Everything Everywhere Daily: History, Science, Geography & More - The Destruction and Rediscovery of Pompeii

Episode Date: January 11, 2023

In the year 79, Mount Vesuvius, a volcano located east of the modern-day city of Naples, erupted.  Vesuvius had erupted before, but this eruption was different. It ejected an enormous amount of ash which completely buried several towns and cities below the mountain. Almost 2,000 years later, the largest of those cities, Pompeii, was rediscovered, and what archeologists found revolutionized our understanding of the ancient world.  Learn more about the destruction and rediscovery of Pompeii on this episode of Everything Everywhere Daily. Subscribe to the podcast!  https://link.chtbl.com/EverythingEverywhere?sid=ShowNotes -------------------------------- Executive Producer: Charles Daniel Associate Producers: Peter Bennett & Thor Thomsen   Become a supporter on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/everythingeverywhere Update your podcast app at newpodcastapps.com Discord Server: https://discord.gg/UkRUJFh Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/everythingeverywhere/ Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/EverythingEverywhere Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/everythingeverywheredaily Twitter: https://twitter.com/everywheretrip Website: https://everything-everywhere.com/everything-everywhere-daily-podcast/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In the year 79, Mount Vesuvius, a volcano located east of the modern-day city of Naples, erupted. Vesuvius had erupted before, but this eruption was different. It ejected an enormous amount of ash which completely buried several towns and cities below the mountain. Almost 2,000 years later, the largest of those cities, Pompeii, was rediscovered, and when archaeologists found, revolutionized our understanding of the ancient world. Learn more about the destruction and rediscovery of Pompeii on this episode of Everything Everywhere Daily. What if your perceptions about the past were wrong? ThruLine is a podcast that takes you back in time to uncover the parts of the story that may have gone unnoticed.

It effectively turned day into night and how it shaped the world now. Time travel with us every week on the ThruLine podcast from NPR. I've been asked why I talk so much about ancient Rome, and there are two answers to that question. The first is that Rome had an inordinate. an amount of influence on the Western world, which can still be felt today. Everything from our alphabet or the months of the year all come from Rome. Perhaps more importantly, we just know a lot more about Rome than we do about other ancient cultures. The Romans tended to build in stone rather than wood, so we have more ruins. We have many texts and full books which were written by Romans,

which is much more than we have from many other ancient civilizations. However, we also have something else, a singular archaeological discovery of an entire Roman city that was better preserved than anything else from the ancient world. Pompeii. Pompeii had its start in the 7th century BC as a Greek colony. Located on the Bay of Naples, it was frequented by Greek and Phoenician sailors. It later became an Etruscan city and then was settled by the Samanites, a people living on the Italian peninsula. After the Romans defeated them in the Saminite wars, the city came under Roman control and influence. It became a popular city, along with the nearby city of Neopolis, now called Naples, it was a resort city for elite Romans. And not only that, the slopes of Mount

Vesuvius was prime agricultural real estate due to its fertile volcanic soils, and it was well known for its vineyards. Mount Vesuvius is a stratovolcano that was created in the collision of the European and African tectonic plates. It's part of a much larger volcanic region in Italy that includes other famous volcanoes such as Mount Etna and Stromboli. Vesuvius has been active ever since humans inhabited the area. Throughout the centuries, the mountain has erupted, and on several occasions there were even eruptions larger than what occurred in the year 79, including one massive eruption about 4,000 years ago. In the year 79, Titus was the emperor of Rome. Pompeii was a thriving port city of about

12,000 people with neighboring villages in the vicinity. The eruption of Vesuvius wasn't a sudden thing that took everyone by surprise. There had been earthquakes for several years leading up of the eruption. The date when the eruption began is often listed as August 24th, 79, but there is some debate as to the exact date. It could possibly have happened in September or October. Much of what we know of the eruption came from the writings of Pliny the Younger. He was a Roman magistrate who wrote many letters which survived. He was raised by his uncle Pliny the elder who died in the eruption. He witnessed the eruption from the town of Messenum, 29 kilometers or 18 miles from Vesuvius, across the Bay of Naples. The eruption began around 1 p.m. with a column of smoke and ash rising

out of the volcano and pumice raining down all over the region. This lasted for about 18 hours, and it gave most of the residents of Pompeii and the surrounding region time to flee. One of the common misconceptions people have about Pompeii is that everybody died in the eruption. Based on the number of bodies discovered, it's likely that most of the population managed to escape, and most people probably managed to escape with some money and jewelry. At some point the next day, either at night or in the early morning, pyroclastic flows began to come down the mountain. And here I need to explain exactly what a pyroclastic flow is because it's truly terrifying.

