The Ancients - Pompeii: The Eruption of Vesuvius

Episode Date: August 31, 2023

This episode contains references to scenes that some listeners may find distressingIn 79 AD, ancient armageddon hit Pompeii: Mount Vesuvius erupted, freezing in time a town and its inhabitants.Nearly 2000 years on, Pompeii's story continues. In the last episode of our special mini series, we're exploring the stages of the eruption, how the town was buried, and how it was eventually found nearly 1500 years later.Hear from our only eyewitness account, Pliny the Younger, on what the tragedy looked like, discover what the Romans knew after the eruption and why they came back, and how Caroline Bonaparte, Napoleon's sister, contributed to first efforts of public conservation.The series was written and produced by Elena GuthrieThe Assistant Producer was Annie ColoeIt was edited and mixed by Aidan LonerganThe voice actor was Wilfred DugganDiscover the past on History Hit with ad-free original podcasts and documentaries released weekly presented by world renowned historians like Dan Snow, Suzannah Lipscomb, Lucy Worsley, Matt Lewis, Tristan Hughes and more. Get 50% off your first 3 months with code ANCIENTS. Download the app on your smart TV or in the app store or sign up here.You can take part in our listener survey here.For more Ancient's content, subscribe to our Ancient's newsletter here.

Hi, I'm Tristan Hughes, and if you would like the Ancient ad-free, get early access and bonus episodes, sign up to History Hit. With a History Hit subscription, you can also watch hundreds of hours of original documentaries, including my recent documentary all about Petra and the Nabataeans, and enjoy a new release every week. Sign up now by visiting historyhit.com slash subscribe. Some were shouting. Some were calling for their parents, their children or their wives, and trying to recognise them by their voices. Some people were so frightened of dying that they actually prayed for death. Many begged for the help of the gods, but even more imagined that there were no gods left

and that the last eternal night had fallen on the world. Those are the words of Pliny the Younger, the only surviving eyewitness account of that fateful day in 79 AD when Armageddon hit Pompeii. It's the ancients from history hit. I'm Tristan Hughes, your host, and in today's episode, where we are continuing our special series on Pompeii, brought to you from the Bay of Naples itself. And this time we're talking all about the eruption and discovery. We'll be exploring

what actually happened during the eruption of Vesuvius in 79 AD and the key characters involved. So the elder Pliny goes off with the fleet and he sails across the Bay of Naples and as this happens this cloud starts to rain pumice down upon him and this pumice flow gets heavier and heavier. Meeting with experts to shine a light on the human tragedy. The main cause of death is likely thermal shock, but also asphyxiation because you cannot breathe that superheated air. And how this ancient city, buried by metres of volcanic debris for over 1,500 years, was rediscovered.

They always knew that Pompeii existed. It's on maps dating right back even to the 4th century. There's a map with the words Pompeii. So they knew it was here, they just didn't really know where. This is episode 4. How Pompeii was lost and found. Before that infamous day in 79 AD, when Mount Vesuvius finally erupted, Pompeii was a prosperous port town.

Located south of ancient Rome, along the west coast of Italy in what is now modern-day Naples, the region of Campania, Pompeii was a wealthy Roman colony. It was situated only about 10 kilometres from Vesuvius and was full of monumental buildings, elaborate villas and plenty of trade. The proximity to Vesuvius may have been Pompeii's downfall, but it was also a key source of its wealth. The volcanic rich soil made Pompeii a hub for olives, grapes and wine. The streets were busy with people running errands, bustling between shops, taverns, bathhouses and villas. There was always something going on. Life was busy, life was good. Little did they know that it was all about to come to a fiery burning end. Days before the eruption,

the surrounding area of Pompeii had been experiencing tremors. Now these were nothing new in this region of Italy. As Pliny the Younger details in one of his letters to the Roman historian Tacitus, tremors were not particularly alarming because they are frequent in Campania. In fact, Vesuvius had interrupted for 700 years by that point. So it's fair to say, I don't think they had any idea that they were living in the shadow of an active volcano. I think it's really interesting when you look at one of the really iconic wall paintings that's come out of Pompeii. That's Daisy Dunn, classicist and writer.

