Ten Discoveries That Rewrote History by Patrick Hunt

Author:Patrick Hunt
Language: eng
Format: azw3, mobi, epub
Publisher: Penguin Publishing Group
Published: 2007-09-25T00:00:00+00:00

The catastrophe of Vesuvius buried Pompeii in little more than forty-eight hours

August twenty-fourth must have dawned like every other summer morning in memory. But suddenly in a few hours everything changed. It is not difficult to reconstruct the events based on archaeology, volcanology and eyewitness accounts. Pompeii’s citizens had long tolerated the frequent tremors that shook the ground as a fair price to pay for living in the most beautiful region of Italy. But the early afternoon quiet of August 24 was broken by an explosion that jolted the whole city awake from its after-lunch nap. A sound louder than anything imaginable blasted the trembling air and buildings rocked on their foundations. Dust and chips fell everywhere as people ran in panic out into the streets to see what was happening. The sun must have been quickly blotted out by dark billowing clouds of ash and lapilli—tiny stones from the size of hail to golf balls—often of light pumice but also of heavier volcanic ejecta that would have begun falling quickly into the streets and pelting the roofs with incessant drumming. Although they would not have realized it, the entire top of the mountain had been blown apart and sent into the air, its force impelling everything up against gravity, sending millions of tons of rock, ash, steam and smoke along with poisonous gases higher than the clouds. Thousands of feet up in the air, the debris formed into a column that spread out like a giant tree with ominous branches visible for scores of miles as it descended, only to be replaced by more. Immediately around Pompeii and the surrounding towns, the midday became as dark as night. Handheld clay lamps would hardly have penetrated the gloom of dense ash falling everywhere and quickly piling up several feet deep in a matter of an hour or so.

Most of the approximately twenty-five thousand residents of Pompeii must have fled fairly quickly but many also stayed behind, either out of fear, hiding in the crowded alleys under eaves or inside buildings themselves, thinking it was safer, or because they might have thought it an opportune moment to rob with impunity a quickly emptying city. The authorities must not have known what to do other than flee themselves through the rubble and rain of stones. The proud city became total chaos. The sensible ones would have left quickly, abandoning almost all of their belongings, thinking only of saving their lives and those of their loved ones. Others would have quickly locked houses or gates and sought the safest exit to the countryside or the harbor.

But few knew that the harbor and the river itself were being blocked by either the geological effects of uplift or a receding coastline combined with a dammed river, and they were stranded on rocky dry ground at the wharves. Boats were empty without water for escape. Hundreds of people, including whole families, huddled in the dockside warehouses under or alongside useless boats. Here dense gases quickly settled with their poisonous stench, and the superheated air was actually burning in places.

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