What kind of future pompeii

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Magazine How one image captures 21 hours of a volcanic eruption. Science Why it's so hard to treat pain in infants. Science The controversial sale of 'Big John,' the world's largest Triceratops. Science Coronavirus Coverage How antivirals may change the course of the pandemic. It is microscopic finds like this that are now helping to show what was happening in Pompeii, from fish-salting to horse-stabling. A recent excavation found the remains of a tethered mule, lying slumped against its feeding trough surrounded by bedding and fodder.

Subsequent analysis of this revealed grasses, wayside plants, cereals, olives and walnuts. Recovering such detail is slow work. A University of Cincinnati project uses iPads in the trenches to keep up with the huge amount of data its excavations produce. The body casts at Pompeii are justly famous, but it is the skeletons themselves that are now proving to be the more informative.

In just one house, 13 healthy people died: their ages suggest grandparents, parents and their children, one of whom was a pregnant teenager. Vesuvius made a mess of Pompeii, but now it faces a second death. Walls, paintings and floors meant to last only a few decades are exposed to the feet and fingers of millions of tourists and torrential rain.

Restoring and protecting over 15, buildings, five acres of wall paintings and uncountable quantities of artefacts might seem impossible, but this is where developments in archaeology can help. All teams now working at Pompeii and Herculaneum use digital scanning and recording. Not only are these techniques cost-effective, but the results are more precise than was possible with pen and paper. The American Pompeii Quadriporticus Project shows what can be done. This team of archaeologists have recorded a large rectangular open space enclosed by a colonnade backed by small rooms — probably a gymnasium — with 3D laser scanning, photogrammetry determining the geometric properties of an object from images and masonry analysis.

The result is a convincing 3D image. Digital manipulation of the completed model will allow it to be studied in ways that are all but impossible on site. Kay's work, in the cemetery around the Porta Nola gate, looked at the "type and class of burials," for example.

The area had already been excavated, but they returned with modern techniques. They even found a rare example of the burial of a baby, its body laid to rest in an amphora.

But of course, no victims of the eruptions, who would have been found during earlier excavations. The race to save the ancient city. Mount Vesuvius is always in the background while visiting the ancient city. In fact, it might seem counterintuitive, but we have to thank recent damage to Pompeii for the discoveries coming to light today. In , the site made headlines around the world when the Schola Armaturarum -- the old gladiator barracks collapsed.

Italy's then-President Giorgio Napolitano said that, "We should all feel shame for what happened. The money was given to shore up and preserve the parts of the city that had already been uncovered, rather than to excavate new areas.

But it just so happened that damage to existing structures in the northeastern part of the site was being caused by the pressure put on them by the physical mass of the unexcavated city pushing up against them -- two millennia of dirt, earth, and materials from the 79CE eruption pressing on the 2,year-old walls.

On top of what had accumulated naturally, earlier archaeologists had dumped earth from their excavations, too, meaning there was even more mass pushed up against the buildings. And because of poor drainage, rain was particularly damaging to the site. To stabilize the excavated part of the city, it was decided to excavate the three-kilometer perimeter around the unexcavated part -- known as Regio V -- leaving a space between the ruins and the third of Pompeii that has never been explored.

What's more, in a wedge-shaped area of unexcavated mass jutting in on the ruins, there needed to be a full excavation of the 1,square meter area, to protect the standing structures around it. All that means that from to , Pompeii saw the kind of excavations that had not been done since the prewar period.

Excavating the 'new' city. The body of a victim fleeing the eruption was discovered during the new excavations. To start with, the displaced earth from previous excavations had to be removed. Within that, archaeologists found items such as amphorae, bricks and fragments of stucco -- the kind of less glamorous objects that early explorers often discarded. But then, they hit the real city below, which had never been explored. In fact, that "wedge" area has brought to light two brand new houses: the Casa del Giardino House with a Garden and the Casa di Giove House of Jupiter , both rich in art.

Discoveries at the Casa di Giove include a detailed fresco of gladiators, one of whom appears mortally wounded near the gladiator barracks that had collapsed, it's thought to be a place they frequented ; electoral inscriptions exhorting passersby to vote for specific candidates; and the skeleton of a person fleeing the eruption , carrying a bag of bronze and silver coins.

This is the person who was originally assumed to have been crushed by the boulder found on top of his head, though later findings revealed that he had been asphyxiated by the pyroclastic flow -- the burning hot mix of gas, lava and debris flung out by Vesuvius in the second and final stage of the eruption.

Meanwhile, the Casa del Giardino -- named for its garden with a frescoed portico -- has turned up the remains of five individuals, sheltering from the eruption in a room; a treasure chest of precious stones and amulets; and frescoes including the portrait of a woman, thought possibly to be the lady of the house. But the house has also changed everything we know about Pompeii, thanks to a charcoal graffiti inscription dated mid-October 79 CE.

Up until now, historians have always taken the date of the eruption as August 24, following a first-hand account by Roman writer Pliny the Younger. Archaeologists now believe it took place on October In another newly excavated street, a house has emerged with a clear-as-day fresco of Leda and the Swan , described as an artwork of "profound sensuality" by Massimo Osanna, Director General of the Pompeii Archaeological Park.

The same house also contains a painting of Narcissus, gazing at his reflection, and a saucy picture of fertility god Priapus, weighing his own appendage on a pair of scales. The race to prevent looting. The bodies of two victims at Civita Giuliana were announced in November While the Regio V excavations finished in , work continues at Civita Giuliana, about meters beyond the ancient city walls.

It's here that, in March , the latest find was announced: that ceremonial chariot, complete with the imprint of ropes. Director of the park, Massimo Osanna, called it "an extraordinary discovery for the advancement of our knowledge of the ancient world.

In Roman times, this was a part of the countryside known for its sprawling villas and farms owned by wealthy Pompeii residents.