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Lost Treasures of Ancient Civilizations - Season 1 Episode 2 -
Pompeii
Pompeii
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FunTranscript
00:00In the shadow of a mighty volcano, on the southern Italian coast lies the
00:07greatest archaeological time capsule ever discovered, Pompeii. The incredible Roman
00:14metropolis where an entire city and even its people have been frozen in time.
00:22These were the streets where they lived. These were the houses of their friends,
00:28their families, their neighbours. These were the bars and cafes where they ate and drank.
00:35In this program I'm going on an incredible adventure, revealing how Pompeii was
00:43discovered, bit by bit, over 300 years. Look at this! Wow! And uncovering amazing
00:54details about the way Romans lived, how they worked and how they relaxed.
01:01I'll explore the city's grandest buildings.
01:07I just can't get over these colours! Discover some of its darkest secrets.
01:13I've estimated that as many as ten people could have been tied to this.
01:18And investigate the surprising story of how Pompeii found itself caught up in the Second World War.
01:24If you drop enough bombs in that area, there's a good chance that you'll hit something.
01:33Pompeii is without doubt one of the greatest archaeological sites in the world.
01:38Pompeii, unique in its size and level of amazing preservation.
01:55No other discovery has told us more about the way the ancient Romans lived and died.
02:01And the story of what was discovered here is one of the most astonishing ever told.
02:10This is magical. I've been to Roman sites before where you get very excited about a fragment of one building.
02:17But this is an entire city, frozen in time.
02:22Here I am in the forum, which would have been the bustling civic and religious heart of this settlement.
02:28And there's roads leading off, buildings stretching as far as I can see.
02:32This is nothing less than the world's greatest time capsule.
02:37But until three centuries ago, this remarkable city was almost totally invisible.
02:43It had been buried deep beneath the ground for over one and a half thousand years after a cataclysmic event.
02:56In the autumn of AD 79, in the middle of a normal day, a volcano, Mount Vesuvius, erupted.
03:04And I'm off to take a look at it.
03:22Today, thankfully, the volcano is quiet.
03:31What an epic view!
03:35The Bay of Naples out there.
03:37And down here, six miles or so away, difficult to see in this haze, but surrounded by the modern metropolis, you've got ancient Pompeii.
03:46Seems like quite a distance.
03:482,000 years ago, this volcano was far too close for comfort.
03:53The effects of the eruption was catastrophic.
03:57Devastating populations, towns and villages.
04:00And burying Pompeii in up to six metres of debris.
04:05The city was abandoned, but it was never truly forgotten.
04:10The legend of Pompeii's opulent baths, the advanced construction of its villas, and straight Roman roads survived.
04:19But no one truly believed that the city's buildings and bodies actually lay perfectly preserved, just beneath their feet.
04:33But that was about to change.
04:37I've come to the modern-day town of Urculana, just the other side of Vesuvius, to pick up the story.
04:55It all began with an accidental discovery made here 300 years ago.
05:04Back then, all this was farmland.
05:10A far cry from the bustling street of a busy Italian town like it is now.
05:15A farmer right here discovered that his well had run dry.
05:19He decided to extend it, drill it deeper into the earth.
05:25So he used a big auger, like a big drill bit.
05:27He attached an ox, which then walked round and round.
05:32Boring hot work that had to be done.
05:35As he was watching, he noticed that the spoil coming out of the earth started to have a different quality.
05:43Chunks of what looked like marble were being dug out.
05:48Shaped, worked marble.
05:52The farmer had no particular interest in the marble, other than how much it might be worth.
05:57He sold it to a local prince, who was so intrigued, they decided to investigate further.
06:04So he sent his men to dig at the well.
06:09What they unearthed is still hidden deep beneath the modern buildings of Urculana.
06:15And I'm getting special access to see it with local archaeologist, Dr. Mario Grimaldo.
06:20The prince's men tunneled deep into the ground, cutting through solid rock, armed only with pickaxes.
06:34The conditions were dark and dangerous.
06:38Areas of rock were often filled with poisonous gas.
06:42But as they tunneled deeper, it became clear that there weren't just fragments of marble buried down here.
06:48There was something much, much more substantial.
06:53Wow, this is crazy.
06:55So here's some structure here.
07:01Then, after weeks of arduous digging, they discovered something beyond their wildest dreams.
07:09Whoa!
07:11Their tunnels had opened out into a vast chamber.
07:15Now we are on the past.
07:16It must have felt incredible.
07:19Look at this.
07:21Wow!
07:25What are we looking at here?
07:27We are on the theatre.
07:29A theatre?
07:30Yeah, on the theatre. It's a very, very beautiful area.
07:33So we are in a Roman theatre, 20 metres underground.
07:38Yes, 20 metres, 25 metres under the ground.
07:42So the audience was sat here and there's some stairs, some stairs there.
07:48Mario even has a map of the original excavations, revealing a warren of tunnels dug by those early explorers.
07:55Now we are here.
07:56We have different tunnels to understand the different points of the architecture of the theatre.
