In 79 AD, Italy’s Mount Vesuvius exploded, raining ash and volcanic debris down on the city of Pompeii and its tens of thousands of residents.
In mere minutes, the giant cloud of ash and gases killed an estimated 2,000 people, many of whom were unearthed more than a thousand years later. Their decomposed bodies were preserved by the ash, and archaeologists were able to reconstruct their forms using plaster casts of the cavities they left behind. More than 100 casts have been made to date.
