrics, cranial metrics, nasal morphology, and patterning of thermal changes.

Herculaneum Collaborators

Ruggero D'Anastasio

Luigi Capasso

Joan Viciano

M.S. Theses Resulting from Herculaneum Project

Elizabeth Oakley studied the distribution of thermally-induced color changes in Herculaneum bones. Very few were white or gray/blue (Oakley, 2015).

Ashley Remy studied dental microwear texture of the adults and subadults from Herculaneum. The demographic group having the most distinct dietary signature was old adult women (Remy 2014).

Jennifer Heilmann compared Herculaneum craniometric data, collected by Steve Ousley (above) and Laura ??, to similar data from the preceding Opi site of eastern Italy (Heilmann 2021).

Jessica Chevrolet studied midfaces of the Herculaenum people. She found the population had evidence of several people from around Mediterranean (Chevrolet 2018).

Jess Gregory studied dental non-metrics. She found the Herculaneum people had traits that today are atypical for people of European ancestry (Gregory 2020).

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