Original subtitles

Narrator: the doomed Roman city of pompeii,

Destroyed by the eruption Of a killer volcano,

Buried beneath ash and rock For nearly 2,000 years,

Pompeii's death is legendary,

But the mystery of its birth Remains unsolved.

Now, scientists venture beneath The surface of this lost world

To discover why the people Of pompeii founded their city

In one of the most Dangerous places on earth.

[ italian accent ] What we should ask ourselves is,

"Why would people build On a volcano?"

Narrator: breakthroughs Reveal surprising secrets

Hidden in this Apocalyptic landscape.

Could this deadly volcano Actually be the very reason

Why pompeii exists at all?

To solve these mysteries,

We'll pull apart this remarkable City stone by stone.

We'll dive beneath the marble Floors and behind the frescoes

To unearth The astonishing secrets

Of this doomed metropolis And discover

Why it was founded here In the danger zone.

--captions by vitac-- Www.Vitac.Com

Captions paid for by Discovery communications

Pompeii, built in the shadow Of mainland europe's

Most active volcano -- Vesuvius.

An entire roman city with A population of 11,000 people

Razed to the ground By an apocalyptic eruption,

Entombed 2,000 years ago

By nearly 25 feet Of volcanic debris,

But now investigators are Digging beneath the layer

Preserved by the ash.

Their goal -- to delve into A deeper mystery

And shed light on The city's very foundations.

We always think of pompeii As the classic roman town,

And we forget that this has got A long,

Long history Of occupation beforehand.

[ rumbling ]

Narrator: underneath A thick layer of volcanic debris

Lies an entire Ancient metropolis

Preserved for centuries.

[ crumbling ]

Flanked by shops and bars,

Pompeii's main street Is frozen in time.

It led to the center Of the city, the forum.

It was enclosed on three sides By a grand pillared arcade --

[ rumbling ]

Once the bustling heart Of pompeii.

Who founded this city?

And why was it constructed In the blast zone

Of an active volcano?

[ suspenseful music plays ]

Archaeologist sophie hay Has dedicated her career

To investigating pompeii.

She's trying to piece together

How and why The city emerged here.

Hay: [ british accent ] This is What makes pompeii so special.

You can see the state Of preservation here,

Unparalleled in the roman world.

Narrator: a third of the town Still remains untouched

By archaeologists to preserve The treasures under the ash.

But today, for the first time In more than a decade,

A major new excavation Is beginning.

The dig gives sophie a rare Chance to investigate

The shocking depth To which pompeii was buried.

It highlights the enormous Challenge

Archaeologists face In their search

For this city's Mysterious origins.

This is the material that Vesuvius dumped upon pompeii

During the 79 a.D. Eruption,

And this just filled These rooms.

Narrator: The preservation of everyday Roman life is breathtaking.

It has made pompeii's story Truly iconic.

Even now, archaeologists are Unearthing grand villas

Adorned with intricate wall Paintings and beautiful mosaics.

They're building an incredibly Detailed picture

Of how Pompeii's people lived,

From the bankers And politicians,

To the slaves And gladiators.

This is the closest contact I can have with the romans,

Seeing the everyday objects

That they used Nearly 2,000 years ago.

Narrator: Archaeologists are still Unearthing victims

From the city's final day, Like this man,

Crushed by flying rubble,

But beneath the roman layer Hide untold secrets.

Hay: Most of the excavations of Pompeii stop at the roman level.

We've got a long way to go

Before we understand The origins.

Narrator: Who founded this city, and why Did they choose this spot?

Can a discovery at the gates Of pompeii

Reveal why the city Emerged here beneath a volcano?

[ rumbling ]

Buried underground, Archaeologists have discovered

A tomb undisturbed For more than 2,000 years.

[ rumbling ]

Stone slabs mark The final resting place

Of a solitary Female skeleton.

There are few clues To her identity,

But surrounding her body are 12 Beautifully decorated vases

Painted in a style Almost unlike anything else

Excavated in pompeii.

What can these rare objects

Reveal about the area's Secret history?

