POMPEII AND HERCULANEUM

An Archaeological Unit This means that you base your answers on the evidence that has been dug out of the ground at the two sites. Don’t make general points about the Romans not backed up by Pompeii or Herculaneum evidence. Don’t refer to other Roman archaeological sites.

The exception The Pliny letters are two letters written by an eyewitness. Strictly speaking they are not archaeological evidence as the original letters are lost. What we have are copies of long lost originals. However they form part of the course.

What happened? Pompeii and Herculaneum were two thriving Roman towns in the first century AD Nowadays we would be aware of danger signs from Vesuvius – earthquakes tremors etc – they were not On the morning of 24 August 79AD Vesuvius underwent a destructive Plinian eruption Some fled many decided to stay put.

Mount Vesuvius spawned a deadly cloud of stones, ash and fumes to a height of 20.5 miles, spewing molten rock and pulverized pumice at the rate of 1.5 million tons per second, ultimately releasing a hundred thousand times the thermal energy released by the Hiroshima bombing.[2] The towns of Pompeii and Herculaneum were obliterated and buried underneath massive pyroclastic flows.[2][1] An estimated 16,000 people died from the eruption.

The effects of the eruption An ash column was fired some 20 miles into the air. The wind blew the cloud over Pompeii where it started to drop as a mixture of fine ash, tephra and volcanic bombs. Everything went dark. There were also earthquakes and tsunamis throughout the Bay of Naples area Towards the afternoon the ash column collapsed triggering pyroclastic surges which killed anyone in their way.

Pompeii A lot of people remained in Pompeii and died there killed by poisonous gas, by collapsing houses or in a pyroclastic surge. Pompeii was buried by falling ash to a depth of three metres. You could still see the tops of the houses so there was a lot of looting and digging after the eruption. The site was gradually forgotten and returned to farming. It was rediscovered in the eighteenth century and most of it has been excavated.

Herculaneum Herculaneum was hit by a series of pyroclastic surges. There was no-one in it at the time but people waiting for rescue down on the beaches were incinerated. A few days later the town was completely buried to a depth of 10 metres by a lahar – a wave of scalding mud. No-one knew where it was so there was no looting in Roman times. It was also discovered in the eighteenth century and about half has been excavated