Interesting. Evidently extreme heat caused all the fatalities in Pompeii as well as Herculaneum, which is not what was previously believed.
Thanks for the ping. This study says that extreme heat killed people somewhat beyond the area covered by the pyroclastic flow. That makes sense. But I think a lot of people were smothered by falling ashes in areas that were not covered by the pyroclastic flow.
In Herculaneum, I believe the only human remains ever found were carbonized bones. Since the pyroclastic flows came straight down onto the town, assuming most didn’t just get out when the quakes started, the heat may have just vaporized most of the victims. I’d like to go sometime, particularly to H to places off-limits to tourists. There are doors still on working hinges, one of the gymnasiums still has the sporting equipment in orderly stacks on the floor (a yearly athletic contest was under way when the mountain blew its stack), upper storeys are preserved...