All language subtitles for Pompeii Secrets of the Dead 2019

NARRATOR: As the Roman Empire
reaches its height,

an eruption of Mount Vesuvius
buries the town of Pompeii.

KAYLA IACOVINO: Imagine walking
outside of your house...

and seeing stones falling
from the heavens.

NARRATOR: Almost 2,000 years later,
casts are made of voids

in the solidified ash,

revealing the bodies of those who died.

ROBERT MEYER:
These are people left behind,

watching the world collapse around them.

NARRATOR: For one group,
called the Fugitives,

archaeologists are now using
modern forensic techniques

to examine the bones hidden inside.

ALAIN MIDDLETON: Teeth.
You can definitely see teeth.

-DR. ESTELLE LAZER: Oh, yeah, lots.
-MIDDLETON: Look at 'em.

NARRATOR: To reveal
who these people were...

LAZER: Oh, my god, what's that there?

NARRATOR: How they lived,
and why they became victims

of the most famous disaster
of the ancient world.

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Nearly two millennia
after Vesuvius wiped it off the map,

archaeologists excavated Pompeii
to reveal an entire Roman town,

complete with an amphitheater

and a grand forum surrounded by temples.

KATHRYN WELCH:
Well, how exciting is this?

STIJN LUYCK: Here we are.

NARRATOR: They also found bodies.

The most iconic are a group
of 13 victims known as the Fugitives.

LAZER (off screen):
So, I do have a plan.

LUYCK (off screen): Yeah.

LAZER: And I would want
to start at that end,

-I want to go that way.
-LUYCK: Yeah.

NARRATOR: A team of experts

is launching the first ever
forensic investigation

into their remains.

They're led by Dr. Estelle Lazer.

LAZER: There's a hole in the wall
at the back of the display

and people actually put flowers through
for the tiny children.

They're a very, very powerful reminder

of the event that killed so many people.

-LUYCK: Ready.
-LAZER: Mm-hmm.

NARRATOR: For volcanologist
Kayla Iacovino,

clues in the rocks shed light
on why this eruption was so deadly.

It started with a bang.

IACOVINO: So when
the eruption first began,

you would have seen a jet of material
coming up in the middle

and then branching out,
like an umbrella shape.

They probably would have
felt rumbling, shaking,

as the magma hit
the surface and exploded...

and this huge cloud
just looming over everything,

sort of spreading out above the city.

NARRATOR: The majority
of Pompeiians left immediately.

But within the city walls,
over a thousand bodies

have been found.

It's long been assumed these people
were physically unable to run away.

The old, the very young, and the frail.

With the Fugitives,

Dr. Lazer can put
this theory to the test.

LAZER: There's the skull. That's good.

NARRATOR: Her work should determine
if age or disability

prevented their escape.

LAZER: We're using
traditional forensic techniques

to work out what age
the victims were when they died,

if there's any sign of illness or trauma,

any evidence about their lifestyles.

-Looks like two rips.
-MIDDLETON: Two rips.

LAZER: Just to get a sense
of who they were.

NARRATOR: The Fugitives were discovered
by head of excavations,

Amedeo Maiuri in 1961.

They're incredibly life-like,

seemingly frozen at the moment of death.

This was made possible by a technique
pioneered in the nineteenth century.

Local archaeologist Antonio de Simone
explains how it works.

ANTONIO DE SIMONE (off screen):
This is the first plaster cast

that was made in Pompeii.

While the archaeologist was digging

at about 16 feet above road level,

he noticed a hollow space,

and immediately thought
it could be a body.

NARRATOR: Over the years,
the flesh rots away,

but the form of the body is preserved
as a cavity in the ash.

By filling the void with Plaster of Paris,

a three-dimensional replica
of each victim was produced.

DE SIMONE: The cast has accurately
preserved all the details

of the cape worn by the victim

as if it was a sculpture.

NARRATOR: But wherever detail was lacking,

nineteenth century archaeologists
often improved

the casts themselves.

DE SIMONE: If we look closely,
we can see a dividing line.

Above it, the face was
probably a shapeless bulk

which was then redefined
with extra plaster,

so this has all been re-worked.

They didn't set out to deceive,

but the casts are like photos
of the tragedy.

