He was an unlucky person in an ill-fated place: A man whose head was seemingly crushed by a massive boulder as he fled Pompeii during the eruption of Mt. Vesuvius in 79 A.D. Now, his head has been found, along with the reason for his death, officials from the Pompeii Archaeological Park in Italy report.

Archaeologists located the open-mouthed skull near the unfortunate man’s body, which was unearthed in May. The find negates their previous theory that the man was crushed by the stone block (thought to be a door jamb) while trying to flee the second phase of the eruption that preserved much of the ancient Roman city beneath rock and ash.

“Now we know that the death was