Vesuvius Exploded in August—So Why Were Pompeii Victims Wearing Heavy Clothing?
https://gizmodo.com/vesuvius-exploded-in-august-so-why-were-pompeii-victims-wearing-heavy-clothing-2000700770?utm_source=flipboard&utm_medium=activitypub
Posted into Science @science-Gizmodo
@Gizmodo @science-Gizmodo
@ai6yr
Why is this debate framed as "new"?? It's not new at all!
It might also have been helpful to tell readers where the August date comes from: It's from the famous letter of Pliny the Younger who witnessed the famous eruption of Vesuvius in 79 AD.
BUT, we don't have his original letter. His letter - like almost all written texts from antiquity - is preserved because it was copied later, especially in the Middle Ages (mostly by monks). And they made mistakes while copying. So one theory goes: What if a monk made a mistake (only several letters) and originally the letter mentioned a date in autumn?
But I guess we will get texts that claim "New developments! Was the 79 AD eruption of Vesuvius really in August?" for the next decades. Like we did in the last decades.
Gizmodo
Mab_813