The internet couldn't help but laugh at the poor Pompeii victim crushed by a giant rock
Even centuries later, one of the world's most famous catastrophes continues to yield amazing discoveries that also somehow tap into our love of the macabre.
On Tuesday, archaeologists revealed they had discovered the skeleton of a victim who died attempting to flee the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 AD but was ultimately killed when a gigantic stone landed on his upper body.
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The archaeologists noted that the man was around 30 years old and likely suffered from a bone infection that would have hampered his escape, thus dooming him to eventual death despite the fact he seems to have survived the first explosions of the eruption.
#Pompeii The thorax was crushed by a block of stone, the body hurled back by the force of the pyroclastic flow, in a desperate attempt to flee the fury of the eruption. The first victim which emerges in the site of the new excavations of Regio V, does so in this dramatic position pic.twitter.com/qHZCS0W0Zd
— Pompeii Sites (@pompeii_sites) May 29, 2018
On the one hand, it's an unimaginably terrible way to die, a tragic scene that's forever frozen in time.
On the other, it's straight out of a Bugs Bunny cartoon, something so awful one can't help but laugh in disbelief — take this line from NPR's report: "The skeleton's head has not been located, but archaeologists believe it is probably crushed beneath the stone block."
And, boy, did the internet waste no time in identifying with this poor soul.
— darth™ (@darth) May 29, 2018
Wile E. Coyote's great-great-great-great-great-great-great-grandfather. https://t.co/agvnDmlmII
— James Surowiecki (@JamesSurowiecki) May 29, 2018
[extremely alanis morisette voice] it’s like a large slaaaaab of stone / when you’ve just survived the initial eruption of mount vesuvius https://t.co/27yIqAtwL2
— ms. chanandler bong (@isamyelyah) May 29, 2018
imagine being struck by a large slab of stone after surviving the eruption of vesuvius to become a meme more than 2000 years later. that's what i call punk rock
— st. vicious (@aquestionofIust) May 30, 2018
Me to a panicked group of Archaeologists moments after I drop a big ass rock on a perfectly preserved Pompeii skeleton:
Chill. Let me talk to the press. I've got this. https://t.co/jH0Vwlf3LY— Patrick Gill (@Pizza_Suplex) May 29, 2018
Bae: come over
Me: cant. I survived the initial eruption of Vesuvius in 79 A.D., only to be killed struck by a large slab of stone
Bae: my parents aren’t home
Me: pic.twitter.com/VbSO6MwsQ8— Patrick Gill (@Pizza_Suplex) May 30, 2018
a bigger mood does not exist https://t.co/GgV7B2RBcX
— maya kosoff (@mekosoff) May 29, 2018
A fellow was fleeing Pompeii
& felt he had gotten away.
But then came the shock
Of a tumbling rock,
Which is crushing his skull still today.— Limericking (@Limericking) May 30, 2018
Archaeologists also found what was apparently a horse and stable, but there's really nothing that can compare to the doomed man.
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