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When Mount Vesuvius erupted in AD 79, it buried Pompeii, a Roman town of about 11,000 people near Naples, under several metres of ash and pumice. Because the town was sealed so quickly, its streets, houses, shops and wall paintings still show everyday Roman life in remarkable detail.

Pompeii, AD 79

History

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The eruption lasted about two days. For some 18 hours pumice rained down on Pompeii, and most of its people seem to have escaped; about 1,150 victims have been found. Early the next morning, pyroclastic surges, fast clouds of scorching gas and ash, swept through the town. The only surviving eyewitness account comes from Pliny the Younger, who watched from across the Bay of Naples and later described the eruption in two letters to the historian Tacitus; his uncle, Pliny the Elder, died trying to rescue people. Excavation began in 1748. In 1863 Giuseppe Fiorelli poured plaster into the hollows the victims' bodies had left in the ash, creating the famous casts. The date is debated: most medieval copies of Pliny's letter give 24 August, but a charcoal inscription found in 2018, dated 17 October, points to autumn.

Türkçe oku
MS 79'da Vezüv Yanardağı patladığında, Napoli yakınlarındaki yaklaşık 11.000 nüfuslu Roma kenti Pompeii metrelerce kül ve sünger taşının altında kaldı. Kent o kadar çabuk örtüldü ki sokakları, evleri, dükkânları ve duvar resimleri Romalıların gündelik hayatını bugün bile bütün ayrıntılarıyla gözler önüne seriyor.
Pompeii, MS 79

Patlama yaklaşık iki gün sürdü. Pompeii'ye 18 saat kadar sünger taşı yağdı; halkın çoğu bu sırada kaçabilmiş görünüyor, kentte bugüne kadar yaklaşık 1.150 kişinin kalıntısı bulundu. Ertesi sabah erkenden piroklastik akıntılar, yani yanardağdan boşalan kızgın gaz ve kül bulutları büyük bir hızla kenti süpürdü. Günümüze ulaşan tek görgü tanığı anlatımı, patlamayı körfezin karşı yakasından izleyen Genç Plinius'a aittir. Plinius gördüklerini sonradan tarihçi Tacitus'a yazdığı iki mektupta anlattı; amcası Yaşlı Plinius ise insanları kurtarmaya çalışırken hayatını kaybetti. Kazılar 1748'de başladı. 1863'te Giuseppe Fiorelli, kurbanların bedenlerinin kül içinde bıraktığı boşluklara alçı dökerek ünlü kalıpları elde etti. Patlamanın tarihi tartışmalı: Plinius'un mektubunun Orta Çağ'dan kalan kopyalarının çoğu 24 Ağustos'u verir, ama 2018'de bulunan ve 17 Ekim tarihini taşıyan kömürle yazılmış bir not, patlamanın sonbaharda olduğunu düşündürüyor.

Sources and further reading

Background reading: Pompeii
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