L'Accademia di Arte Sanitaria (Academy of Sanitary Art) in Rome has announced the first results of the Pliny Project, coordinated by a group of experts from the universities of Rome, Florence, Macerata and the Rome Institute of Geological Environment and Geo-engineering (Igag-Cnr). The group are analysing a skull attributed to Pliny the Elder, found in 1900 near the beach of Stabiae, near Naples, along with the scattered remains of another 70 people, all victims of the Vesuvius eruption of 79 AD. At the time of the find, the skull and skeleton were presumed to belong to the Roman Admiral Pliny, thanks to several gold military badges found together with the bones. Pliny the Elder was the commander of the Roman fleet anchored at Misenum, on the opposite side of the Bay of Naples from Stabiae. He tried to mount a rescue operation to save some of his friends, but died in the attempt. Tests so far have revealed that the age of the skull fits that of a man in his late fifties – Pliny the Elder was 56 when he lost his life on the Stabia beach. The jaw bone found near it, however, originally believed to have been attached, belongs instead to a younger man, perhaps, experts speculate, to his slave or bodyguard. Investigations are still continuing. For the past century, the skull has been preserved among the exhibits in the Museo dell'Arte Sanitaria in Rome (the National Historic Museum of Sanitary Art) near St. Peter's.
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