They need to convey what happened.

NARRATOR: When Maiuri's team
worked on the Fugitives,

it's thought that they, too,
sculpted the plaster

to make the casts more lifelike.

To engage the public,
he also created a story

about who they were and how they died.

LAZER: For him, it was
a remarkable discovery.

There were 13 victims together,
so it was the largest number

of casts that had been made at one time.

He wrote a very emotional article

which had a profound impact
on people visiting the site.

NARRATOR: Published in
National Geographic magazine,

that article sketched out
the characters in the group

and the relationships between them.

The bodies were originally found
in three smaller groups.

Now lined up as one, the groups remain.

Maiuri described the first two
as families of farmers.

He claimed the third group
was a merchant family,

giving vivid details
about their final moments.

LAZER: He says they're
two boys who he reckons

were holding hands and fell as one.

And then the mother, "her body
already weakened through childbirth,"

supporting the youngest child, a girl,

and trying to ease her pain.

And then, the very end,
"the merchant," in his words,

resting on one arm,
rising up out of the ashes

to try and protect and save his family.

He says that it's based on evidence,

but I cannot see from the information
that I have available to me

what he bases this story on,
and I think this is a real problem.

Can we have another one?

My aim is to actually strip away
all the previous stories

and just give them back
their lives and their stories.

And I do believe that that will impart
a little more respect on them

as victims of a mass disaster.

NARRATOR: What Maiuri did,
was in sync with the times.

The focus then was on creating an exhibit

to attract visitors.

Today, that focus has shifted.

Dr. Lazer's team hope to discover

who the Fugitives really were.

They're using x-rays

-to penetrate the plaster...
-(camera beeps)

...and 3D scanning to create
digital replicas of each cast.

By placing these in a 3D model
of the entire town,

the Fugitives can be seen in context.

They died by the city walls,

apparently so close
to making their escape.

The early stages of the eruption
scared most people away.

The mystery is why
the Fugitives stayed behind.

Work begins on the victim
that Maiuri described

as the head of the first family.

The Merchant.

(beeps)

DR. DZUNG VU: Skull base,
pretty well preserved.

-MIDDLETON: Yes
-LAZER: Look, it's got calvarium,

it's got everything.

Beautiful! Lots of bones inside.

This is a really nice skeleton.

We should be able to get
quite a bit of information

out of it, don't you think?

NARRATOR: Beyond the 2,000-year-old bones,

the scans also reveal
something more modern.

VU (off screen): Look at that! There!

LAZER (off screen): What do you think
they've done in there?

-What's this?
-MIDDLETON (off screen): Mmm.

He has a big metal hook in his head.

LAZER (off screen):
Yes, we can see that.

-This huge lump of metal in there.
-MIDDLETON (off screen): Yeah.

LAZER (off screen): There's a lot of
funny wire, in there, isn't it?

-That's a weird wire.
-VU: Yep.

But there's a nail and a rod
holding the plaster of the upper limb,

to the rest of the body.

NARRATOR: This unexpected find
shows that Maiuri went

to extraordinary lengths to preserve
the Fugitives' final poses.

The challenge now is to look
beyond these modifications

and focus on the bones themselves.

-LAZER: So this is the first x-ray.
-KEVIN DICUS: This is iconic.

NARRATOR: To help assess the evidence,

Pompeii expert Kevin Dicus joins the team.

DICUS: It feels strange
to shed these old stories

about these people

because they have been a part

of the modern history of Pompeii
as an archaeological site.

But now we have the technology
to actually go deeper,

literally deeper into the plaster

and I think we actually owe it
to these people

to strip them of these modern narratives

and get it back to who they really were.

NARRATOR: After in-depth analysis
of the x-rays,

subtle details emerge.

LAZER: We've got the frontal sinus,
and it's well developed

so that's an indicator
that we're looking at an adult.

The teeth are all erupted,
the roots are fully formed,

so that's an adult dentition.

NARRATOR: Another x-ray shows a hand,

with the arm bones visible below it.

But between the hand and the arm,

the area containing
the small bones of the wrist

has become abnormally compressed.

LAZER: We've got a case of
quite severe osteoarthritis at the wrist.

Probably the cartilage has been lost,

and there's a likelihood that
we've got bone rubbing against bone.

