When Mount Vesuvius erupted in 79 AD, a fierce avalanche of ashes and pumice stones attacked Pompeii, chasing away about 15,000 inhabitants and killing at least 1,500 people. The volcanic fragments “poured across the land,” wrote Pliny the Young Man, a Roman lawyer, covering the town in the darkness “like the black in a closed, unlit room.” Within two days Pompeii had disappeared, and only a legendary period until 1748, the accidental discovery of the water line prompted the first deliberative excavation.
In his travelogue “A Journey Through Italy,” from the late 18th century, Goethe observed that the calamities of history did not provide greater entertainment for future generations than the eruption that buried Pompeii. For scholars and armchair archaeologists, its entertainment has sparked contestation over almost every aspect of the disaster. They cannot yet agree on the day Vesuvius blew away the top of it, the height of the umbrella-shaped cloud, or the aggression and aggression of the blast. Two new research projects add a kindling to their embers.
A report published by Pompeii's Archaeological Park revived a once widely accepted belief. It began rolling out on August 24th. This is the date proposed by Pliny, 17, when he witnessed the event from the villa across the Bay of Naples. His letter to the historian Tacitus, written more than 25 years from the facts, is the only surviving direct account and the only document that provides an accurate date.
There was no original letter, only a copy translation and transcription, first in the fifth century, “manuscripts of Pliny's letters appeared to us, minus the date,” said classicist Daisy Dunn. Her 2019 Pliny biography, The Shadow of Vesuvius, is a definitive guide to him and his uncle, the elder naturalist Pliny, who died during the eruption. “August 24 was chosen as the safest textual basis,” Dr. Dan said.
In sticking to Pliny, the park has returned some of its recent enthusiasm for October 24th as a possible start date for an eruption. This is the theory that was fueled by the discovery of the abandoned graffiti on the walls of the fresh garden house on the site. Charcoal scrolling records the dates translated on October 17th in a modern calendar, suggesting that an eruption may have occurred since this time. The discovery that didn't specify a year appeared to support other excavated clues that pointed to cooler weather than typical in August. Heavy wool clothing seen on the body. Wine in a sealed bottle. It indicates that the grape harvest is over. A fiery volcano of wood at home.
At the time of discovery, Massimo Osanna, the park's general director, was convinced that the graffiti had been sloppy a week before the explosion. “This epic discovery will ultimately allow us to date the disaster with confidence,” he said. Dr. Dan felt unlikely that Pliny had forgotten such an important date. Still, she said, “In my opinion, the traditional date on August 24th is too early to be accurate.”
Date Game
The recent face of the park from October to August relied in part on a forensic analysis of Pliny's letters by Pedar Foss, a classicist at Depaw University, Indiana. For his 2022 book, “The Eruption of Pliny and Vesuvius,” Dr. Fos examined the manuscript of 79 early hand-coped letters and mapped how the texture errors had worsened. He concluded that a simple writing error, which was to switch “u” to “n” in the 1420s, led to the false eruption date on November 1st. The error appeared in the second printed version of Pliny's Letters in 1474, resulting in further misunderstandings, misconceptions and misuses.
By the 20th century, seven different possibilities counted on July 9th were in fashion. Mark Twain casually proposed in his 1869 travel story, “Innocents.” “Many of these options gave a look of doubt about what Pliny actually wrote, but when tested, I was able to explain each of the wrong options,” Dr. Foss said.
He also described each of the archaeological alternatives of August 24th. Some based on false inference. He argued that pomegranate skins are used for dyeing rather than for eating them. The Romans generally used volcanoes for cooking as well as heating. That wool outfit was standard gear for Roman firefighters. And Roman agriculture and storage practices allowed fruit to be preserved beyond the seasons of natural harvest.
On October 12, 2023, regarding the garden Doodle house, researchers commissioned by Dr. Osanna's successor, Gabriel Zuchtliegel, left their own charcoal message on the same wall where Graphite appeared. 10 Months Later – August 24, 2024 – The text was still completely readable. “The inscription could have been placed on the wall during the past few October,” Dr. Foss said.
This is the only place you can confidently date a disaster.
Remove steam
Claudio Scarpati, a volcanologist at the University of Naples Federico II, supports traditional dates. “In my opinion, the eruption happened in August on a sunny day,” he said. Dr. Scarpati is the lead author of two recent studies on catastrophes published in the Journal of the Ghost Society. An hourly reconstruction was provided, and the chronology was extended to 32 hours to the previously estimated 19 hours. The other revealed dynamic sequences with 17 different “heating density currents”, many of which were previously undocumented.
Thermoclastic current is a high-temperature, rapid mixture of volcanic particles (ash, pumice lava debris, gas) flowing according to the density associated with the surroundings. Dr. Scarpati said, contrary to popular belief, Pompians are not buried in molten lava or poisoned by gas. “The lava didn't reach Pompeii. The gas was primarily evaporated water, and to a lesser extent carbon dioxide,” he said. “Our research shows that the victims died from asphyxiation caused primarily by inhaling ashes.”
To measure the distribution and volume of the ash and pumice layer, the team measured the thickness of the single layer over a 775 square mile area around Mount Vesuvius. The sediments recorded dramatic, increasingly violent pulses from the volcano.
At noon on the first day, Vesuvius began to drain the debris and gas plumes of rocky volcanic skewers known as eruption columns into the air. The mushroom clouds that Pliny observed at 1pm were typical of what is now known as the eruption of Prian, in honor of his rich, detailed will.
Dr. Scarpati said the first stream flowed into the town of Herculaneum west of Vesuvius, essentially roasting its habitat, and in one documented case, it brought intense heat that turned human tissue into glass. In Pompeii, south of the volcano, the electric current was cool, with only the last eight people permeating the town.
During the first 17 hours, Dr. Scarpati said that Pompeii was covered in paralytic lapili from the column and fluctuated like a giant fountain through 12 different pulses. At 2pm, the volcano began to spit out pumice mixed with the gas. Over the next four hours, the roof began to become caves under the weight of pumice rapili, and the supporting walls also collapsed. After 17 hours, the thickness of the Pompeii fragments was up to 9 feet. He was kicked out enough to deepen Manhattan's story of about 450 feet, or 45 buildings.
The eruption peaked when the pillar reached its maximum height of 21 miles around 1am on the second day. At dawn, a huge amount of fine ash and pumice collapsed the eruption column, forming a thermally crushed stream.
During the brief lull, the Pompians probably tried to escape from the town. Then, just after 7am, the 13th and the most deadly current collided. A thick blend of ashes spread over nine hours, spreading 16 miles across the plains into the Latari Mountains. In Pompeii, many victims of the volcano were found in this layered street.
At about 4pm, the magma in the volcanic conduit interacted with the groundwater, causing the magma to break into fine ashes. No human remains were found in any of the layers since the 13th. He suggested to Dr. Scarpati that there were no survivors in the morning devastation. The eruption stopped at 8pm
“This work places a detailed timeline from events two thousand years ago, providing new evidence of how the dangers from such a major explosive eruptions change even during the event,” said Paul Cole, a volcanologist at the University of Plymouth in the UK who was not involved in the project.
Rampus, including Vesuvius, may go infinitely, but unlike Pliny's letter, the geological history of the eruption appears to be written in stone.