You have a picture of what's very probably Vesuvius, and you have the wine god Bacchus, and he's actually wearing this very funky grape outfit, and he's presiding over all these vineyards, and you can see all these vines growing all the way up Vesuvius and I think when you look at that picture you think this is not the picture you have in mind you look at Vesuvius today you think of it as being in this very very virulent quite frightening place when you look at the volcano in itself it's a real sort of force but I think when you look at in that picture you see it through the eyes of the people who were living in Pompeii at that time we have a source for example describing it as a vineyard-covered mountain.

That was how it was seen. It was seen to be green. It was a place of great abundance and fertility. Which made what happened all the more calamitous. No-one saw it coming. The darkness spread over us. But it was not the darkness of a moonless or cloudy night. But it was just as if the lamps had been put out in a completely closed room. Vesuvius had erupted.

It's thought that just after noon, on the traditional date of the 24th of August, 79 AD, we'll come back to the date question in a bit, don't you worry. But let's stay on that date for the moment. On that day, traditionally, a huge column of rock and ash erupted from Vesuvius into the air miles high. In his letters to Tacitus, 25 years after the event, roughly 25 years later, Oplini the Younger describes the terrifying scene which he witnessed from nearby Mycenae. I cannot give you a more exact description than of likening it to that of a pine tree,

for it shot up to a great height in the form of a very tall trunk, which spread itself out at the top into sort of branches. Archaeologists characterised the eruption in two stages. The first stage, which lasted more than 12 hours, saw ash, pumice and rock spewed high into the sky, creating a dark cloud that veiled the sky and covered nearby towns such as Pompeii. What followed was all of this material falling down on the people below, a constant hailstorm of volcanic debris. This, combined with earthquakes, damaged buildings, caused roofs to cave in

and injured people trying to escape and find cover. The sun was blocked because of this great cloud, and the city fell into total darkness. Dense blackness loomed over us, denser and blacker than any night. Ashes were falling, stones which were black, charred and split by the fires. Flames and fires rising high blazed forth. But the worst was yet to come. The next day the second stage produced pyroclastic surges, continuous rolling clouds of molten hot gas and debris which flowed down the side of Vesuvius,

colliding into Pompeii at inescapable speeds. Several surges engulfed Pompeii alongside other settlements nearby Vesuvius such as Herculaneum. These terrifying clouds of death destroyed everything in their path. Everyone caught up in them trying to escape was instantly killed and the land was changed forever. Pompeii was finally buried under nearly 10 metres of ash and pumice, bodies included for over a thousand years. The only eyewitness account to survive

is that of Roman author, lawyer and statesman Gaius Plinius Caecilius Secondus otherwise known as Pliny the Younger He was 17 years old when Vesuvius erupted so a mid-boy really Here's Daisy again His uncle was Pliny the Elder who wrote the encyclopedia He was also admiral of the fleet nearby in the Bay of Naples at this time Here's Daisy again. began and the elder pinny was alerted by his sister to this amazing cloud which was rising

in the distance that's all they saw at the beginning of early afternoon and he wanted to go and have a closer look at it so he sort of got his shoes had a look and thought i really really want to go and inspect this at closer quarters bear in mind he's you know a natural scientist he's writing this great monumental encyclopedia he's a very curious man he wants to see what's going on and as he's also admiral of the fleet he has this whole fleet at his disposal so he says to his nephew i'm going to go and have a look would you like to come with me and the 17 year old boy says no i'd rather stay at home with with mum and get on with my research my studies so he stays with his books it's very unusual to unexpected choice maybe but um ultimately a sensible one so the elder plinny goes off with the fleet and he

sails across the bay of naples and as this happens this cloud starts to rain pumice down upon him and this pumice flow gets heavier and heavier and ultimately the pumice gets so thick that it actually forms kind of masses on the water so Pliny the Elder can't actually go to the place where he wanted to he'd actually received just before he left a message from a friend of his who said she was just basically begging him for help she said we can't get out you know please bring help so Pliny the Elder doesn't seem to be able to reach her. So he continues, he puts in where he can, which is at Stabiae, which is about 16 kilometres from the volcano. And he meets up with a friend there and he kind of lives out the rest of the eruption at that site.

