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Location: Vesuvius, Italy

Origins: Etruscans, 8th Century BC

Roman Control: 200 BC

It all started on August 23, 79 AD. In a matter of three days, a city went from your typical bustling metropolis...to ash. The cause for this grave of ashes was a composite volcano named Vesuvius. Your typical composite volcano normally has two types of erruptions: one kind produces mostly ash and ciders and the other produces lava. In Vesuvius these two types have not been seen to happen together.

The end of Pompeii was not to see these two eruptions together either. During the plinian stage of the erruption, dush, ashes, cinders, and rocks blew high into the air. Within the first eight hours of the euruption, nearly 8-10 feet of this debris fell onto Pompeii. It is estimated that at times this column of ash was 20 miles tall, and by the time the volcano was done, 1 cubic mile of ash had dropped in about 19 hours. The next stage of the eruption produced an extremely hot cloud of steam and mud that flowed down the side of the volcano; covering the town of Herculaneum. It took this mud only four minutes to flow a distance of 4 miles and cover the city. About 20,000+ people died in the 79 A.D. eruption from ash flows and falls.

The city was abandoned and its location forgotten. However, in 1595, excavations discovered artifacts at Pompeii... centuries of rooting and pillaging soon followed. True archeological excavacations began in the mid-nineteeth centry and much of Pompeii has been excavated. Because of this, much has been revealed about how people lived and died during that time.

This eruption was the very first in history to ever be described in detail. From 18 miles west of the volcano, a boy named Phiny Younger (plinian) witnessed the erruption and recorded his sights in two letters. These two letters are published and can be read here.

Although Pompeii was a very tragic event, it has come through with a very silver lining. When the ash and mud went to cover the entire city, it produced a mummification process of sorts and captured the moment in time. Under this ash everything remained as it was at the time of the eruption...people, places, possessions, and even pets. When these ruins were truly rediscovered and given the time and effort they deserved, archaeologists found many fossils and imprintations of the people that lived and died there. Aside from this, artwork, buildings, and more were preserved. These clues are able to give us a little glipse into the past of this great city.

Because of this tragedy we are able to understand both how the privileged rich man and the ordinary slave lived from day to day in the Roman Empire. I highly recommend everyone to visit the web sites below to truly see into this wonderful city, and learn more than this brief history that I have written here.

Resources:
Official Website: http://www2.pompeiisites.org/
Pompeii: Unraveling Anceint Mysteries: http://www.harcourtschool.com/activity/pompeii/
Pictures of History: http://www.jhauser.us/pictures/history/Romans/Pompeii/
Tour of Italy: http://touritaly.org/pompeii/pompeii-main.htm
Pompeii Virtual Tour: http://www.thecolefamily.com/italy/pompeii/

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Copyright: Nikki Burke 2000-2008
Website Last Updated: January 03, 2008
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