[ rumbling ]

The vases open a window Onto the little-known tribes

Who occupied pompeii before rome Conquered it in 80 b.C.

Hay: wow. That's a good few 100 years

Before roman pompeii.

These vases are extremely old, But the decoration is not roman.

[ camera shutter clicks ]It's greek.

For sophie and pottery Specialist letitia kavassa,

The origin of the tomb's Offerings is an important clue.

And these two here, They're beautiful.

Before the rise of rome, The greeks were one of

The most advanced civilizations In the mediterranean.

The vases Suggest they were here,

Sharing their culture With early pompeians,

But why?

Today, pompeii seems An unlikely place

To find a greek vase, But 2,000 years ago,

It was a center of trade Close to the sea.

The city was strategically Placed near the sarnus river,

Giving the town direct access To the bay of naples.

Surrounded by the steep slopes Of ancient volcanoes,

The bay was known For its unusually deep waters.

Much of italy's coast Is made up of shallow beaches

That large ships Cannot approach,

So the bay of naples became Vital for international trade.

♪♪

Sophie believes ancient Greek commerce

May be the key To unlocking pompeii's origins.

[ suspenseful music plays ]

She heads to the town's Oldest district

In search of more evidence.

Hay: This is the triangular forum.

It's a slightly mysterious place In pompeii.

It feels very different.

Narrator: Archaeologists believe The triangular forum

Is a remnant of pompeii's Earliest days.

Clues to the town's beginnings Survive in the stonework here.

Hay: so this is the last piece In the jigsaw.

This huge piece of Architectural fragment

Was a column capital, So right

At the top of the column, But it's not roman.

It's greek, and it dates To the 6th century b.C.,

So 700 years before The eruption of vesuvius.

[ suspenseful music plays ]

Narrator: the temple overlooks The old course of the river.

Sophie believes It's a clear sign

That pompeii was tapping into The ancient greek trading world.

The greek columns would have Been visible to passing traders

In search of markets To sell goods,

Everything from pottery to food And even slaves.

Pompeii was a melting pot Of cultures

From the 6th century b.C.

All the way through To the roman period,

And that's encapsulated here.

Narrator: by 79 a.D.,

Pompeii had developed Into a thriving trading hub

Thanks to steep volcanic slopes Forming a deep natural harbor,

But was the volcano providing More than just a port?

Was the force that eventually Killed pompeii

The very thing that allowed it To flourish in the first place?

Narrator: pompeii -- An entire roman city destroyed

And preserved by A volcanic eruption,

The settlement's history Stretches back hundreds of years

Before 79 a.D.,

But why did pompeii change From a small coastal port

To a major commercial hub?

Did the volcano itself provide The resources needed

For the town's transformation Into a thriving roman city?

Geologist guido giordano Thinks a clue

May lie hidden in the actual Fabric of pompeii's buildings.

Giordano: everywhere You walk through this city,

You find evidence Of volcanic material

Being used in construction, And this is because volcanoes

Produce a wide variety Of rock types from hard

And heavy lavas to soft And light volcanic tuffs,

And in the bay of naples, Those are everywhere.

Narrator: Pompeii's roman roads were laid With tuff lava stone

To withstand the heavy traffic Of horse-drawn carts.

Decorative architectural Features were sculpted

From softer volcanic tuff.

Did these materials Attract the first pompeians

To this location?

Beneath a house in the south Of the city

Lies evidence of pompeii's Original architecture --

Stone foundations Buried below the surface

That predate the surrounding Buildings by hundreds of years.

They stretch back To the 6th century b.C.

Made from soft volcanic rock And packed into the ground

A mere 4 inches deep, These foundations were the roots

Of the earliest structures In pompeii.

Could this rock hold the answer

To why this city grew And flourished here?

In 79 a.D., vesuvius had been Dormant for hundreds of years,

But volcanic material From much older eruptions

Formed the region's bedrock.

So what was it That made this rock

So useful To ancient builders?

Building materials Are fundamental

To understanding Ancient civilizations.

This material is actually Very soft, very easily workable,

But at the same time, It is strong,

And that's why pompeii Is largely made

Of blocks of tuff like this one.

