Archeologists found patches of red on the skeleton – the oxidised residue of the man’s blood.

They will now remove the skeleton and box to a laboratory.

“We expect to find precious objects – or at least objects that were precious to him,” said archeologist Ivan Varriale. “We will obtain the exact measurements of the skeleton with a high definition scanner and then we will be able to make a replica with a 3D printer.

“He was trying to take shelter on the beach but the force of the eruption was so strong that it was able to hurl marble columns 20 metres or more.”

The timber found around the skeleton includes wooden beams from the villas that made up the ancient town of Herculaneum as well as tree trunks, which were swept down towards the beach by the tremendous force of the volcanic eruption.

Among the timber remains, the most spectacular find was a perfectly-preserved, 30ft-long wooden table made of spruce pine.

The skeleton has been dubbed “the last fugitive”. It was found close to a line of boat sheds where, in the 1980s, archeologists discovered the remains of around 300 Roman men, women and children who died as they desperately waited for evacuation by sea.