Pliny the Younger records his uncle's journey across the bay. By now, ashes were falling on the ships, whiter and thicker the nearer they approached. Suddenly they were in shallow water and the shoreline bars their way with debris from the mountain. My uncle hesitated, momentarily wondering whether to turn back. But then, as the steersman advised that course, he said to him, But then, as the steersman advised that course, he said to him, Fortune favours the brave. Pliny the Elder wanted to rescue as many people as possible,

but he was unable to make a landfall near Pompeii. The volcanic debris blocking his journey meant that his ships had to change course. They headed for Stabiae further south, where he met up with one of his frightened friends, a man called Pomponianus. Keeping a relaxed mood, Pliny calmed the panicking man. He gave orders to be conveyed to the bath. After bathing, he reclined and dined in cheerful mood, or apparently cheerful, which was just as impressive. in cheerful mood, or apparently cheerful, which was just as impressive. Together they dined in the shadow of the erupting Vesuvius, and as volcanic debris continued to fall outside, Pliny even managed to steal a few hours' sleep. But he didn't sleep for long.

Pliny was awakened as more massive earthquakes gripped the whole region. Unable to stay in Pomponianus' villa any longer because of the sheer amount of pumice that had fallen, in the early morning, Pliny the Elder and his companions decided to make a run for it. They used strips of cloth to fasten pillows on their heads as a protection against falling stones. By now it was daylight elsewhere, but there it was blacker and denser than any night. Pliny and his companions were running a daunting gauntlet, their pillows acting as makeshift shields in their desperate attempt to protect themselves from the relentless falling material. But the effort was futile. You ask me to write you something about the death of my uncle. They decided to go down to the shore to see from close up if anything was possible by sea.

But it remained as rough and uncooperative as before. Resting in the shade of a sail, he drank once or twice from the cold water he had asked for. Then came a smell of sulphur, announcing the flames, and the flames themselves, sending others into flight, but reviving him. Supported by two small slaves, he stood up and immediately collapsed. As I understand it, his breathing was obstructed by the dust-laden air, and his innards, which were never strong and often blocked or upset, simply shut down. When daylight came again two days after he died,

his body was found untouched, unharmed, in the clothing that he had had on. He looked more asleep than dead. It is believed that Pliny the Elder perished from asphyxiation, unable to breathe because of these volcanic gases. He would prove the most high-profile casualty of the eruption, the man's daredevil venture across the Bay of Naples had proven a one-way trip. He perished in a devastation of the loveliest of lands, in a memorable disaster shared by peoples and cities. But this will be a kind of eternal life for him. eternal life for him. For nearly 1500 years following the infamous eruption of Vesuvius, the classic story goes that Pompeii was lost and remained undiscovered. But is this actually true?

I'm teaming up with archaeologist Dr Mario Grimaldi to see some fascinating evidence of a Roman return, hiding in plain sight right at the centre of Pompeii in the Forum. Mario, even after the eruption of 79, we have evidence of Romans coming back to Pompeii in the near future. Yes, Tristan. Now we are in front of a very important part of this history because we know that after the eruption of a very important part of this history, because we know that after the eruption of 1979 from the Vesuvius,

I arrived in this area, six meters of material. Six meters? Yeah, more high than this building. And all this building was completely covered. This building was also completely decorated with marble in the facade. And now we don't see this decoration because immediately after the eruption of 79, the first excavators arrived in this area and put out of this material like a cave for all the area of the forum. So they dug down to try and get to it. And created a ramp to put out from the city, from this area, the marble and the sculptures from the forum. Today, much of the marble that originally covered

Pompeii's forum has been lost. Statue plinths were robbed of their decoration, removed by these first excavators, intent on looting the monumental heart of Pompeii. intent on looting the monumental heart of Pompeii. But there's one of these statue plinths that has survived to this day with the marble intact in the forum, and it's even got the writing still preserved of who the statue was of, the bronze statue that was originally up here. It reads, to a man called Sallust. Whilst we don't know much about who this Sallust was, the fact that he had

enough wealth and political sway to have a marble plinth and statue erected at the heart of Pompeii suggests that he was a very influential man in the town. His name survives, his statue does not. His name survives, his statue does not. After the eruption, it's fascinating to think that groups of Romans returned to Pompeii intent on plundering its marble facades and bronze statues, having created ramps to plough through metres of volcanic material. Remarkable evidence that you can still see today. We are in the southwest area of Pompeii. We have the cut on the buildings that was destroyed from the ramp created in this area to put out the marble decoration, the material from

