ITALY: Pompeii, Herculaneum, Mt Vesuvius

Pompeii was founded by Greek colonists, probably around the 9-8th century BC. After many centuries and battles it became a Roman city. 

Nearby, Herculaneum was a wealthy seaside escape for prosperous Roman citizens. 

The two cities are about 11 miles apart. 

They both were destroyed on August 24th AD 79 when Mount Vesuvius erupted. The devastation of the eruption was unprecedented. 

Around 2,000 people died in Pompeii and 300 are known to have died in Herculaneum, however, the entire death toll in the area could have been around 16,000.

Both cities are currently UNESCO World Heritage Sites. 

Pompeii was a busy port city and was in a prime location for trade as well as farming.

These are chariot wheels that wore grooves into the busy streets of Pompeii

An icon signifying the name of the neighbourhood

Before the eruption of Vesuvius, Pompeii was a bustling city of 12,000 people.

This was where they ground the grains to make flour. A wooden post would have gone through the hole and either donkeys or slaves would have turned them. The oven is in the background.

This is an original fast-food kitchen where people would get a meal on the run. Only the wealthy had kitchens. 

It had a complex water system, an Amphitheatre, gymnasium, a port and about 100 streets.

Pompeii was six miles (10km) away from the volcano and was initially hit by falling volcanic debris, causing the houses to collapse and suffocate those inside. 

The city was then hit by a gas surge, hurtling a hot wave of ash, toxic gas, and debris that burnt the people alive and buried the city and its citizens.  

The city of Pompeii was covered in at least 19 feet (6 metres) of volcanic debris and lay buried for more than 1,500 years before it was discovered in the late 16th century and excavations began.  

Archaeologists have unearthed 1,150 bodies out of 2,000 in Pompeii's wreckage. To create the preserved bodies at Pompeii plaster was poured into soft cavities in the ground. These plaster casts show the horrific way the people died.

Eleven miles from Pompeii, on the other side of the volcano, is the city of Herculaneum. 

Herculaneum ruins

Herculaneum was a wealthy seaside city with resort homes for affluent Romans. The first fragments of the lost Roman town were discovered by chance in 1709, during the drilling of a well for a monastery.

At the time, Herculaneum was on the coast. People tried to escape, unsuccessfully, into boats. These are the boat sheds where skeletons were found.

Because of its location along the coast and to the west of Mount Vesuvius, Herculaneum was destroyed in a different manner. The intense heat of melted rock, volcanic gases and ash and vaporized the victims instantly.

Herculaneum was perfectly preserved by a metres thick layer of volcanic ash which was then covered in a lava flow which turned to stone, preserving even organic remains, including the skeletons. 

The ash that covered Herculaneum carbonized, thereby preserving the wood of roofs, beds, and doors, as well as keeping organic material like food

 

A bedframe

The skeletons found at Herculaneum are unique because there are no other groups of actual skeletons of people from over 1900 years ago that have been so well preserved, providing valuable evidence of different aspects of life in the ancient Roman empire.

Wood beams inside a home

Unlike many of the other preserved organic materials found in Herculaneum, the timbers were not carbonized. They were smashed into wet sand, then kept safe by subsequent pyroclastic flows that hardened into layers of air-tight rock.

The buildings in Herculaneum are much better preserved than those in Pompeii; many of them have their upper floors still intact, and a couple even have their original wooden balcony. 

Excavations continued sporadically since the discovery and today 75% of the town remains buried. 

The best place to see the remains of both Pompeii and Herculaneum is not at the sites, but, in Naples in the Archeology Museum.

Incredible mosaic tiles have been discovered. Some are from the floor, and some are wall portraits. 

This floor tile mosaic has very small tiles, especially the birds, making it possible for very intricate details.

The smaller the tiles, the more intricate and detailed the patterns. The intricate tile work was likely from Greece and brought to Rome. The Greeks were good at the arts and philosophy, and the Romans were not as strong in the arts but great at engineering feats. 

I've put my finger in this picture to get a scale of the size of the tiles. The small tiles in this portrait show the lines in the woman’s face and the strands in her hair. 

The mosaic depicts a "behind the scenes" in the theatre preparing for a satyr play. An elderly choregos (producer or financier of the play) sits between masks and teaches 2 young actors wearing goat skins. A character in the play wears a laurel wreath and plays 2 flutes. An actor in the back right has someone helping him put his costume on. 

The pillars are covered in glass tiles.

More glass mosaics. These would have been in a wall with a niche for a statue.

The Romans had a fixation with phalanx symbols. They believed it warded off evil spirits. 

I found this in the road in a cobble stones in Pompeii in front of a house.

The Archeology Museum has a whole room dedicated to phalanx symbols found in Pompeii and Herculaneum.

The wealth in Herculaneum was astronomical, especially in the Papyrus House, which was the home of Caesar's father-in-law. These homes were just their "country homes" and they would have had far bigger and far more ostentatious homes in Rome.

Visiting the sites was interesting, but, for me, going to the museum was astounding to see what was in their homes, how they lived, and mosaic tiles showing their beliefs and lifestyles. 

The question begs to be answered – is Vesuvius still an active volcano? The answer is yes. 

And the next question – will it have a devastating eruption again? And the answer to this is also yes.

And the age-old question  “when”, cannot be answered.