The lost city of Pompeii

 Pompeii was an ancient city which was located under the mount Vesuvius in the modern time Campania of Southern Italy. It was mentioned in v...

 Pompeii was an ancient city which was located under the mount Vesuvius in the modern time Campania of Southern Italy. It was mentioned in various books by the ancient explorers and historians. But was missing from the maps in the modern world which made no sense. Many even searched for this lost city but failed until 1599.

Discovery

It was not rediscovered in one go. It took a long time to be discovered as it is now. Its not even discovered completely till now. It all began in 1599. 

It is said that in 1599,  while digging up a un new course for the river Sarno , architect Domenico fontana found the remains of the city. He found it while digging a underground tunnel. It is said that he found a lot of things but he again covered his findings.

Then a exhibition began in 1748 and it was recognized as a site in 1763. After that many treasure seekers did a lot of irresponsible digging at the site and damaged the site. Under the permission of king of Naples, the military engineer Karl weber carried out systematic studies from 1750 to 1764. But in 1880 , as soon as Italian archaeologist Giuseppe Fiorelli became the director of excavations, unordered and irresponsible digging was stopped.

After the interruption due to world war 2, the excavation started again and by 1990s, two-third of the city(44 hectares out of 66 hectares) had been  excavated and further excavations were stopped by the international community. Recently in 2017, archaeologists began to excavate a new section.

History of the city

Foundation:

The city was initially found as a group of villages by ancient Greeks of Campania around 740 BC. Initially greek sailors used the location as a safe port.

In the early 6th century BC, the settlements merged into a single community and was surrounded by a city wall. Its maritime trade started to flourish after the construction of ports.

In 524 BC, Etruscans arrived and seized the city from the greeks which was again taken back by the greeks in 474 BC. Finally in 424 BC, the allied forces of romans and Samnites conquered the city and the nearby areas.

Under romans in the late 4th century BC, the city began to expand and continued to flourish due to the production and trade of wines and oils. 

It became one of the town of Campania that rebelled against the Rome in social wars in 89 BC and under the leadership of Lucius cluentius, defeated the roman army led by Sulla. But after the conquest of Nola, Pompeii was forced to surrender in front of roman empire.

Roman influence:

After the submission of the city in front of romans, the roman culture began to influence the city. Pompeii became a roman colony with a name Colonia Cornelia Veneria Pompeianorum. Those who opposed romans were dispossessed of their property and were given to roman men. The native people of Pompeii were granted roman citizenship, some even latinized their names as a sign of acceptance of roman culture. Latin became the main language of the city.

Due to sufficient agricultural land and geological position of the city,  it soon became very prosperous and rich. Many farms were build around the city and it became a important passage of goods through sea route going to Rome.

Under Caesar Augustus (the maternal grand child of the great Julius Caesar) new buildings were made and soon the city began to expand rapidly and became the cultural center of the region and entertainment.

Economy:

The city was engaged in production and trade of oils, wine, cereals, fruit and vegetables. But these were not the main business of the city. In 18th century the archaeologists found more than they looked for, they found the remains of the brothels and various buildings which served as a brothel for the people. It gave us a glimpse of the inside of the sexual culture of the romans. As the city became one of the main and richest city of the roman empire, brothels became the prominent business of the city and a major contribution to the economy. Eventually, almost every family was involved in this business and they considered it fortunate to serve in this business. Every major officer in the roman empire owned few brothels in the city. Even the royal family was not untouched by this.

Erotic artwork:

The erotic artworks of the city are very famous. Many of them were hidden and many of the fresco were plastered to hide the vulgar paintings and depictions of the city. Many were rediscovered long time after being covered again.

It was said that in 1819, when king Francis visited the Pompeii exhibition sites with his wife and daughter, he was so embarrassed by its erotic art collection, that he had it locked them in a secret cabinet. Which was re-opened and closed a number of time. Recently, it was opened in 1960 for a brief period of time and then again reopened in 2000. Minors are still allowed inside the gallery only in the presence of a guardian or with a written permission.

Annihilation

Earthquakes:

The citizens were used to minor earthquakes. Even few ancient writer like Pliny the younger wrote in their book that the tremors were not alarming any more as they were frequent in the area.

But on 5th feb 62, a severe earthquake hit the city which caused a lot of damage. It is believed that the earthquake would must have been around 5-6 magnitude on the richter scale.

On that day, there were two events in the city, the first was the anniversary of king Augustus, being named "Father of nation" and other was a feast in honour of the guardian spirits of the city.

The irony was that the day the largest earthquake hit the city was the day honoured in the name of the guardian spirits of the city. It also triggered fire in the city. It did a lot of damage to the city, some of which took around 10 years to be repaired while the others remained damaged forever.

Eruption of Vesuvius:

Mount vesuvius is a stratovolcano which is known to be the most dangerous and active volcano of the world. The people of pompeii located under the mountain were unaware of the danger of the mountain. They were ignoring the signs of the nature prior to the eruption like raising of earth surface and strange behaviour of the animals around the region. It is assumed that the earthquake of 59 was caused due to the activity of the mount Vesuvius. In the october (few say August) of 79, at 1 pm in the noon the day of the city turned to night with the eruption of the upper part of the mountain. And with the shooting of the rocks and smoke in the sky(upto 20 km), the rain of fire began with the hot rocks being showered at the citizens.

Usually the wind would flow in a South-West direction, which would have blown the ashes and hot cloud over the bay of Naples. But on that sinister day, the wind happened to blow in the North-west direction which caused the hot winds to blow over the city.

Aftermath:

As soon as the eruption happened, pumice rain began lasting upto 18 hours which allowed many citizens to escape out of the town. Many who thought they would survive the pumice rain in shelters or were unable to escape were not so lucky. After the rain of fire, the pyroclastic flows of hot and dense cloud covered the city which was sufficient to destroy the city and to kill each and every living being in its path. The eruption lasted almost 2 days and within this time, the whole city was covered in upto 12 different layers of tephra, burying the whole city upto 6 meters. And this is how the whole city went missing in only 2 days.

Pliny the younger was the one who witnessed the incident by himself standing across the bay of Naples and wrote the first hand experience of the event 25 years after the catastrophe. According to him, he saw a large cloud of ashes and warm air moving towards the city. His uncle Pliny the elder, as the admiral of the fleet, ordered the ships of the imperial navy to help in the rescue attempts of the citizens. And died himself in the process.

Upto now only 1,150 bodies have been discovered. At first it was estimated that the cause of the death might be the suffocation due to the ashes, but according to latest study, they were not killed by suffocation instead by the thermal shock produced by the pyroclastic waves of the wind upto 250 C which was sufficient to cause instant death and freeze the body as their last moment. 

Even today if people visit Pompeii, they are both surprised and horrified by the scene as most of the things and beings are frozen as the moment they were at the time of eruption. It is just like a snapshot taken almost 2000 years ago.

Some bodies are seen sleeping, some just waking, some even playing with their babies. They are not actually the bodies. When the site was discovered, the bodies were just covered in a shell of solidified dust and was hollow from inside as the body got decayed.

Giuseppe Fiorelli invented a process of filling the shells with plaster of paris and left to harden just to replicate the moment of death of the humans and animals. 

Excavations are still going on in search of some antiques and more insight in the ancient roman lives and culture and they are yet hoping to discover new things that may surprise us and make us revise our old history books again.