the forum, from the area of the forum outside outside of the city. And also today, the visitors exit for another round. So Pompeii wasn't totally lost. Parts of the town were still sticking out above this metre's worth of ash and rock. So Romans were able to find indicators of where parts of Pompeii were and from there they were able to dig down into the material and quarry out some of this important material, for instance, this marble from the Forum. And that in itself is a really interesting part of Pompeii's story following the eruption of Vesuvius. I'm Professor Susanna Lipscomb, and on not just the Tudors from History Hit, my guests and I run through the full gamut of human emotion and experience. From the heartbreak

of the Virgin Queen. Elizabeth not being able to marry arguably the only man in the world she ever really wanted to marry, may have for that reason not married anyone else. To a prenatal battle of the sexes. A male and a female seed meet in the womb at conception and whichever one is stronger determines the sex of the unborn child. From Lady Jane Grey facing her executioner. You can't help but feel just the utmost sympathy for this young girl.

To why the laughing cavalier is, well, laughing. He strikes me as someone who goes off on a sort of swaggering booze up. Subscribe now to Not Just the Tudors from History Hit, wherever you get your podcasts. Pompeii, therefore, it wasn't totally lost. The Romans knew where it was and even returned. But there were no large-scale attempts by the Romans to excavate Pompeii. But the next part of this extraordinary town story, well, we have to go to the late 16th century, some 1,500 years later.

Enter Dr Sophie Hay. Pompeii was first rediscovered in 1594 when an engineer called Domenico Fontana was digging a canal to link up the Sarno River with a factory nearby. Dr Sophie Hay, a good friend of the podcast, is an archaeologist who works at Pompeii and has been specialising in the city for over 20 years. She knows these walls better than anyone. And he just basically, he came across this hill,

which was known as La Civita, which means settlement. So they knew that there was something here, they didn't know what. And he dug a canal underground and every other step he was hitting a wall. And he even raised this. He said, should I be doing this? We seem to have discovered something ancient. And they were like, at the time, they just were not interested in antiquity. The ethic of the idea of the time was not an interest in antiquity. So he plowed literally through Pompeii in this tunnel underground but it really wasn't until excavations sort of formally started in Herculaneum in 1748. So Herculaneum was discovered in 1709 essentially by a farmer digging a well that they then transferred their work here to

Pompeii and the first building they really discovered was the amphitheatre, some of which may have been sort of still popping out of the volcanic material, but we're not quite sure. But literally, they started on the amphitheatre. And compared to what they were finding in Herculaneum, it was a massive disappointment here. Because what they were looking for in those days was not the ancient town. They just wanted statuary and frescoes to adorn the palaces of the then Spanish kings that were ruling in Naples. And they just wanted stuff to look nice in their houses. So a big amphitheater with seating and an arena really wasn't the best start. So they actually backfilled it all again, unbelievably. Again, the idea of an archaeological park or interest to the public, none whatsoever. And it wasn't until 1755 when a farmer was ploughing the land above

and out popped this unique marble pillar. And we're sitting in the house that they first excavated. This is the first domestic building they ever excavated, the house of Julia Felix, which is right by the amphitheatre. And in fact, when you walk down the portico now, you can see at least one of those columns is the first one that popped out of the ground. So it's a really lovely kind of link back to the sort of initial excavations and exploration. But when they found that pillar, they thought, we've got riches here. So it was kind of, you know, get your spades out, everyone, we're going. Early excavations of Pompeii were more about exploitation than preservation. After Pompeii

was rediscovered, as it were, a custom known as the Grand Tour was sweeping aristocratic Europe. Young and wealthy noblemen were encouraged to visit historical sites throughout Europe to contribute to their cultural and educational refinement, kind of like a renaissance equivalent of a gap year. And Pompeii was quite often part of those tours. The fascination of Pompeii at the time was much more about the romance of the ruins and the human tragedy, rather than learning and preserving. And it became common practice for tour guides to set up and stage scenes like skeletons in their final moments, for the wealthy Europeans on the tour to discover, making it a rather macabre spectacle. It wasn't until the 19th century, between 1808 and 1816,

when excavations turned a corner and became preserving rather than exploiting. And the person responsible for this was Caroline Bonaparte. That's right, Napoleon's sister and Queen Consort of Naples. She came to visit the excavations, as most royalty did, and they staged some little things for her to find and sort of, you know, general interest for her. But then she actually took on quite a good role of overseeing the strategy of excavations. And she sort of made the sort of attempt to make an archaeological park because she thought the public might be interested. Very kind of ephemeral attempt at that, but it was really sowing the seeds for then what would later happen. But she really encouraged people to come and visit.