Narrator: The volcano provided the raw Material for early pompeians

To build their settlement,

But guido believes that when The romans conquered the region,

Their ingenious use of tuff

Helped them To supersize the city.

[ mysterious music plays ]

♪♪

He investigates a stone mine

Deep beneath the nearby city Of naples.

Here, ancient tuff can be found In its original state --

Volcanic ash cemented into rock.

The citizens used Carved blocks of tuff

To construct pompeii's Grand public buildings,

But they also used it As a mortar.

When crushed, the rock Turns back into loose ash.

One of the most revolutionary Invention of ancient romans

Was to mix this volcanic ash With quicklime

To produce a cement

That is actually able to dry Even in wet environments.

Narrator: The romans' development Of hydraulic cement

Meant they could Build underwater.

This wonder material transformed Their influence

Within the mediterranean.

This invention allowed them To build concrete structures

And piers for their harbors,

And this is probably One of the key aspects

Of the success of pompeii.

Narrator: The advanced infrastructure Of the bay of naples ports

Enabled pompeii to thrive On mediterranean trade,

But what were pompeii's Merchants selling?

Was living beneath a volcano Actually boosting

The city's economy?

With commerce flourishing In the bay,

Business boomed for traders,

Nowhere more than at the Hundreds of bars across pompeii.

These served locally grown food To visitors and pompeians alike,

Perhaps functioning as informal Meeting points

Where trade deals Could be made.

The walls were covered In frescoes

Depicting the roman god of wine, Bacchus,

And their storerooms Were stocked full of amphorae,

Vessels for transporting wine.

Amphorae bearing pompeii's Stamps have turned up across

The roman empire, From britain to north africa.

So was wine at the heart Of pompeii's roaring trade?

Today, farmers grow grapes In organic vineyards

All over the mountain.

Guido believes that vesuvius' Geology may offer

A huge advantage To this industry.

Today's soils contain The products

Of vesuvius' Most recent eruption.

The latest was in 1944.

Two thousand years ago,

Pompeii's winemakers Would have been growing vines

In the ash of earlier eruptions.

This kind of material is very Easily weathered by water,

By rainwater,

So the minerals are released To the soil very quickly.

Narrator: Until 79 a.D., vesuvius hadn't Erupted for centuries,

Long enough For generations of farmers

To safely establish vineyards

And perfect The art of winemaking.

Guido tests the acidity Of the soil.

It confirms the reason For pompeii's

Success in wine production.

Giordano: So this has worked perfectly.

Look at the orange color.

That means that the soil Is very acidic,

And this is due to the presence Of very high content

Of potassium In the vesuvius volcanic ash.

Potassium is very important To plants,

So that's the reason Why this soil is so fertile.

Narrator: Pompeii had everything it needed

To become A thriving trading hub.

The volcano provided Natural harbors,

The raw material For commercial infrastructure

And even its major export: wine.

Giordano: Pompeii had a prime location,

So no wonder it was flourishing In the 1st century.

Narrator: The volcano was clearly key To pompeii's prosperity.

As it grew, more people came To live in the danger zone,

But did the benefits That allowed the city

To prosper come at a deadly cost Long before vesuvius erupted,

And did the people of pompeii

Know that their time Was running out?

[ ominous music plays ]

Narrator: Pompeii, one of the most Perfectly preserved cities

In the ancient world,

Now, archaeologists Are discovering that the town

Destroyed by vesuvius in 79 a.D. Was no ordinary roman city.

Pompeii was a 600-year-old Mediterranean trading hub.

It owed its very existence To the volcano

And the resources It provided,

But was vesuvius also Extracting a deadly price

Even before it erupted?

A clue lies in The city's lifeblood --

Its ingenious roman Water network.

At the highest point of the city Stands the castellum aquae,

Distributing water Throughout pompeii.

Connected to it, lead pipes Travel 150 yards downhill

Beneath the sidewalk To the first water tower.

♪♪

This fed the city's homes And public baths,

But encrusted on the brick A thick mineral deposit

Built up over decades.

