Herculaneum, the Roman city destroyed by Vesuvius that still hides its secrets | Culture

For centuries, archaeologists have been puzzled as they excavate the ruins of Herculaneum, one of the cities destroyed by the cataclysmic eruption of Mount Vesuvius in AD 79: why were no bodies found? Nobody knew where the dead were, but in Pompeii they were found from the first moment. They were only discovered by researchers in the 1980s: about 300 people had taken refuge in warehouses by the sea, but while they waited for help that never came, they were killed by a 550-degree gas wave ejected from the volcano. burned. In fact, it is the largest collection of skeletons from ancient times that has survived to this day. Their bodies turned into vapor and as a formidable camouflage National Geographic In May 1984, only her jewelry and metal objects withstood the deadly poison shock. Most of the victims of Pompeii, on the other hand, died buried.

The two cities were devastated by the same catastrophe, albeit in very different ways: one was buried under tons of pyroplastic material; the other was obliterated by mud and searing gas. That makes excavating the ruins of Herculaneum — the first Roman city in the Gulf of Naples found by Bourbon archaeologists in the 18th century — much more difficult than that of Pompeii because the mud turned to stone. Much of the Roman city also lies below modern Herculaneum, a bustling suburb of Naples much closer to the Campanian capital than Pompeii. It is a huge square of about two hectares and in order to gain access to Roman roads, temples, gymnasiums, arenas, houses or shops, 25 meters of centuries-old rock had to be excavated. But at the same time, it allowed to preserve materials such as wood, which were practically unique in antiquity. Today, Herculaneum is, in the words of the site’s director, Francesco Sirano, “an open-air archaeological laboratory” that still has many surprises in store, such as the bodies on the beach.

Spanish history professor and researcher Daniel García Varo recently published Herculaneum. The city of Vesuvius (Almuzara), the first monograph in Spanish on the Roman city, further evidence of the growing interest in this site. “Compared to any other Roman excavation far from the Bay of Naples,” explains García Varo, “Herculaneum tells us all the daily life of its citizens, its trade and its institutions.” present. Thanks to the conservation measures that made the eruption possible, the entire life of a Roman in a few hectares is accessible to researchers.

Compared to Pompeii, which has been making headlines for years with each new discovery, Herculaneum occupies a discreet background: an important part of the information that this city offers comes not only from excavations, but from research using the latest technologies that can be found here even the dregs are turning into a data pit: one of the city’s great experts, retired professor of classical philology at Cambridge University Andrew Wallace-Hadrill, who was director of the Herculaneum Conservation Project, spent years analyzing the remains found in an old septic tank and Information about the diet or diseases of the city’s 4,000 residents was obtained. The Herculaneum Conservation Project is a public-private consortium that brings together, among other institutions, the Packard Humanities Institute with the Italian State or the British School in Rome to promote knowledge of the site. Sirano announces that there will be extraordinary news shortly thanks to a piece of wood found in a sack of one of the fugitives.

On an afternoon in late May, Herculaneum was quiet, there were relatively few tourists, especially compared to its older sister, and instead there were groups of visitors, in many cases coming from cruise ships. A number of houses remained sealed with signs indicating that restoration or excavation projects were underway. It gave the impression of being a living archaeological site in full development. In fact, after the summer it is planned to open access to the former old beach – now the sea is only a few hundred meters away – and it will be possible to see up close the reproductions of the skeletons found in the old warehouses.

Strolling on the black volcanic rock or on the Roman pavements, the remains of wood in shops and houses are particularly impressive: the beams, the shelves on which the merchants placed their goods, the beds, the doors… A Current An exhibition at the Herculaneum- Museum – one kilometer from the town, in the Sito Reale di Portici – displayed some of the furniture found during the excavations: dressers, chests, stools, tools, a boat, panels, a bed , a cradle, a small altar with the lares, the household gods, even a Roman purse. For Wallace-Hadrill, the last major discovery in Herculaneum recently opened to the public is the remains of painted wood from the House of the Télefo bas-relief, also a favorite of Daniel García Varo.

As a living organism, wood evokes a strange sense of closeness to the people who used all these objects in their daily lives two thousand years ago. In addition, they do not differ significantly from what we currently find in our own four walls. “The fact that organic materials have been preserved has fueled many scientific advances,” Wallace-Hadrill, author among many other essays, explains via email. Herculaneum: past and future (Frances Lincoln, 2011). His documentary for the BBC Life and Death in Herculaneum (available in English on YouTube) is a classic about the city. But contemplating a cot or a small sideboard with a totally contemporary design is beyond science: it’s something emotional.

They analyzed the bones, the wood, the tartar… “The skeletons of those who were not saved from the tragedy have allowed a very deep knowledge of the Roman world,” says Francesco Sirano. “We even know their diet and the diseases they had. Everything was found during the excavation of the septic tank, even remains of brucellosis cheese, fruit, bread, stomach bacteria, remains of fish that are still eaten in the Bay of Naples… This is 360-degree information about antiquity” .

However, what is found is only a tiny part of what can emerge. Herculaneum not only impresses with what it shows, but also with what it still hides. “Two-thirds of the city is still unexplored,” notes Wallace-Hadrill. “But the most important thing is to discover this precious but limited resource very gradually, using the latest technological advances in scientific archaeology,” the researcher continues.

One of the first buildings excavated in Herculaneum was the Villa of the Papyri, one of the most famous sites in the cities destroyed by Vesuvius, since an entire library was found that is still being studied. It is outside the main square and has not been excavated for years for security reasons. Only part of its contents is known. When visiting the rooms dedicated to the villa in the National Archaeological Museum of Naples, it is difficult not to think of what else can be found. There is preserved one of the first pieces that archaeologists of the 18th century found in Herculaneum, and which shows in a more convincing way the cultural abyss that separates us in some aspects from ancient Rome: it is a statue of the god Pan, who with a Man Copulates Goat.

The new rooms dedicated to Herculaneum in the National Archaeological Museum of Naples – recently classified by place and not just by style – not to mention the thousands of objects kept in the deposits give an idea of ​​the immense beauty of it what was once found. And they hint at what might appear beneath tons of rock. “What is still to be discovered in Herculaneum is so huge that it is overwhelming,” says Daniel García Varo. “Only a quarter of the city has been excavated, which shows us that three times as many houses, shops, public buildings and mansions full of luxuries of all kinds remain. Herculaneum still has much to say and I am sure that religious and political buildings (least absent from the archaeological complex) await us under 25 meters of petrified pyroclastic flow.”