She encouraged a French artist to come and paint things and record things, but not in that romantic way, but to actually sort of understand how things worked. And so even a street fountain, he documents it, but then slices through and works out where the pipes are. And it becomes much more of a documentation of what's going on and what we can learn from a Roman site than the sort of general romantic vistas. So I think she's really early, but she does change the idea of how we view the town.

And it becomes a lot more about how it worked, how it functioned, and documenting what they were uncovering. The documents in the early period are basically a few plans, and we're lucky to have those. But when they found things, they didn't really note where they found them. And she makes much more of a concerted effort to sort of understand the town as a repository for things that we know today and where they were found. It then becomes an even more mature operation from around 1860 onwards, as Italian archaeologist Giuseppe Fiorelli becomes director of excavations at Pompeii, revolutionising preservation techniques, including the plaster casts that we so often associate with Pompeii. When Giuseppe Fiorelli comes in,

it's at the period of Italian unification. So the royal family is sort of dead to Italy now. They haven't got the power over these sites. Suddenly it's owned by the state, which means they then have to fund it. And you do that through the public. So it's really a time where the public has to come to Pompeii. And Fiorelli really understood this. So he really opens up the site to visitors. And one of the crucial factors in this was they'd already made casts with plaster of Paris of wooden furniture that had rotted away.

So we have a cast of a door was one of the first things that was made. But Fiorelli realized that when human bodies decompose, they too left voids in the ash. And so if you poured plaster into them, wait until it set and then took away the ash, you would get a cast of that form. And he was the first person to cast human beings. And at that point, so much changes for Pompeii. It's a real visceral point where people can see suffering. They can now really appreciate that there were people in this town. they can now really appreciate that there were people in this town.

And again, we've gone from very kind of sterile, beautiful ruins to suddenly this is a place where people lived. And I think people then found it so evocative to see these faces of Romans. I mean, you cannot help but be moved by seeing that, much more so than a skeleton ever could give you. You could see the folds in their clothes were preserved. You could just see the anguish in their faces, the sheer horror of what they went through. And I think people could relate to that really quickly. So then people flocked to see the casts. And in fact, if you walk around Pompeii now, you get asked 30 million times, where do I find the casts? It's still a really big pulling

power because we don't often see that in the past. We don't have that connection that we have with the humans here. Pompeii is a rare jewel in that sense and the information we can garner from the archaeology continues to tell its story. Dr Alison Emerson is the director of an excavation at Pompeii, and she told me more about how and why Pompeii has been preserved the way it has. So in the first phase, that ash fall of the first phase and the pumice fall, it's too loose to create body casts. But in the second phase, you have the pyroclastic surges that have really, really fine volcanic material and superheated gases that settled really firmly, truly volcanic material and superheated gases that settled

really firmly, truly creating a mold of the bodies and of all sorts of organic materials, everything from animals to doors to tree roots that then can be preserved, can be molded out of plaster of Paris. And it's a pretty gruesome question, but I feel I need to ask it. Do we know what this death was? Was this just a huge heat wave? Yeah, it was a huge heat wave. The pyroclastic surge also carries shrapnel.

It is itself shrapnel, but it also carries with it the other things that it has sheared off of the city. Any parts of the city that were sticking up from that first phase would have been completely blasted away by this pyroclastic surge. I think the main cause of death is likely thermal shock, but also asphyxiation because you cannot breathe that superheated air. So one is instant and another one is a bit more... They're probably both instant. So if there's any comfort to be found here in what is a very grisly moment, a very grim moment in Pompeii's history,

this is, it is likely that this happened extremely quickly. And so where have some of these bodies or these castes, where have they been found in Pompeii? They're generally found, because they are people who were killed in the second phase of the eruption, they're found up on top of that ash fall and pumice fall from the first phase. So there are people who it seems often kind of were climbing out their windows, people who had taken shelter through the first phase, who had made that gamble of roll the die, do you stay or do you go? They stayed. There was a brief pause between the two phases where that fall kind of slowed. And it seems that many of those people then thought okay this is no longer tenable we cannot

