POMPEII — The Pompeii Archaeological Park has identified a long-overlooked plaster cast victim of the 79 CE eruption of Mount Vesuvius as most likely a Roman doctor, using a combination of advanced CT scans and 3D digital reconstruction. The research team concluded that the man had likely been a physician fleeing Pompeii with his instruments close at hand.

The plaster cast had been kept in storage at the archaeological park for decades and contained a small object that archaeologists had overlooked until recently. CT scans and X-ray imaging revealed that the object was a small case with metal components, including a toothed wheel operating a locking system. Inside the case were a coin-filled fabric pouch and several metal instruments similar to those a Roman physician might have used.

The cast belongs to one of 14 victims found in the Garden of the Fugitives, who died when they were overtaken by a pyroclastic flow while trying to flee Pompeii via the Nocera Gate. Pompeii superintendent Medeo Maiuri excavated the Garden of the Fugitives victims in 1961 after they were originally found in three smaller groups. That same year, Maiuri published an account identifying the plaster casts as representing 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 later identified as a plaster malformation.

Roughly 1,000 bodies have been discovered in the ruins of Pompeii, and 104 plaster casts of them have been preserved. The casting method was developed in the 19th century by archaeologist Giuseppe Fiorelli, who poured liquid plaster into the voids left by decomposed soft tissue in the hardened ash. Restoration efforts on 86 plaster casts began about 10 years ago, during which researchers took CT scans and X-rays to determine whether complete skeletons were present. The imaging revealed that many casts had been manipulated according to the aesthetics of their era, including altering body shapes, adding metal rods for stabilization, and removing bones before casting.

An ancient DNA analysis in 2024 of four victims from the House of the Golden Bracelet showed that all four bodies were male and none were genetically related. The eruption of Mount Vesuvius spewed molten rock, pumice, and hot ash over the cities of Pompeii and Herculaneum, where the vast majority of people perished from asphyxiation due to thick clouds of noxious gas and ash.