HISTORY

The city of Pompeii is a famous archeological site under UNESCO World Heritage Site in Italy. It became famous due glimpse provided of the Roman life that came to a stand still under the lava from Mount Vesuvius eruption. The volcanic ash and pumice was unto 6m in height. In the modern day, it acts as a window of the past of Roman civilization, telling people about their lifestyles, cultural significance and stories of the past.

Mount Vesuvius is still remains one of the active volcanos and it last erupted in 1944.

THE BUILDING AND ARTS OF PROSPERING POMPEII

History of Pompeii began in 8^th century BCE when the first settlement settled in the town. During the early settlement days, it had many different settlements but during 6^th century BCE, all these settlements merged into a single centered around Gumae, Nala and Stabiae.

Pompeii was a considered wealthy town; it had huge private houses and famous artworks due to production and trade of wine and oil.The town was well protected by a tufa wall, enclosing the agricultural land with the town. The most important building and oldest temple in the town was Doric Temple, build in sixth century.

The private houses in the Pompeii had Roman and Italic architecture with great amount of European influence in the city. The city was rich in arts and culture.

The Roman influence started when in between 343 to 341 BCE when the first Roman army entered the area. Finally in around 424 BCE, Pompeii was conquered by the Samnites and Roman people.

MOUNT VESUVIUS ERUPTION

On the day of the eruption in 79CE the repair work of the buildings might still be going on by that time the locals had become accustomed to minor earthquakes every now and then.

Before the eruption the town might have been damaged because of the frequent earthquake. The eruption began at 1 pm and lasted for two days. It is estimated that most people by that time had fled the city. The cities of Oplontis and Herculaneum which were near Pompeii were destroyed by the eruption. Emperor Titus provided help to the refugees and the people from neighboring tried to help but it was too late. It left the buried people and buildings to be covered in up to twelve different layers of tephra.

Over the next hundreds years, it might have been discovered but the next known date that any part was unearthed was in 1592 by Domenico Fontana and Herculaneum was found in 1738. The archeological worked only started in 1748.  

The buried people and buildings were found to be covered in up to twelve different layers of tephra. The volcanic ash and pumice was unto 6m in height. In the modern day, it acts as a window of the past of Roman civilization, telling people about their lifestyles, cultural significance and stories of the past.  

Citation

Martin, S. (May 2020).Past eruptions and future predictions: Analyzing ancient responses to Mount Vesuvius for use in modern risk management. Journal of Volcanology and Geothermal Research

Sigurdsson, H. Cashdollar,S.  Sparks, S. The Eruption of Vesuvius in A.D. 79: Reconstruction from Historical and Volcanological Evidence. The university of Chicago Press Journals

Mather, W. (March 2017). A Voyage into Catastrophe: Pompeii and the Roman Navy. Western Australian Museum