DICUS: Ooh. Be quite painful,
I would imagine.

LAZER: So certainly
they'd have pain, swelling,

some, p-possibly some weakness,

and I think it would be more likely

to be an older than younger individual.

We're starting to see a human being
emerge from this cast,

which you know, people have often seen
them as being more like statues...

-DICUS: Absolutely.
-LAZER: ...than individuals.

NARRATOR: As the team scan
the rest of the cast,

one last x-ray provides a clue
about the Fugitive's final,

desperate moments.

VU: There's bone here.

LAZER (off screen): Ah, yes.

NARRATOR: In Pompeii,
the forensic team is examining

the victim known as the Merchant.

VU: That one there must be broken.

NARRATOR: They've discovered
this is an older individual

with signs of arthritis.

-VU: But funny bits of bones, too.
-LAZER: Yeah.

NARRATOR: And the x-rays reveal
one more intriguing clue.

LAZER: What we're looking at
is the upper arm bone...

-and there are some breaks in it.
-DICUS: Mm-hmm.

LAZER: So, there is evidence
of post-mortem fractures

and peri-mortem, so those that happened
at or around the time of death.

NARRATOR: At the top of the upper arm

is the rounded head of the humerus.

Cutting across it, barely visible,

is a hairline fracture,

possibly the result
of a fall onto the arm.

LAZER: What that suggests
is that this person experienced

something quite violent
at or around the time of death.

DICUS: That really does say something
if they're breaking arm bones.

LAZER: Yes.

NARRATOR: Volcanologist Kayla Iacovino is
in a corner of Pompeii

that's still half buried,

to investigate how the eruption took
its very first victims.

IACOVINO: So, we've just come up
from main street.

And what we're looking at here
is a wall of pumice stones.

So, these pumice stones would have
rained down on the city of Pompeii

during the second phase of the eruption.

And as the magma is rising up
to the surface,

you have so much energy,
that here at Pompeii,

you were able to send stones
like this over 30 kilometers

into the air, up into the atmosphere.

NARRATOR: High altitude winds
dragged the mushroom cloud

across Pompeii.

Then gravity took over,
and pumice began to rain down

on the town below.

IACOVINO: At this point,
there's no escaping it anymore.

You're inside of the eruption.

So, you can imagine walking
outside of your house

and seeing stones falling
from the heavens.

So, while these things are
sort of light and fluffy,

and a single one
maybe hitting you on the head,

or even a few hitting you on the head,
wouldn't kill you...

but when you have five meters
of this pumice

sitting on top of a flat roof,

the roofs start to collapse.

And unfortunately for Pompeii,
a lot of the people were killed

because those roofs collapsed
on top of them,

because they decided to shelter in place.

NARRATOR: When archaeologists
dug down through the pumice layers,

the remains of those
that sheltered inside were still there.

The eruption's first victims.

Buried in loose pumice,

it wasn't possible
to make casts of these bodies.

Only bones were retrieved.

The Fugitives, however,
did not die inside.

Their bodies were found in a garden,

on top of the pumice.

They survived this part of the eruption.

But they never left Pompeii.

Social scientist Robert Meyer

is an expert on the decisions we make

in the face of disaster.

(siren wailing)

MEYER: It's kind of useful
to think through what exactly

is going through people's brains
at the moment they feel

that something bad is going
to happen to them.

MAN (over radio): Mandatory evacuation,
mandatory evacuation.

MEYER: And we're subject to a number of,

what are called cognitive biases
or rules of thumb,

which normally work really well
for us on a day-to-day basis

but when it comes to these very rare,

very, very dangerous sorts of events,
can lead us astray.

PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH: This storm
is now designated a Category 5 hurricane.

We cannot stress enough the danger
this poses to communities.

MEYER: In a period of intense threat,

one of the deepest instincts that we have

is to stay with things that are familiar.

So, safety is associated
with the place that we live.

It's where all our possessions are.

PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH: I urge all
citizens to put their own safety first,

by moving to safe ground.

MEYER: Sheltering in place
may not be the best thing to do

but what are the alternatives.

And do I really think that
running away outside

is necessarily going to be
a safer option than it is to stay here?