Could this residue have had A potentially deadly effect

On the people living here?

[ ominous chord strikes ]

Forensic anthropologist Pier paolo petrone

Wants to find out.

The bones of the dead Could hold the answers,

But they're locked away From forensic examination.

Contorted in their Agonizing death poses

And covered by falling ash, The victims were preserved

By 19th-century Archaeologists.

They cast in plaster The molds left

By the long-decayed bodies,

But the plaster is so dense Even ct scans struggle

To penetrate through To the bone inside,

So for clues pier paolo Examines skeletons

Excavated from neighboring Herculaneum.

This was another town buried By the eruption of 79 a.D.

He looks for evidence that Could explain the effect

Of living beneath vesuvius.

Pier paolo uses a ct scanner To investigate the skull

Of a man who died Sheltering from the eruption.

The scans reveal a surprise.

This man was relatively old When the volcano killed him.

[ suspenseful music plays ]

Was vesuvius having a sinister Effect on his quality of life?

Pier paolo examines The skeletons

In search Of a pattern of pathology.

In almost every victim, He finds strange bony growths

That would have made Joints stiff and painful.

In some cases, the effects are Shockingly severe,

Even leading to paralysis.

Pier paolo analyzes the victims' Teeth to find more clues.

What he discovers suggests That the mystery disease

Was linked to their diet And the region's volcanic soil.

Fluorosis is caused by The excessive

Consumption Of the mineral fluoride.

Pier paolo thinks that The people of pompeii

Were being slowly poisoned By a contaminated water supply.

Vesuvius' permeable volcanic Rock is rich in fluoride.

As rain filters through The ground,

This fluoride dissolves Into the water,

Entering springs In the valley below.

The romans used these polluted Springs for drinking water

And built an ingenious aqueduct To carry it down to pompeii.

At the castellum aquae,

The water was divided To supply fountains,

Baths, and houses Across the city.

The people drank The fluoride-laced water,

Which over time ravaged Their bones and joints.

The volcanic terrain that had Nurtured the city

Was sucking the life From its population.

The people of pompeii Had prospered

Due to the volcano's Natural resources,

But did they have any idea

They were living Beneath a silent killer?

Should they have spotted The warning signs

That this volcano Was about to erupt,

And could they have escaped?

Narrator: pompeii -- The roman city destroyed

By a giant volcanic eruption.

Today, archaeologists are Still digging down

Through the millions of tons Of volcanic debris

To uncover its hidden secrets.

Could pompeii's citizens Have known their time

Was running out?

Volcanologist giuseppe Mastrolorenzo investigates

The heartbeat Of this sleeping giant.

[ ominous music plays ]

He's trying to figure out Whether the volcano

Offered any warning of the fury It was about to unleash.

Even today, One third of this city

Is still completely buried Under volcanic ash.

[ suspenseful music plays ]

Did the people of pompeii have Any inkling of the cataclysm

That was coming their way?

There may be a clue in the walls Of one of pompeii's

Partially excavated buildings --

This impressive villa Set around a courtyard.

[ rumbling ]

Inside is a snapshot Of pompeii's final moments,

On the north wall, The yellow sketched outline

Of an unfinished fresco.

Beneath it, archaeologists Discovered pots stained

With bright paint pigments.

Alongside them, larger pots Containing lime plaster,

The base layer For another painting,

But there's a strange mistake.

Plaster was splashed on the wall Covering the fresco,

Evidence of a panic When this room was abandoned.

People were working here Right up until the eruption.

[ rumbling ]

Should they have spotted The warning signs?

Earthquakes often occur In the lead-up to an eruption.

They're caused by molten rock Or magma

Building up Within the volcano.

Archaeologists have identified More signs

Of earthquake damage Around the city --

Cracks in stone walls Patched up with bricks.

The people of pompeii Were still making repairs

Even though the volcano Had started to produce tremors.

Why?

The romans were no strangers To active volcanoes

Such as etna and stromboli.

Their eruptions were rarely Preceded by earthquakes,

But seismic activity Did occur regularly.