stay we have to get out and began to make their way through the streets so these individuals are often found outdoors. And so some casts have actually been found near where we're standing now. Exactly we are standing in the Garden of the Fugitives. This was an antiquity of vineyard as it is still today, and just behind us is a garden dining room. So this is a triclinium where Romans would have enjoyed an outdoor meal in a space like this. And a group of individuals, men, women, and children, all fled here probably as they were making their way out of the city and took shelter from what they likely saw of the pyroclastic surge in this pergola. This is a reconstruction, of course, of the pergola that was originally there.

And it was here that they were killed. And do we know what kind of positions these people were in when they died? they die? We have the body casts but there's often a misconception that these positions represent a conscious pose at the moment of death as sort of bracing against the oncoming wave of material but these poses are actually in almost all cases post-mortem poses so results of the extreme heat results of being kind of knocked down so what we're really looking at is not people in their last moments, but people just after their last moments. And how many bodies or how many casts do you think there are still to find in Pompeii today? It feels like the impossible question to answer.

It is, it is almost impossible to say because just like everything in Pompeii, we can't possibly know until we dig it and there's so much to the city. But one of the things to think about as well is that we're not simply talking about victims within the walls of the city, but Pompeii extends out. It has a suburban zone that's many miles in which victims of the eruption have also been found. So it does seem that the majority of people escaped. Currently it's thought that maybe

80% escaped, 20% stayed. These numbers are very fudgeable, it's almost impossible to say. But there is no question that in the unexcavated areas of the city as well as in unexcavated areas all around this territory, there are more body casts to be made. Excavations have also found people carrying items with them. And not just any old items. Here's Sophie again? So we think that there's sort of quite a lot of evidence

of people thinking they were going to come back. One of the most poignant for me is so many people carrying keys. You think they locked up and they thought, that's safe, I'll be back. And so I think that for me is sort of one of the most poignant parts. and so I think that for me is sort of one of the most poignant parts. In other respects, people did collect sort of their sort of more precious items and sort of store them maybe in a corner of a room so that they knew when they came back where to go to pick all of that up.

You know, their wealth basically, as much as can be portable wealth. So yeah, I think there was an expectation that they would come back, and obviously some never did. It's impossible to know what this speaks to. Perhaps an attachment to their home and city, the idea of totally abandoning it untenable. Or maybe it speaks to their resilience. After all, this wouldn't have been the first time

that the people of Pompeii would have had to rebuild their city, following, for instance, that massive earthquake that had occurred in 62 AD. We'll never know. The archaeology simply can't answer that. But thankfully, there are some things that are a little more clear-cut. Consensus around the date, for example, is something that's changed in light of new information. Historically, the view has been that Vesuvius erupted on the 24th of August 79 AD, and we seem to get this date from surviving medieval manuscripts of Pliny's letters.

But in recent years, thanks to new archaeological discoveries, well that idea, it's been challenged. For me certainly the archaeological evidence points to an autumn date. We have evidence of fresh pomegranates and they are certainly only ripe and worth picking off the tree in September, October time. So I think saying it's August is a kind of an impossibility. We also have evidence that in pressing rooms for making wine, some of the excavations have found the sort of detritus of all the sort of crushed grapes and the mess. And again, you're only going to pick grapes in autumn. So why would there be a mess on the floor? If it happened in August, they would have cleared it up by then. So I think the archaeology is our strongest link here.

It's our strongest tie to actually what was going on. Not relying on a written source and certainly not relying on a written source. It was then copied multiple times in the medieval period. Mistakes were made, dates were made up. So I think for me, yeah, to rely on the real archaeology, that's how we look at it. And that's a key point to state there, isn't it? It's not Pliny who's responsible for this possible misstating of the eruption. It's those people writing several centuries later.

Exactly. And my beef is not with Pliny. He was great. He left us a lot of information about the eruption. And it's not just the big things like the actual date that archaeology can shed light on. I think some of the most delightful things and maybe unexpected details that we find are in the small mundane things you know it's not the big gold rings it's not the jewellery but a carbonized loaf of bread that had been put in the oven that day to be cooked and yet got overcooked if we like. In one house there's a little terracotta dish and it's full of eggs. And it's quite incredible also to think of the force of this eruption.