And the more confused we get,

the more our brain is telling us,
don't do anything.

REPORTER (over TV): Neighborhood
that's completely underwater.

There's a couple of rooftops here.

MEYER: This is the thing
we call the status quo bias.

REPORTER (over TV): Completely stranded,
this is a family of five people.

MEYER: You end up with mental paralysis.

REPORTER (over TV): Just realized
the gravity of the situation here.

MEYER: And in the face
of paralysis, our instinct is

to not do anything and just stay.

NARRATOR: In Pompeii,
everyone who stayed behind would perish.

Including the next targets
of the investigation,

the very youngest in the group.

(camera beeps)

NARRATOR: As pumice
rained down on Pompeii,

the Fugitives clung on.

For the youngest in the group,

it must have been
a particularly terrifying ordeal.

According to the story created by Maiuri,

this was a farming family,

and the children were brothers,

four or five years of age.

(indistinct chatter)

To make their own age estimates,

Dr. Lazer's team has
a particular target in mind.

MIDDLETON: Teeth! Ah yeah, you can see it.

NARRATOR: Forensic dentist Alain Middleton

usually works on the victims
of modern disasters

like air crashes and earthquakes.

But these 2,000-year-old teeth
contain just as much information.

MIDDLETON: We've certainly got
lots of molar teeth,

they're obviously fully erupted.

I mean, for instance this tooth here,
the roots are fully formed.

LAZER (off screen):
Means that we're not looking

at a really, really young child?

MIDDLETON: No, it's someone who's got
fairly well-developed secondary teeth,

so probably looking
at something around five plus.

LAZER: Okay, this is number two.

(camera beeps)

MIDDLETON: So, teeth,
you can definitely see teeth.

-LAZER: Oh yeah, lots.
-MIDDLETON: Look at them.

They're primary teeth.
But where are the secondary teeth?

That should make it easier
to get an age estimate.

-LAZER: And you reckon it's...
-MIDDLETON: And I--

It would appear to be

probably a little bit younger
than the previous one.

NARRATOR: On this, Maiuri's estimate
of four or five years old was correct.

Young children, with everything
in front of them.

For archaeologists like Kevin Dicus,

understanding what life was like
for children here

is a challenge.

Across Pompeii,
they seem almost invisible.

DICUS: Wow, what a house this is.

This is absolutely
the house of a very wealthy,

influential aristocrat.

How often do you see
an entirely mosaiced atrium?

We even have a mosaiced peacock,

a symbol of opulence.

It's beautiful...

everything suggests leisure,

suggests enjoyment of life.

(birds singing)

NARRATOR: Designed for
entertaining guests,

this was an adult world.

Across Pompeii, there are
no spaces dedicated to children.

To get into their world
requires a closer look.

DICUS (off screen): A plaster wall
can serve as a sort of canvas

for anybody to engrave names or figures
or whatever they wanted.

Here we just have a series
of lines, horizontal, diagonal--

I can't identify anything here.

But I can identify something right here.

Always lower to the ground,

we can find stylized figures
of animals or people.

Here we have an animal.

Here we have a very simple rectangle
representing the torso

and a stylized head, here.

Down below, vertical lines
representing the legs.

I'm not sure what sort of animal it is,

but it's definitely
from the hand of a child.

NARRATOR: Kids' graffiti like this
crops up all over Pompeii.

The wealthier children
had other entertainment, too.

DR. GRETE STEFANI: In a monument
at Porta Nocera necropolis,

I excavated a grave, and inside it I found

this collection of small animals

made from bone.

It's a mother dog with her puppies

DICUS (in Italian): So lovely.

STEFANI: There were also
some small animals

made from amber, like this cow

and a small amber soldier.

DICUS:
Ah, si, si, si.

STEFANI: And also
some tiny vases, like this.

Like all of these things,
they were children's toys.

(Dicus speaking Italian)

DICUS (in Italian): So beautiful.

NARRATOR: Never before seen on television,

this collection was found
in the tomb of a grown woman.

Objects so precious,
that she had kept them her entire life.

DICUS (off screen): It's incredible.

They're such a tangible reminder
to us that in 79 AD,

there were children everywhere
in the city of Pompeii.