A pyroclastic flow is an incredibly hot cloud of gas and ash that comes from a volcano and incredibly high speeds. And by hot, I mean temperatures of a thousand degrees Celsius or 1,800 degrees Fahrenheit. And by high speeds, I mean they can reach speeds up to 7.5.000. hundred kilometers per hour or 430 miles per hour. It was the pyroclastic flows that killed everyone in Pompeii. And it wasn't a pleasant death. It was quick, but it was not pleasant. When the superheated gases hit people, their soft tissues would have vaporized instantly. One body found in Pompeii literally had its brain matter turned into a glassy substance. Some people near the shore

were trapped in stone buildings and were baked alive from the heat. Over the next several hours, the super hot gas and ash piled up all over the city. When the eruption finally ended, survivors went to see what they could salvage, but they couldn't find anything other than the tops of a few buildings. The entire city was gone, having been buried by Vesuvius. It wasn't just Pompeii which disappeared. The nearby town of Herculaneum was gone, as well as all of the surrounding villas and their vineyards and fields. Pompeii wasn't forgotten. The emperor sent two former consuls to Pompey to assist the survivors and devoted large sums of money to their help. He later visited the site himself. However, there were no efforts made at excavation or recovery.

Some thieves dug into buildings and stole statues and other valuables, but that was it. Over the next several hundred years, there were more eruptions that buried Pompey even deeper. Pompeii was remembered as something in history, but the exact location of the city ultimately was lost. Fast forward about 1,500 years. There were people who made limited discoveries in Pompeii. In 1592, one architect who was building an underground aqueduct discovered a building with paintings on the walls. There were other very limited excavations of single buildings in 1889 and 1693. However, the discovery which really changed everything took place in 1738.

The foundations for a palace for Charles Bourbonne the King of Naples was being built when they happened upon the ruins of the nearby town of Herculaneum. The king was very interested in the discoveries. The high quality of the finds actually gave prestige to Naples. They didn't actually know what they had found initially. They just knew it was Roman ruins. And this resulted in continued excavations for the next several decades. In 1763, the ruins were finally identified as the lost city of Pompeii.

The first proper excavations were begun by the Swiss architect Carl Weber in 1749. Limited excavations continued for several decades. When Napoleon Bonaparte conquered Italy, he seized the land and employed 700 workers to work on the excavation. The early excavation efforts were not as professional and painstaking as modern archaeology is, and they ended up causing a great deal of damage to many of the buildings. The earliest digs at the site were focused on collecting artifacts, not preserving the structures, that were found. But as excavations continued through the 19th and early 20th centuries, many modern archaeology techniques were developed at Pompeii. Over time, as more and more

discoveries were made, Pompey provided a glimpse into the ancient world like no other archaeological find in history. In the 19th century, the lead archaeologist Giuseppe Ferrelli made an astonishing discovery. They would periodically come across empty spaces in the ash. He eventually realized that these gaps were the spaces left by decomposed remains of people. He developed a technique whereby they would inject plaster into the spaces. By doing so, they could capture the positions that the people were in when they were overcome by hot ash and died. Another thing that was discovered were original scrolls at a private library in a villa in Herculaneum. Scrolls being written on organic matter are something from the ancient world which are almost never found. When they are, they're usually

found in extremely dry environments like in Egypt or Israel. The Herculaneum scrolls were often carbonized from the heat and so brittle that if attempts were made to unroll them, they would disintegrate. Researchers have finally figured out how to read the scrolls without damaging them. By using a technique called X-ray phase contrast tomography, they are able to scan individual layers of the scroll and decipher what was written on the pages. Artwork can be found in most of the dwellings. These include paintings on the walls and mosaics on the floors. The paintings show just how colorful and decorated even some modest Roman homes were. Many of the mosaics and paintings show an incredible amount of talent. An entire amphitheater and forum has been on earth,