And then suddenly we have something as delicate as an egg preserved. So these unanticipated details also show that, yes, life just did stop. People were preparing for that day. People were preparing for the next week ahead. And yet everything was stopped. One of the loveliest details, I think, for that abrupt end is some paintings that weren't finished. So you can see where the artist has scratched out the idea of what they're going to do in the border of a painting. And yet it's just literally left as half done.

They were sort of stopped in their tracks. So that's a kind of, again, it's sort of these weird little details that give you so much more a story. This was a town that was functioning. They had no idea what was coming. Even the little paint pots were found at the foot of the wall that this artist was working on. So really, he probably just ran that moment. And it's these incredible details that make Pompeii the treasure trove that it is. As a town and its potential, we're sitting in a gold mine. There's still so much of Pompeii to uncover.

It's whether those details are documented or not. So as I said, the past and the sort of pillaging of this site, we could have learned so much more from that period, but it's lost. So now I think we've turned a massive corner and we're much more into conservation, which is the most important thing about Pompeii right now. So not only can we put a magnifying glass and we can analyze the residue within one of the pots and see what was actually being stored in it. We do DNA. They've recently discovered that there's a skeleton in Pompeii of a Sardinian person. So you get that fine detail, but also it's protecting what we've got. And that's sort of where we are now. They've realised we need to conserve everything and rooms need proper roofs, ventilation. And that's the sort of aspect now for the new excavations.

And I think that's been missed a lot in the press is why there are new excavations. A lot of people are asking, well, if half of site is falling down, why are you digging more? And in fact, all they were doing really was pushing back the edges of the unexcavated part. So two thirds of Pompeii have been excavated and one-third still lies completely sealed under the volcanic material. So as you're digging, you get a sheer face of volcanic deposits. And as it rains, these deposits loosen up and then they slip. And with them, as they fall, they take down the ancient structures. So the method and strategy behind the new excavations was just to step back that cliff face, if you like, to stop it damaging what's below. But obviously, anything

you uncover in Pompeii, you're going to reveal something new. So we found new residences, gardens, houses, a bar, but it's all done for conservation reasons it's to protect the site and I think that's what hadn't been done in the past and why there was a period where Pompeii was getting a huge amount of bad press because things were collapsing the maintenance of the site had basically been forgotten So after all of this

we've explored life before the eruption from the everyday to the erotic. And we've explored the afterlife of Pompeii too. For instance, the politics of excavations that span over 500 years and that are still ongoing today. But what is perhaps the most important thing to take away from Pompeii's story? I think I would want people to come away with a sense of life. This is often talked about the death of people in Pompeii, the casts are really a sort of visceral reminder of all of that. But I think the one thing you can take away from Pompeii is this amazing life. You

are surrounded and often, you know, overshadowed by the architecture and all the little details that we have here of how people lived. And we should sort of embrace that, you know, the person who goes to the bakery, the fact that we still even have carbonised loaves of bread. We have this kind of detail. We have a basket of eggs that survives. We see so many signs of their life. I think I'd rather people took that away

than the tragedy of their life. I think I'd rather people took that away than the tragedy of their deaths. Well, there you go. If there's one thing we can take away from this series, it's certainly that Pompeii was a city that lived in full, vivid colour. It is one of the most extraordinary ancient sites in the whole world and the archaeology is continuing to reveal more about the lives of the people who lived there and of course more about their ultimate fate that day in 79 AD when ancient Armageddon came to this town and Mount Vesuvius erupted. It is a unique site that you must all visit because it will absolutely blow you away.

In these four episodes, we've explored the city's multiple lives. From what life was like before the eruption, meeting some of its most famous entrepreneurial inhabitants, through to its apocalyptic demise, only for its story to continue 2,000 years on. Thank you for coming on this journey with us. The series was produced by Elena Guthrie and written by Elena and myself. The assistant producer was Annie Colo and it was edited by Aidan Lonergan.

Once again from me, I really do hope you've enjoyed this series. We've got so much more coming. This is just the beginning. I really hope you've enjoyed it and stay tuned for much more coming very soon.