NARRATOR: According to Maiuri,
the second family was made up

of a young farming couple
and another child,

described as their slender
and undernourished daughter.

VU (off screen): Go down
the lowest you can get, right?

NARRATOR: Apparently a similar size
to the other children,

this cast has a surprise
in store for the team.

LUYCK (off screen): Ready.

LAZER: I'd say blitz it.

(camera beeps, shutter clicks)

NARRATOR: In Pompeii,
forensic dentist Alain Middleton

is examining one of the smallest children
in the Fugitives group.

MIDDLETON: Well, this is
quite interesting, this view,

because we can see a jumble of teeth.

It's showing us in, right in
the center of the picture there,

a lot of dental information...

And most of these teeth, the development
of the roots is incomplete.

This is the second primary molar.

This tooth hasn't fully erupted.

This is a very good pointer
as to the age of this individual.

It's definitely an infant.

Probably around about 12-14 months

through to about 15-16 months.

NARRATOR: The milk teeth emerge in stages

through early childhood.

A molar like this,
still embedded in the bone and gum,

gives a reliable age estimate.

LAZER (off screen): That's amazing,
because babies don't always survive

very well in the archaeological record.

The bones weren't recognized
as a scientific resource

until relatively recently,
so they weren't stored very carefully,

and infant bones are quite
different looking to adult bones,

so it's quite possible

that they weren't even recognized
as human.

This is a fantastic discovery.

NARRATOR: This is the youngest child
to be identified by the team,

in Pompeii.

A remarkable discovery...

a child barely able to walk.

Dealing with an infant
would have certainly slowed

the Fugitives down.

But they stuck together until the end.

MEYER: When a disaster occurs,
some people will go rogue.

They'll act for themselves and run off.

(speaking in foreign language)

But the greater norm is to go ahead
and stay with the group.

There's a certain sense
of emotional reassurance

of just being with others.

It's also the case we like
to look after each other.

So, if we see an elderly person

or if we see a child,

our tendency is to,
to wanna stay back and help them.

This instinct to stay with others
is so, so powerful

that often, that trumps

our individual desires
to survive by ourselves.

NARRATOR: The layers
of pumice here are so thick

that volcanologists believe
it kept falling right through the night.

(rumbling)

The Fugitives, found above these layers,

survived until morning,
when a new threat emerged.

IACOVINO: What's really fascinating
about this deposit in particular

is that you can put your finger
on the exact moment

that the eruption switched
from the pumice fallout phase

to the pyroclastic flow phase, just here.

Everything beneath this layer is pumice
that had fallen from the sky.

This was that stuff
that was raining out of a cloud

that had shot more than 30 kilometers
above the summit of the volcano.

Once that pumice rained out,

that column began to collapse in on itself

gathering up and then shooting down
the steep slopes.

NARRATOR: As the eruption lost power,

the central column gave way to gravity.

Clouds of ash and hot gas,
known as pyroclastic flows,

raced down the flanks of Vesuvius
at over 100 miles an hour.

IACOVINO: So you can imagine
being someone in Pompeii

who had survived
this disastrous downpour of pumice,

you're thinking maybe things are safe now
and the eruption is over,

but things were actually about
to get a whole lot worse.

NARRATOR: As pyroclastic flows
raced down the flanks of Vesuvius,

time was almost up for anyone
that had stayed in Pompeii.

Altogether, more than 80 victims
of these flows are preserved in plaster.

-LUYCK: You're ready?
-LAZER: Okay.

NARRATOR: Dr. Lazer plans
to x-ray them all.

Including the casts on display
at the entrance to the ruins.

-LAZER: So, left hand, please and--
-LUYCK: We will see what we get.

LAZER (off screen): Okay, thank you.

(camera beeps)

LAZER: Oh, look. Oh, my god.

What's that there?

That doesn't look like bone at all.

LUYCK: It is metal.

LAZER: It's metal, for sure.

I think we need a clearer view of that.

Okay.

That's super clear now. Look at that.

That looks like a ring, doesn't it?

So, you can see that
the metal has corroded.

But you can still see the form
of the ring around the finger.

Yeah. That's fantastic.

NARRATOR: To find out what the ring
could tell us about this victim,

Kevin has gained access
to some of the valuables found

when Pompeii was excavated.

