When Mount Vesuvius erupted in 79 AD, it destroyed multiple Roman towns. Pompeii is famous, buried under 4-6 meters of volcanic ash and pumice. But Herculaneum met a different fate. Superheated pyroclastic flows—avalanches of gas, rock, and volcanic material reaching 400°C—buried the coastal town under 16-20 meters of material that hardened into solid rock. This depth is over three times what covered Pompeii. The extreme burial preserved organic materials impossible to find at Pompeii: wooden fu