Posted on 08/29/2022 7:40:13 PM PDT by SunkenCiv
A 2,300-year-old drainage system carved into bedrock beneath Pompeii will be used again to divert increasing rainwater into the sea.
Mount Vesuvius on the west coast of Italy is the only active volcano in continental Europe and its eruption in the year AD 79 buried the city of Pompeii under thousands of tons of hot ashes and rocks. Seconds after the eruption the southern Italian town was engulfed in a 500°C "pyroclastic heat surge," when fast-moving currents of hot gases and volcanic matter (tephra) killed every one of the approximately 30,000 inhabitants, instantly.
This 170-acre archaeological site is mostly preserved within ash, which also entombed human bodies, and now that they have decayed away, natural human molds are found by excavators who make plaster casts bringing back to life the sheer terror that spread crosses the faces of the people who suffered in the volcanic catastrophe.
The recommissioned 1,500ft (457m) network of ancient tunnels and drainage channels is accessed through two manholes leading beneath the Civil Forum, near the Centaur statue and it leads downhill underneath Via Marina to the Imperial Villa.
The Civic Forum of Pompeii was a great rectangular plaza measuring 125ft (38m) wide by 466ft (142m) in length. While it was originally built in the 3rd century BC by the Samnites, evidence gathered from inside the tunnels showed final enhancements were executed by Roman architects in the years preceding the devastating 79AD eruption of Vesuvius.
Since 2018 the drainage network has been carefully assessed by several teams of scientists to assess if it was still capable of diverting rainwater into the nearby sea, and the restoration project has now been approved.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.binodon24live.com ...
It took a lot of Drano to get that baby opened!
Pompeii as a city dates back 300 years before the disaster of 79 AD. That’s how they figure 2300 years.
CC
Only about 2000 people died in 79 AD. The rest evacuated.
CC
They built good stuff to last back in those days, not CCCP, cheap Chinese crap products...................................
There’s no way to know that.
bump
[singing] Pompeii, you’re my home...
Based on the number of bodies found in Pompeii, scientists estimate that approximately 2000 died. It’s a estimate, but one based on the best evidence available.
CC
Some of the excavated ruined houses showed signs of former vertical shafts that were dug down into them, presumably by the owners (or under their orders) to retrieve cash or personal papers or whatnot. It's at least somewhat possible that some of those roofs lasted long enough, and survivors hidden inside the homes dug their way out. OTOH, these shafts may have been to search for missing family members.
It was formerly believed that the beginning of the eruption scared off most of the people in the Bay of Naples, and no remains had ever been found in Herculaneum, which was right on the slopes. Then in the last couple of decades of the 20th century, a group of remains were found in a newly-discovered storage room on what had been the Roman-era harbor. Apparently they were waiting for evac, or just found that to be the only available shelter.
The cities were damaged years earlier by the earthquake, which was probably a precursor of the eruption itself. While the population of Pompeii at one time may have been 20,000, there may not have been that many living there in 79 AD. The House of the Vettii was about 200 years old when it was buried and ruined, and by that time was owned by a couple of freedmen. Down the street, in another house, the owner's lending records were found, and the owners of the House of the Vettii were among his clients/borrowers.
Unfinished repairs from the quake are still in evidence. I wouldn't be too surprised if it turns out that most of Pompeii was semi-abandoned by the time of the eruption, and social rankings had changed a great deal. The imperial period was one of upward mobility, opportunity, wealth, and of course ostentatious displays, kinda like the rap/hiphop industry today.
Entirely plausible. On youtube there is a narrated video of a walking tour of Pompeii. It is nearly 5 hours in length! Search for “prowalk tours Pompeii”. It is incredibly informative and I highly recommend it.
CC
I’ll look for that. Most of the walking tours of Pompeii (and most other cool places along the Seven Seas etc) are just vids taken by some YT tourist, and the only soundtrack is the ambient one of the other tourists and locals.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sUYJ8LbF1Ys
preview
https://m.facebook.com/Prowalks/videos/634640597336941/
Probably Herculaneum too?
I went to 6th, 7th and 8th grades in Naples and we lived in Pozzuoli. (Navy brat.) We had some cool field trips. LOL
We also studied the Vesuvius eruption in 6th grade history class while looking at it out of our classroom window.
This one has what you are looking at, facts and general knowledge if you turn on the closed captioning.
No not Herculaneum ...
I had planned to go there in 2020 but the Wu Hu Flu happened ...
I went to Pompeii for the first time in 1971 ...
3 more times since ...
Ive also been to Capri ...
Thanks. The Roku YT app is plagued by their tone-deaf ads and lack of access to CC.
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