DICUS: We've got these
beautiful gold chains...

gold earrings with pearl drops.

Many of these were found
in association with the bodies.

We've got these beautiful examples
of gold rings, set with gemstones.

Go down the line, we have silver examples.

This one exhibits
a little bit of corrosion.

It's not quite as perfect
as the gold rings.

When we start to get down the spectrum,

we see more and more corrosion.

We can take a look
at the bronze ring here.

And of course,
coming down here, the iron rings.

Ours, as it looks in the x-ray,
exhibits a lot of corrosion.

So, we could say
it's definitely not a gold ring.

It's perhaps an iron ring,
or maybe even a silver ring.

NARRATOR: The metal of
an oval setting is perfectly preserved,

suggesting the presence of a gemstone.

But the rest of the ring
has clearly corroded over time.

DICUS: So, this is not
an elite piece of jewelry,

it's not remarkably expensive.

But there is a gemstone set into it.

So it's not an incredibly humble model,

it still cost some money.

And it does say something
about this person.

Maybe he is not an aristocrat,
the wealthiest person

but he is trying to communicate
something with this.

And for him this is a very,
very personal piece of adornment.

NARRATOR: This ring was worn proudly
until the day of the eruption...

when all of these valuables
suddenly became worthless.

In the story created by Maiuri,

the third family in the group
was led by a servant...

carrying a sack of provisions.

On the hunt for more artifacts,

it's an obvious target
for the forensic team.

LUYCK: You have to go, like,
that much deeper I think.

What do you think, Julia?

On the right-hand side completely, yeah--

LAZER (off screen):
You can see where the lump is.

LUYCK (off screen): Yeah, we will start
with the shoulder?

LAZER: Start with the shoulder
and just work round,

and as many angles and as possible.

-LUYCK: One, two, three...
-(camera beeps, shutter clicks)

-VU (off screen): Nothing--
-MIDDLETON (off screen): Nothing.

-It's just plaster.
-VU: Nothing.

LAZER (off screen):
And it's not there?

LUYCK (off screen): It's not there.

NARRATOR: There's no sign
of a sack, or provisions.

Nothing that matches Maiuri's suggestion
that this was a servant.

LAZER (off screen):
I think if you, the x-rays...

DICUS: Wow, look at that.

NARRATOR: But further analysis
of the skeleton

does reveal something
of this victim's true identity.

LAZER:
Unfortunately, there are no teeth

that could be studied in the skull

so our age estimate's
purely on skeletal evidence.

And what we're looking at
is the lower leg bone...

and the foot areas around the ankle.

-DICUS: Right.
-LAZER: This is the growth plate

that hasn't yet closed.

So we're looking at someone
possibly in their mid-teens.

DICUS (off screen): Wow!

NARRATOR: In adolescence,
some of the bones are still

in the process of fusing together.

The presence of this growth plate
tells us the age

of this so-called servant when they died.

This teenager
clearly contradicts one theory

about those who failed to escape.

DICUS (off screen): But this was sort
of the legend of the victims

that's been circulated for so long is,

there's been a limitation or some reason
why they were left behind,

why they died, they were too young,
too old, too infirm.

We're starting to get a sense that this
actually really isn't the case.

LAZER: Mm, yeah, absolutely,
I mean, we have a range of ages

so we do have very young individuals,

but we've also got older ones,

we've got people who are in their teens.

So, a good selection of the population.

DICUS: Right, right,
suddenly we're not talking

about physical limitations as being
the cause of these deaths.

It could be a multitude of reasons
why they decided to stay back.

NARRATOR: To complete their work
on the purported servant,

the team move on to the feet.

-LUYCK (off screen): Is that nails?
-LAZER: Oh!

-VU: The metatarsal's there--
-LAZER: Oh!

Oh, my gosh.

You know what, I think
you're right, they are nails.

So, they had shoes on, look at that!

LUYCK: It's part of a shoe, yeah.

LAZER: Wow, they're really good.

VU: Seems to have two rows of nails...

-MIDDLETON: Yeah.
-VU: ...parallel to each other

-LAZER: It's amazing--
-MIDDLETON: One, two...

three, four, five, six, seven...

