The legendary, frozen bodies of Pompeii are actually not real human flesh and are the result of archaeological trickery. Pompeii was first discovered in 1748 and excavation began shortly thereafter, revealing the first bodies buried under the centuries old and hardened ash-rich earth. As the centuries wore on the ash hardened into a type of hard cement, while the flesh decomposed. What was left after this process was perfectly preserved cavities that contained skeletons, left in the same positions they had died in. Archeologists would then fill these voids with plaster. Thus the bodies you see are actually plaster encased skeletons. In some cases the details left in the ash-cement are so fine that even facial features remain.

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