as have some of the city walls and all of the stone streets, which are still in pristine condition. Perhaps the biggest discoveries to come out of Pompeii have been the little things. So much of Roman history has to do with emperors, generals, or other historical figures. Pompeii showed how regular people lived their day-to-day lives. For example, in the streets, you can see the wheel ruts, which were used by wagons. But of even more interest are the stepping stones that periodically go across the street. The streets were often filled with water and filth at that time, so crossing the street would mean getting dirty. So there were stepping stones on each block to let you cross without getting wet. There was also a great deal of graffiti

which has been found all over Pompeii. The nature of the graffiti is as varied as the people who live there. One man wrote, quote, Gaius Pumidius Dilfius was here and left a date that corresponds to October 3rd, 78. Another was a dedication of love, which read, quote, health to you, Victoria, and wherever you are, may you sneeze sweetly. Another is an insult that said, quote, one speaks of sheep-faced Linaeus, strutting about like a peacock and giving himself heirs on the strength of his good looks. Yet another was a memorial to a friend, which read, Pyrrhus to his chum Chias. I'm sorry to hear you are dead, and so goodbye. There were also many political campaign slogans written all over town.

One of them was, quote, Marcus Serenius for Adial. Some people love him, some are loved by him, I can't stand him. Pompeii also had brothels that were discovered. In the name of keeping the show family friendly, I'll simply say that the artwork inside could be used as a sort of menu of the services provided. Likewise, there are also symbols carved into buildings along the streets, pointing the way to the establishments. Not everything in Pompeii has been excavated. The unexcavated parts are slowly being uncovered and new discoveries are still being made. One of the most recent discoveries was that of the thermopolium in 2020, which was a Roman fast food stand.

In 2021, an entire ceremonial chariot was discovered. While the ash that covered Pompeii did a masterful job of preserving everything, Once the site was excavated, everything was now exposed to the elements, and this resulted in many buildings starting to decay, and one of the biggest projects at Pompey now is protecting what has been unearthed. Plants have taken root in many of the buildings, and exposure to rain has weakened some of the walls, which have caused some of them to collapse. So most activity in Pompey today is aimed at preservation, not new excavation. Pompey is, without question, the greatest archaeological site in the world. There is nowhere else on the planet where so much has been preserved so well. Given the unique circumstances surrounding the quick burial of the city,

it's unlikely that we'll ever find something like Pompeii again. I should note that Mount Vesuvius is still there and it is still an active volcano. The last eruption occurred in 1944, but that isn't very long in volcanic terms. it literally could start erupting again tomorrow. I've personally been to Pompey twice, and to be honest, I could easily go several more times. It's an entire city, and it's difficult to see everything in a single visit. Despite my two visits, I haven't gotten to Herculaneum, which is still high in my to-do list. In addition to just walking the streets of Pompeii and seeing the well-preserved buildings,

there's also a museum on site where you can see many of the artifacts which have been recovered, as well as the plaster casts of the people who were found in the ash. If you're ever in Italy, I highly recommend making a special trip to see it. It is the closest you can come to experiencing what everyday life was like for someone living in ancient Rome 2,000 years ago. The executive producer of Everything Everywhere Daily is Charles Daniel. The associate producers are Thor Thompson and Peter Bennett. Today's review comes from listener Ray Charles Barkley over at Apple Podcasts in the United States.

They write, in defense of independent podgers. Gary, no need to read on this pod, but I just felt compelled to leave a five-star review to counteract that inane one-star review you just read. I appreciate your industriousness, your curiosity, and the humanity you infuse into each topic. Anyone mistaking this bold, independent effort to inject serendipity into our information streams for arrogance needs to listen more. Thanks for what you do. Well, thank you, Ray Charles Barkley. I personally don't think I'm that arrogant. In fact, I'd call myself pretty humble. Actually, I'd go one step further and say that I'm more humble than any of you that are listening. In fact, I might be

the most humble person on the planet, and my humility is so great that monuments should be erected to my humility so that future generations will know just how humble I am. Remember, if you leave a review or send me a boost to gram, you two can have it read on the show.