NARRATOR: Clearly visible
in the x-ray, these are hobnails,

from the sole of a practical
and well-made sandal.

Hardly the footwear of someone
Maiuri described as a lowly servant.

From a victim
in the so-called Merchant's family,

there's also a clue to how
the Fugitive's final moments played out.

LAZER: Well, as you can
see both the feet are together.

DICUS: Mm-hmm.

LAZER: And what we can see
is there's a cluster of metal nails

associated with the right foot,
none with the left foot

so it looks like while they were fleeing
they lost the left sandal.

DICUS: Oh.

LAZER: The idea that somebody's
running away from a terrible fate

and they lose a shoe
and they just keep going,

it's a very compelling image
of people trying to escape

literally the end of the world.

(rumbling)

NARRATOR: Just after dawn
on the second day of the eruption,

a huge pyroclastic flow raced down
the flanks of Vesuvius...

and tore through Pompeii.

The Fugitives were engulfed immediately.

To find out what happened to them,

Kayla is examining three nearby victims

that were hit by the same flow.

IACOVINO (off screen): We got clues as
to how these people would have died

based on the poses
that the bodies are found in...

with the arms bent, pulled in
tightly close to the body.

Here you can see the elbow bent

as if he's bringing his arm in

to protect his face.

That's kind of what it looks like,

as well his legs are bent,
flexed at the knees.

So, we know from modern eruptions,

where pyroclastic flows
have moved through villages

that the bodies end up in poses similar
to what we see here in Pompeii.

(siren wailing)

(people shouting in foreign language)

NARRATOR: In 2018,
a Guatemalan volcano called Fuego

produced devastating pyroclastic flows.

(men speaking in foreign language)

(girl screams)

Bodies pulled from the ash
were frozen in position,

with arms and legs bent inwards.

IACOVINO: A pyroclastic flow
can be 200 or 300 degrees,

and that causes the muscles
to dehydrate instantly,

causing them to then
flex inward due to contraction,

and they end up in this pose,
which we call a pugilistic attitude,

kind of like a boxer protecting
his face with his, with his fists.

But it's really this action
of the dehydration of the muscles

that's causing the body
to contract and tense in this way.

So, they would have instantaneously
swept up in this cloud.

Cooked in place by the hot gases.

NARRATOR: Of the Fugitives,
a number of victims show similar poses.

Contorted by the heat
during their final, desperate moments.

MEYER: These are people
probably who should have left

many, many hours earlier.

They didn't.

And they were left behind,
and they were kind of watching

the world collapse around them.

And then ultimately this group decides,

look, our only chance
for survival is we have to brave

the elements outside.

Of course, in this case what happened,
it was really too late.

NARRATOR: What remains is
a three-dimensional impression

of the moment the Fugitives died together.

MEYER: This is very rare.

We never really get to see people

in the moment
of their last conscious thought.

In some cases, we spend that last moment
trying to protect ourselves.

And in other cases,
we go ahead and reach out

to someone who is close to us.

We see that incredible diversity here,

and in that sense it's a remarkable image.

NARRATOR: Before the investigation,

the Fugitives were known
by the identities created

for them by Amedeo Maiuri.

The Merchant...

The Farmer's Daughter...

and The Servant.

The team has found nothing
to support these claims.

But a new picture is emerging.

LAZER: We know
the ages range from pretty young infants,

through young childhood
into the teen years

and right into older adult age.

We know something about
the health of the individuals.

So slowly, slowly we're learning
about who these people were.

NARRATOR: By determining
the age profile of the Fugitives,

the team has also challenged
another theory about Pompeii's victims,

that they were too old, too young,

or too infirm to escape.

DICUS: What we're seeing here
is something very different.

We're looking at a full range
and really not one of them,

as I can see,

has a condition that would
preclude them from escaping.

And so, it's something beyond physical
that caused them to stay,

it was decisions.

And this is very important
because they're not passive.

They made decisions.

It's a new way to look
at these individuals.

LAZER: And hopefully we've given back

a little bit of their lives to them.

DICUS:
And a little bit of their voice.

LAZER: And I guess in
the first century AD, in Roman culture,

to be remembered was very important.

So, I think even though
it was completely inadvertent

you know, their death
in this horrible event

has led in some way
towards making them immortal.

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