Pompeii

Pompeii was a city in what is now the town of Pompei, near Naples, in the Campania region of Italy. Along with Herculaneum, Stabiae, and many surrounding villas, it was buried under 4 to 6 m (13 to 20 ft) of volcanic ash and pumice in the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 AD.

Because it was largely preserved under the ash, Pompeii gives us a snapshot of Roman life, frozen at the moment it was buried. It also offers insight into ancient urban planning. At the time it was destroyed, it was a wealthy town with 10,000 to 20,000 residents. It had many fine public buildings and luxurious private houses with lavish decorations, furnishings, and artworks. Later digs found hundreds of private homes and businesses in various architectural styles and social classes, as well as numerous public buildings. Wooden objects and human bodies decayed in the ash, which allowed archaeologists to create moulds of figures in their final moments of life. Many graffiti carved on outside walls and inside rooms show the Vulgar Latin that people spoke every day, which is largely lost today and differs from the formal language of classical writers.

Pompeii stayed mostly undisturbed until it was rediscovered in the late 16th century. Major excavations did not begin until the mid-18th century, which marked the emergence of modern archaeology. Early efforts to uncover the city were haphazard or affected by looting, so many items and sites were damaged or destroyed. By 1960, most of Pompeii had been uncovered but was left to decay. Further major excavations were banned or limited to targeted, prioritised areas. Since 2018, new work has led to discoveries in some areas of the city that had not been explored before.

Pompeii is a UNESCO World Heritage Site, because it is "the only archaeological site in the world that provides a complete picture of an ancient Roman city". It is one of the most popular tourist attractions in Italy, with about 2.5 million visitors each year.

Etymology

The Latin name Pompeii is a masculine plural noun of the declension type, written as Pompeiī, -ōrum.

According to Theodor Kraus, the root of the word may be the Oscan word for the number five, pompe. This suggests that the community was made up of five hamlets, or that it was settled by a family group (gens Pompeia).

The Forum of Pompeii with the entrances to the Basilica (left) and Macellum (right), the Temple of Jupiter (front) and Mount Vesuvius in the distance

Geography

Pompeii was built about 40 m (130 ft) above sea level, on a flat area of hard rock left by earlier eruptions of Mount Vesuvius, which is 8 km (5 mi) away. The land dropped steeply to the south and partly to the west, down into the sea. Three layers of soil and rock from large landslides lie on top of the lava, possibly caused by long periods of rain. The city was once right on the shoreline, but today it is about 700 m (2,300 ft) inland.

The mouth of the navigable Sarno River, next to the city, was protected by shallow lagoons. Early Greek and Phoenician sailors used it as a safe harbour, and the Romans later developed it further. Pompeii covered 64 to 67 hectares (160 to 170 acres) and was home to 11,000 to 11,500 people, based on counts of households.

History

Pompeii is best known for its Roman remains from AD 79, but it was built on a much older town. The first settlements on the site date to the 8th century BC, when the Oscans founded villages there. Greeks, Etruscans, and Samnites later shaped the town. In 89 BC, Sulla besieged Pompeii, which then became a Roman colony. Under Roman rule, the town grew wealthy, with many public buildings, such as the Amphitheatre of Pompeii, and farms and villas, such as the Villa of the Mysteries, built nearby.

In AD 79, Mount Vesuvius erupted and buried the city under ash and tephra. The eruption lasted two days, and most people were able to escape during the first phase. Pompeii was later found again, and the city was identified in 1763. Archaeologists such as Giuseppe Fiorelli then began careful digging. Today, conservation is a major concern because the ruins are slowly decaying.

Main article: Eruption of Mount Vesuvius in AD 79

Main article: Conservation issues of Pompeii and Herculaneum

See also: Conservation and restoration of Pompeian frescoes

Roman city development

Pompeii is very interesting to people who study Ancient Roman architecture, because of its wealth and its Greek, Etruscan, and Roman history. It was a fairly small town in the Roman provinces, and apart from the Amphitheatre it did not have large monuments like other Roman cities. By the time the Romans took control in 89 BC, the streets were mostly laid out and most of the insulae (city blocks) had been built. Under the Romans, the town grew quickly from about 30 BC. New public buildings included the Amphitheatre, two theatres, the Eumachia Building, and at least four public baths. An aqueduct carried water to the baths, to more than 25 street fountains, and to many homes and businesses.

