Vesuvius

Pompeii, one of the Roman provincial cities, was located on the southern part of the base of Mount Vesuvius. Mount Vesuvius is still an active volcano in the central part of present day Italy. Life in Pompeii was very good because of the trade and farming. The fertile land on the areas near and sometimes on the volcano had rich soil and was great for farming. Many outsiders came to Pompeii to become farmers, politicians, and because of this, the population of Pompeii had even exceeded 20,000. __**Mount Vesuvius** **and its Eruption**__ On August 24, 79, the sleeping volcano erupted scaring the people of Pompeii with explosive pressure. Spewing tons of molten ash, pumice, and sulfuric gas miles into the atmosphere, the inhabitants of Pompeii and nearby cities gazed into the sky as the cloud of smoke began to grow exponentially. As volcanic material began to fill the streets of Pompeii, most people decided to stay indoors, knowing that the chance of escaping alive was slim. However, the rooftops of their houses were not built for hundreds of pounds of pumice (granted, one average sized piece of pumice does not weigh much, but thousands on one small roof) and were built to withstand only great amounts of rain. The people that did decide to escape tied pillows to their heads with cloth to avoid an inevitable strike in the head by a block of pumice. This was the first part of deaths in Pompeii. The skies in Pompeii were dark because of the clouds of sulfuric gas, but in other places, the sky was blue. The blasts of molten lava, pumice, smoke, and gases lasted for many hours. Although some of the people died because of “cave-ins” in their homes, others were less fortunate. As the eruption had come to its closing hours, the flow of volcanic material and lava had finally reached the city and even parts of the land outside the city walls. This was the final blow of the most famous eruption of Mount Vesuvius, because it literally froze people in their places. The instant heat that reached the people melted the bones, skin, organs, and even the marrow of the people and made “casts” of their bodies in the exact place that they died. Pliny the Elder was an official in the Roman Court and was in charge of the fleet in the bay that bordered the cities of Pompeii, Misenum, Herculaneum, and Stabiae (Bay of Naples or the Gulf of Cumae). When he was told of the eruption of one of the mountains around the bay, he found the highest point of his home to look at the phenomenon. He concluded that it was the mountain later to be called Vesuvius and said that the smoke was mostly white and much darker in many other places (this means that the ash, pumice, and gases were not spread evenly within the cloud). He described the smoke as an umbrella pine because the smoke rose to a great height on a sort of trunk and then split off into branches. It split into branches because the pressure was no longer present and was unsupported. He set off for the base of the mountain to save one of his close friends, Tascus, who wrote to him telling him that the only escape for her was by boat. The volcano had “pinned her” to the spot she lived because of the direction of the cloud. Pliny the Elder died trying to save her and was found on a beach near Pompeii.
 * __Location__**
 * __Daily Life__­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­**
 * __Pliny the Elder__**

__**Aftermath**__ Archaeologists have discovered many of the people holding precious items that they held dear to them, which was helpful in identifying the bodies. Some of the doctors held surgical tools hoping to help people, slaves still had on the metal rings on their ankles, and women were holding things like jewelry boxes and heirlooms. Even the bread that was being cooked the hours before the assault was still fresh after two thousand years of preservation from the ash. Archaeologists have also discovered ruins outside the city of Pompeii. The eruption had poured an avalanche of ash onto Herculaneum, Oplontis, and finally Pompeii.


 * Nardo, Don. __A Travel Guide to Ancient Pompeii__. 1. Farmington Hills, MI: Lucent Books, 2005
 * "The Destruction of Pompeii, 79 AD." __Eyewitness to History__. 1999. 3 Dec 2008 <www.eyewitnesstohistory.com/pfpompeii.htm   >.
 * "POMPEII: STORIES FROM AN ERUPTION." __www.fieldmuseum.org/pompeii__. 2007. 3 Dec 2008 <www.fieldmuseum.org/pompeii/introduction.asp   >.
 * "Pompeii." __Minnesota__ __State University Mankato; European Sites__. 2007. 3 Dec 2008 <www.mnsu.edu/emuseum/archaeology/sites/europe/pompeii.html   >.
 * "DK Clip Art." __Dorling Kindersley Books; Volcanos: Mount Vesuvius__. 2007 . 3 Dec 2008 .