Italy straddles A major fault line

Where two mighty Tectonic plates meet.

This boundary makes italy one Of europe's tremor hot spots,

Suffering A devastating earthquake

On average roughly Every 5 years.

Pompeii itself had been hit 17 years before the eruption,

So it's unlikely That people connected

The tremors with the mountain.

So if the pompeians didn't know They were living

Beneath a volcano,

How much time did they get To save themselves

When the eruption Finally began?

[ ominous music plays ]

[ rumbling ]

Giuseppe believes he's found A lead in the volcanic fallout.

These little stones Are fragments of rock

Called pumice Ejected from the volcano.

Giuseppe Thinks these pumice stones

Might reveal how quickly The eruption took place.

At his laboratory in naples, Giuseppe

And his team Take a closer look.

Deep within The rock's microstructure

Lies the imprint Of the eruption itself.

The team uses x-rays to isolate The individual crystals

And bubbles of air within it.

This technique allows giuseppe

To decipher the conditions Inside the volcano

When the pumice was formed.

This will reveal how quickly The magma was expelled.

The tiny size of the crystals Within the pumice

Suggests they had Very little time to grow.

As the pumice rained down On pompeii,

Roofs collapsed Under its weight,

Crushing the people Taking shelter below,

But this was only a precursor To a much more deadly force.

What exactly happened During the eruption,

And could new evidence reveal

That there may even Have been survivors?

Narrator: The eruption of mount vesuvius In 79 a.D.

Shocked and terrified The people of pompeii.

For years, the town Had been rocked

By tremors and earthquakes.

Archaeologists believe That its citizens

Didn't connect The shaking of the ground

With the threat of eruption.

Many ignored it Until it was too late.

The devastation of the city Was rapid and merciless.

♪♪

But scientists are now Uncovering evidence

That some people may incredibly Have been able

To live through the eruption.

[ rumbling ]

When archaeologists Excavated pompeii,

They discovered strange cavities Inside the ash.

As burned bodies decayed, They left voids

In the hardened material,

Eerie imprints of these people's Last moments

That even captured Facial expressions.

Encased in the ash, The victims' bones remained,

Long after their clothes And flesh had gone,

But the blast wasn't hot enough

To instantly Incinerate the bodies,

So was the temperature At a level

That some people Could have survived?

[ rumbling ]

Geologist Guido giordano searches

The scorched walls of pompeii.

He pieces together A detailed picture

Of exactly what Its citizens were up against.

When the volcano erupted, A giant cloud of hot rocks

And ash was fired up To 30 kilometers in height.

People must have been terrified.

Narrator: As the rocks began to fall,

The people of pompeii would have Begun to flee,

But what happened next?

The force of the eruption Propelled millions of tons

Worth of material into the sky.

As the pressure dropped, The rock and ash began to fall.

A cascade of volcanic debris Called a pyroclastic flow

Descended down the mountain On a cushion of air

Flattening everything In its path.

When the column collapsed, Producing a huge avalanche

Very fast full of rock debris, The top layer of that

Was a giant cloud Of searing-hot gas and dust.

[ rumbling ]

Narrator: Anyone who avoided the rock flow

Would have faced the surge Of superheated gas.

[ suspenseful music plays ]

For a long time, Scientists believed that people

Still left in the city Would have died instantly,

But guido giordano and his team Want to find out

If anyone caught up in The cloud could have survived.

[ suspenseful music plays ]

Volcanologists believe that when The pyroclastic flow

Surged towards pompeii,

Temperatures in the ash cloud Exceeded 750 degrees fahrenheit,

Hot enough to melt lead.

This is an extremely hot Temperature,

Unsurvivable for human beings.

Narrator: But what happened to Those temperatures

When the cloud entered the city?

Traveling at over 60 miles per Hour barely touching the ground,

The 750-degree Flow reached pompeii

In just a few minutes, But in the city,

Any walls still standing Could have provided refuge,

Shielding some areas From the full force of the blow.

[ rumbling ]

Clues within pompeii's buildings

Suggest the temperature Of the cloud

May have dropped In these pockets of shelter.