Pompeii also had many shops and workshops. There were at least 31 bakeries, and nearly 100 thermopolia, which were inns or snack-bars that sold hot food and drinks. Workers also processed wool, ran a fullonica (a workshop for cleaning and processing cloth), and made garum, a fish sauce. Farmers grew barley, wheat, and millet, and they made wine and olive oil. Wine was sent to other regions, so vineyards were very important to the town's economy.

Tourism

Pompeii has been a popular tourist destination for over 250 years and was on the Grand Tour. By 2008, it was attracting almost 2.6 million visitors a year, making it one of Italy's most popular tourist sites. It is part of the larger Vesuvius National Park and was declared a World Heritage Site by UNESCO in 1997. To reduce pressure on Pompeii, the governing body, the 'Soprintendenza Archeologica di Pompei', began issuing tickets that also allow visits to Herculaneum, Stabiae, and the Villa Poppaea. In 2024, the site's management announced it would limit daily sales to 20,000 personalised tickets and introduce timed entry during the busy summer season.

Tourism is a major part of the economy of the nearby town of Pompei, where many residents work as taxi or bus drivers, waiters, or hotel staff. New excavations were generally stopped because of a moratorium set in 1999 by the site's superintendent, Professor Pietro Giovanni Guzzo, which was lifted in 2017. Less than a third of the buildings that were open in the 1960s can be visited today. The Antiquarium of Pompeii was built by Giuseppe Fiorelli between 1873 and 1874 to display finds showing daily life in the ancient city. It was badly damaged in 1943 during World War II bombings and again in 1980 by an earthquake. After being closed for 36 years, it reopened in 2016 for temporary exhibitions and became a permanent exhibition venue on 25 January 2021. Visitors can see finds from the excavations, casts of the victims of the Mount Vesuvius eruption, and displays about Pompeii's history.

Pompeii has appeared in many works of art and entertainment. The 1954 film Journey to Italy, starring George Sanders and Ingrid Bergman, has a scene at Pompeii where they watch the digging up of a cast of a couple who died in the eruption. Pompeii was also the setting for the British comedy television series Up Pompeii! and its movie. In the second episode of the fourth season of the revived BBC science fiction series Doctor Who, called "The Fires of Pompeii", the character Caecilius appears. In 1971, the rock band Pink Floyd filmed the concert Pink Floyd: Live at Pompeii, performing six songs in the city's ancient Roman amphitheatre. Their audience was only the film's crew and some local children.

Pompeii and the eruption have also inspired music and books. The B-52s mention both Pompeii and Herculaneum in their song "Lava" on their self-titled debut album. Siouxsie and the Banshees wrote the song "Cities in Dust", which describes the disaster that struck Pompeii and Herculaneum in AD 79. Robert Harris's 2003 novel Pompeii tells the story of a race to fix a broken aqueduct before the eruption of Mount Vesuvius, and the 2013 song "Pompeii" by Bastille also refers to the eruption. In 2016, guitarist David Gilmour performed a live concert in the amphitheatre for his Rattle That Lock Tour, which was considered the first there to have an audience since the eruption.

Documentaries

In Search of...'s episode No. 82 focuses entirely on Pompeii and premiered on 29 November 1979. The National Geographic special In the Shadow of Vesuvius (1987) explores the sites of Pompeii and Herculaneum, interviews leading archaeologists of that time, and examines the events leading up to the eruption of Vesuvius. Ancient Mysteries: Pompeii: Buried Alive (1996) is an A&E documentary narrated by Leonard Nimoy. Pompeii: The Last Day (2003) is an hour-long BBC drama. It follows people living in Pompeii, Herculaneum and around the Bay of Naples in their last hours. The characters have historically attested names but fictional life stories, including a fuller and his wife, two gladiators, and Pliny the Elder. It also shows the facts of the eruption.

Pompeii and the AD 79 eruption (2004) is a two-hour documentary from Tokyo Broadcasting System. Pompeii Live (28 June 2006) is a Channel 5 production that features a live archaeological dig at Pompeii and Herculaneum. Pompeii: The Mystery of the People Frozen in Time (2013) is a BBC One drama documentary presented by Margaret Mountford. The Riddle of Pompeii (23 May 2014) is a Discovery Channel program. Pompeii: The Dead Speak (8 August 2016) is a Smithsonian Channel program. Pompeii's People (3 September 2017) is a CBC Gem documentary presented by David Suzuki.