Pompeii Victims Wore Heavy Woolens as They Fled Ash, Study Suggests

A harrowing new study of Pompeii’s plaster casts suggests the city’s last moments involved residents donning heavy woolen tunics and cloaks as they fled a deadly ash fall, professors from the University of Valencia said. The findings raise the possibility that the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in AD 79 may have occurred on a cooler autumn day rather than a hot August afternoon, though the date remains hotly debated among scholars.

Researchers analyzed the fabric patterns and weaving of 14 plaster casts recovered from Pompeii’s Porta Nola Necropolis in 1975. Four of those casts yielded enough detail to identify clothing and weaving. The team reports that most of the victims wore two-piece outfits—a tunic and a wool cloak—made of thick wool that would have added weight but provided protection against the scorching ash, pumice fragments, and potentially the gases emitted during the eruption. “From a study of the casts, we can learn how people dressed on a specific day in history,” said Llorenç Alapont, a professor of archaeology at the University of Valencia. “We can also determine the type of fabric they wore and the weave of the threads, which in this case is thick.”

The research notes that the wool used in these garments was unusually heavy due to its weave, and the clothing appears to have been worn both indoors and outdoors. The study’s authors say the garments could have served as protection from the volcanic gases and ambient heat produced during the eruption, although the weight and warmth of wool also hint at cooler conditions that day. This interpretation dovetails with other autumnal indicators found in Pompeii’s archaeological record, including the presence of autumn fruits, embers in stoves, and fermenting wine stored in dolia, which some researchers argue are more consistent with October conditions than with late-summer heat.

Despite the woolen evidence, the exact date of Vesuvius’s AD 79 eruption remains one of ancient Pompeii’s most debated topics. Traditionally dated to August 24, 79 AD based on the letters of Pliny the Younger, the eruption’s timing has long been questioned by archaeologists and historians who point to artifacts and inscriptions suggesting autumn. Alapont and colleagues emphasize that their findings are not decisive on the date itself but add a new, fabric-based data point to the discussion. The team notes that both indoor and outdoor casts show similar fabric patterns, implying people wore comparable clothing regardless of whether they were inside homes or in open spaces when the eruption began.

The researchers caution that the results were presented at the International Congress on the Date of the Eruption of Vesuvius and have not yet appeared in a peer-reviewed journal. Still, the study aligns with a broader trend in Pompeii research that uses material culture to infer daily life and weather conditions on that day. Alapont says the work underscores the need for new methodologies to reconstruct the eruption’s circumstances and timing with greater precision.

Ancient accounts describe a towering ash column and pyroclastic surges that sped across the landscape, with some accounts suggesting plume heights up to 21 miles (34 kilometers) into the atmosphere. Modern analyses of the casts and the surrounding ash layers continue to illuminate how residents faced the cataclysm—whether they tried to shield themselves from the heat and gases, sought shelter, or attempted last-minute escapes. The plaster-cast technique—used since the 19th century to capture voids left by decomposed bodies—remains a critical tool for understanding what happened in the hours that followed the eruption.

In Pompeii’s broader arc, the eruption buried the city and nearby towns under several meters of ash and pumice, preserving streets and structures for archaeologists to study for generations. Casts created from the voids left by the victims have provided invaluable snapshots of apparel, possessions, and daily life, fueling ongoing debates about weather, social conditions, and the sequence of events that defined AD 79 in the Bay of Naples. As new findings emerge, researchers continue to weave together textile analysis, stratigraphy, and historical documents to paint a more nuanced portrait of that pivotal day in ancient history.