I recently heard about the man with the glass brain – the only person in recorded history whose brain turned to glass.
Preserved by the eruption of Mt Vesuvius in 79 CE.
Pompeii about 8km southeast of Vesuvius, and Herculaneum about 7km west.
I’m fortunate to have visited both in the dim distant reaches of time (2012) when we visited Italy. (And I liked Herculaneum better as it was discovered more recently and therefore better preserved.
Anyway, as it turns out, there’s a remarkable difference between the deaths in Pompeii, and its close neighbour Herculaneum.
Pompeii
Pompeii sits about 8km southeast of Vesuvius.
For the first twelve hours or so of Vesuvius’ eruption, ash and pumice rained down on Pompeii. While some citizens evacuated, many took shelter to wait it out.
Essentially, they suffocated to death. The rains of ash preserved the bodies, and thanks to archaeologist Giuseppe Fiorelli, we can see the plaster casts of their final positions at death.
Herculaneum
On the other hand, the bulk of the citizens of Herculaneum made an orderly exit, with many of the dead discovered in the boathouses.
But, the twelve hour mark is the start of the pyroclastic surges.
The extreme heat killed those remaining instantly. Brains boiled, skulls fractured, and their flesh burned.
Pyroclastic Surge
A pyroclastic flow comes after an explosive eruption, which forces gas and other materials such as hot air, ash, and rock fragments of varying sizes into an airborne column.
When an eruption loses density, or thrust, gravity pulls it back to the ground, where it’s forced outward across the land, and can reach speeds of 100km per hour, and temperatures of more than 1,000 C.
The man with the glass brain
The man with the glass brain was discovered in 1961 by archaeologist Amedeo Maiuri, in a back room of a temple dedicated to worship of the emperor.
Maiuri dubbed him “the custodian,” on further investigation, he was approximately twenty years of age when he died.
His skull contained a glassy material, which was examined in 2020 by anthropologist PierPaolo Petrone and volcanologist Guido Giordano where they discovered traces of brain cells, axons and myelin within the glass.
They concluded, the brain tissue was converted to glass by the rapid heating and cooling of the remains.
Vitrification
Vitrification is the process of converting a substance into glass, usually by heating the substance until it liquefies, then cooling it rapidly to form a glassy solid.
The term vitrification also applies to embedding a substance within a glassy matrix,
In vitreous china (e.g. sanitary ware), this is by use of an enamel glaze applied to porcelain, which when fired, makes it shinier, denser and more importantly, tougher.
Criticism
The vitrification theory is not without its critics given Petrone and Giordano have not provided their original data, nor recorded the details of their methodology, which means their research can’t be replicated, let alone confirmed (obviously not the brains, but the thought process).
In fact in 2020, Alexandra L. Morton-Hayward, documents several other incidences of vitreous brain tissue. She also suggests their description of the skull fractures don’t support a high temperature event, and in fact, are reminiscent of cremations.
Not to mention the composition of the brain chemistry has an impact on what remains of the skin and hair, and their potential contamination of the brain.
Conclusion
The main with the glass brain, may or may not have been caused by the pyroclastic flows.
Given the number of non-vitrified brains at Herculaneum, logic dictates the temple structure can’t have been sufficient to create the conditions necessary. (Leaving aside the Emperor’s divine intervention).
But isn’t it interesting to speculate?
