Pompeii, the Volcanic Eruption of Mt. Vesuvius

The Roman Army was sent in to look for any survivors. They couldn’t dig through the newly formed concrete very effectively though, so they could dig up very little. No survivors were found but they managed to get out some statues. No plans for uncovering and repairing Pompeii were ever made and the Romans decided to forget about Pompeii.

Fifteen-hundred years later, the first remains of Pompeii were discovered. This first discovery of Pompeii was in 1595. The discoverers didn’t care much for the city. All they did was dig up some treasures and looted them, taking them and selling them, not caring about preserving the city. Pompeii was then forgotten about again until 1710 when a well digger dug up part of a theater. The official excavation of the area started in 1748. King Victor Emmanuel II of Italy put Giuseppe Fiorelli in charge of the excavation. The way Fiorelli directed the excavation was amazing. He divided the city into nine regions. As each region was dug out it was numbered. Then every block of each region was given a number as it was dug out and finally every building on every block was given a number. This way, each building could easily be identified by giving it a number. For example, a building labeled 1.6.4 would go to building number four of the sixth block of the first region.

Bodies of people frozen in time were found. The concrete that formed when it rained had preserved them. People were found still in the positions they were in when they died. There were people who were caught screaming or trying to protect themselves by holding clothing over their faces and some were found even trying to protect their family by shielding them with themselves. Objects were also found, a surgeon’s tools for example.

The eruption of Vesuvius has three sides to it. The first side is the disaster side. Two cities completely buried, like they had never even existed. Thousands of people were trapped inside of the cities without any way to protect themselves from the burning hot ash that rushed through the city, or from the tons of pumice that bombarded their homes. Not only were their lives taken, but any sign of them was also erased. Their homes and the city they had known and lived in, gone, their story untold for over a thousand years. The second side of the eruption is the great discovery of the cities. They are a window looking into the past itself. The cities now are fully uncovered and much has been learned about life in the Roman Empire from it. The third is the fear that something like this could happen again. Maybe there are volcanoes hidden, inactive for hundreds of years that are just sitting and building up pressure. It could happen again, but hopefully now that we have better technology for detecting eruptions it won’t and such a disaster will never happen again.