Description of the Shoreline
The beach, which was between 2m to 4m
wide in front of the
Suburban Thermae narrowing to about 1m in front of the boat houses,
consisted of a layer of gravel approximately 0.6m
thick overlying black beach sand. The gravel was composed of rounded
pebbles of limestone, lava and general rubbish (fragments of pottery,
tiles, stucco, glass and bones) and is clearly the result of using the
beach as a rubbish tip for building rubble and other material.
Underlying the black beach sand was bedrock, consisting of consolidated
pyroclastic material from a previous eruption. Excavations have shown
that the bedrock outcropped about 20m from the shore, forming a reef.
The surface of this area of exposed rock had been worked to provide a
slipway to allow large boats to be pulled out of the water for
An analysis of the beach material has shown that
the pre-eruption sea level was about 4m below that of the present day,
leading to the conclusion that Herculaneum has experienced major
subsistence in the years since the eruption. This subsistence may have
occurred rapidly after the eruption due to the depletion of the magma
reservoir under Vesuvius, or may be due to regional tectonic tilting and
long term structural events in and around the Bay of Naples.
Close by, a well-preserved Roman boat over
9m long was discovered in 1982 (pictured right). Along with the body of
the oarsman was that of a soldier complete with belt, swords, and other
Sara Bisel, a physical anthropologist from the United States, was
called in to oversee the excavation and study the bones of the citizens
found in the boat houses. The
skeletons, some of them carbonised by the extreme heat, were well
preserved by ground water that kept them from oxidising. During her six
year study of
the chemical analysis of those remains, Dr Bisel was able to gain
greater insight into the health and nutrition of the citizens of
In 1980, whilst digging a drainage trench, Italian public works
employees, under the direction of Dr.
Giuseppe Maggi, uncovered human remains in one of the twelve boat
houses that lined the ancient beach. Each boat house is a vaulted
chamber 3.75m high, 3.15m wide by 3.85m deep.
It would appear that some of the town's inhabitants had probably taken
these chambers to wait for the worst of the eruption to pass. In all
about 300 skeletons have been found along with the precious and
everyday items they carried with them.
By examining the skeletons she determined each person's age and sex.
Her analysis showed that the average male citizen stood 1.70m tall while
his female counterpart was in the order of 1.55m. She also
concluded that in general their teeth were in good shape and that they
ate a lot of seafood as indicated by a concentration of strontium in
Several had suffered from lead poisoning, possibly
having developed their condition through the consumption of cheap wine
sweetened by syrup boiled in lead pots.