Inside some of the houses, You can still find bread

Or furniture virtually untouched By the heat wave,

So this tells us that the Dynamics of the pyroclastic flow

Once it entered the city Must have gone through changes.

Narrator: Using a pioneering technique, Guido believes he can work out

How the ash cloud behaved

When it reached Pompeii's streets and houses.

The secret is locked in the Fragile remnants of wood

Found within Pyroclastic deposits.

When wood is transformed into Charcoal, its cells dry out.

Its surface becomes shiny And reflects light,

A property guido can measure.

Giordano: we can convert the Intensity of the light

Reflected into the temperature Of the pyroclastic flow.

Narrator: for guido, The results are tantalizing.

Some samples were burned at Around 750 degrees fahrenheit,

But others burned At a much lower heat.

The temperatures inside pompeii Were actually

Much more variable Than we expected.

Narrator: in some areas, The heat never got above

300 degrees fahrenheit.

Guido believes at this Temperature, against all odds,

People might have lived Through the thermal shock.

Giordano: In local areas of pompeii,

There could have been conditions For survival for human beings.

[ ominous chord strikes ]

Narrator: The possibility that its Citizens could have escaped

The pyroclastic surges Rewrites pompeii's history,

But in the days following The eruption,

Their town was consumed By the fallout.

Pompeii was beyond rescue,

But its story Is only partly told.

What archaeological treasures Still hide

In the city's last buried areas?

And what threat Does vesuvius pose today?

Narrator: Two thousand years ago,

Pompeii was destroyed By the eruption of vesuvius,

Torn apart by pyroclastic flows And buried by ash and pumice.

[ ominous notes strike ]

Today, a third of the town Still rests

In its volcanic grave.

[ machinery treads clack ]

But the new dig is starting To explore this hidden district.

What are pompeii's last Remaining secrets?

So we're standing on...

Narrator: Sophie hay joins pompeii's Director general,

Massimo osanna.

His team is about to dig down

Into what appears To be a townhouse.

Hay: So I see a little glimpse Down here of something.

This is The top of the wall,

The first wall Of our new excavation.

Most of the city's buildings Were razed to the ground floor,

But this wall stands 13 feet above street level.

Incredibly, it suggests This home's upper floors

May have survived.

In this part of the town, This pyroclastic surge

Was not So really destructive.

It's really fantastic To understand

The ancient architecture.

[ upbeat music plays ]

The exposed brickwork is lined With a seam of plaster.

As the excavation progresses,

It reveals richly Decorated rooms.

Vivid depictions of birds And sea creatures

Emerge from the ash.

Shielded from the worst Of the heat,

This house is A remarkable time capsule.

This new area allows Archaeologists

To resurrect the city's Lost upper levels.

Pompeii still has many More secrets to yield,

But one day could All this be buried again?

[ rumbling ]

Vesuvius has erupted more Than 30 times

Since it consumed the city.

Giuseppe mastrolorenzo And his colleagues

At the vesuvius observatory

Watch the mountain For signs of it stirring.

It's not just vesuvius That threatens

The modern gulf of naples.

The entire bay Is ringed by volcanoes,

Including europe's largest, Campi flegrei.

The potential costs Of an eruption today

Are unimaginably high,

So despite pompeii's warning From history, why, today,

Is the volcano's blast Zone more populated than ever?

For the people In the bay of naples,

The benefits of living Here outweigh the risks.

Their ancestors have been Making the same calculation

For thousands of years.

Volcanoes provide a wealth Of benefits at all times,

And occasionally Severe hazards.

The people of this region Have learned to be resilient

To cope With the volcanic hazard.

[ rumbling ]

Narrator: Vesuvius fostered a thriving Population for centuries,

But for the town of pompeii, Luck ran out in 79 a.D.

The mountain finally called In the debt.

The ruins are a time capsule

Preserving the volcano's cycle Of birth and destruction,

Yet despite the danger,

People have returned in their Millions to live in its shadow.

It's almost inevitable That one day

The pattern will be Repeated.

[ suspenseful music plays ]

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