08:02Today, you think of excavation as you scoop everything out and it's open to the air.
08:06Yes.
08:07But this is just burrow like moles underground, just tunnelling along, just looking for things and leaving these little tunnels in the air.
08:15So we're here in the seating area.
08:17Yes.
08:18Down there, there's a stage down there.
08:20And everything in dark has never been excavated.
08:23Yes, yes.
08:24If we excavate through this volcanic debris here, we would find...
08:29Continuing the steps, yes.
08:32Diggers continue to cut through the tough volcanic rock.
08:35They discovered a key piece of evidence, telling them exactly where they were.
08:43Information that told them this was a theatre belonging to the town of Herculaneum.
08:50So Herculaneum, the city famously lost in the same eruption as Pompeii.
08:54Yes.
08:55It's so weird to emerge from those dark Roman depths out into the light and energy of a modern Italian town.
09:05It's so exciting that they can exist so close to each other.
09:08This, for the first time, was really hard evidence.
09:11That the Roman landscape might not have been destroyed, completely obliterated by the eruption of Vesuvius in 79 AD.
09:19There might just be whole towns and cities down there, buried beneath the earth.
09:24Perhaps the myth was true and there were treasures waiting to be discovered.
09:33News of the astonishing underground discoveries spread like wildfire.
09:38Now, in 1748, a new search was ordered, this time by the King of Naples.
09:46It was in a different, easier to access location.
09:50An area of farmland shrouded in mystery.
09:54Locals called it La Civita, the settlement.
09:59But we would come to know it by a very different name.
10:03One morning, in early spring, men began digging.
10:07For the next few weeks, the team removed tons of volcanic debris.
10:16Then they spotted something.
10:21As they dug deeper, they found they weren't just churning through the same old volcanic material.
10:27They found different kinds of stone, stuff with structure like this, edges, tool marks.
10:36As they continued exploring, they found another edge, then another.
10:43They appeared to be seats, row upon row of them.
10:48It began to look like they may have unearthed an immense building.
10:52And then, after weeks of digging, as the building gradually took shape, the true identity of their discovery was revealed.
11:04And it was magnificent.
11:05The most spectacular, virtually intact Roman amphitheatre.
11:19This is one of the best Roman sites I have ever been to.
11:33Although no one knew it yet, the first building belonging to the ancient city of Pompeii had just been revealed.
11:41You'd think the king and his team would be ecstatic.
11:49But no.
11:50They were interested in statues, in artwork, in golden treasures.
11:55And with the exception of one or two paintings, there was none of that here.
11:58In fact, there's a diary entry for the 27th of April, 1748.
12:04Nothing was found and only ruined structures uncovered.
12:08If it wasn't treasure, they weren't interested.
12:12But I guess if you remember, they were not archaeologists.
12:15They were treasure seekers.
12:17And with nothing to loot, Pompeii's archaeological rediscovery was brought to a halt.
12:22Then, after seven long years, everything changed.
12:29100 metres from the amphitheatre, local farmers unearthed something intriguing.
12:35Edges of these expensive, grand marble columns were spotted poking out of the soil.
12:42A decision was made.
12:44Digging would begin again, now led by Swiss engineer Karl Weber.
12:50Over the following days, tons of volcanic ash was shifted, in the desperate hope of making a find.
12:56Then, they spotted something.
13:07It became clear the columns were part of a larger structure.
13:10They continued on, carefully.
13:17Then, they revealed walls decorated in beautiful plasterwork.
13:21Until, finally, something incredible appeared.
13:26The beautiful preserved home of a wealthy ancient Roman.
13:32Even though it's been, well, over 200 years since this villa was found, you can still just imagine how exciting it must have been walking through this opulent Roman house.
13:45As more and more was exposed, Weber's excitement grew.
13:51And this moment of magic as he slowly excavated, clearing away these unbelievable wall paintings.
13:59Vivid, vivid colours that you would not be able to see anywhere else in the world.
14:04The interior decoration of a Roman house from 1700 years before.
14:08Archaeologist Dr Sophie Hay can tell me more.
14:14I just can't get over these colours.
14:17I know, isn't it amazing?
14:18The sky blue is like being sort of outside, but yet we're inside.
14:21It's sort of windows straight into the Roman world.
14:26What had been unearthed was one of the largest private homes in Pompeii.
14:30Taking up two whole street blocks.
14:33With its own sumptuous garden complete with a long ornamental pool.
14:38It even had its own private baths.
14:41But who could possibly live in a house like this?
14:45Amazingly, they found a name.
14:50Well, we've got archaeological gold dust for this place.
14:53So here we have an image of a huge painted inscription that was on the facade of this building.
15:01And it clearly says this estate is owned by Julia Felix.
15:04That's the smoking gun.
15:07It is.
15:08And then underneath she's got an advert for her bath complex, which she wants to rent out.
15:14She calls it an elegant bath and only for respectable people.
15:17So I like it, she doesn't want the riff-raff coming here.
15:19So although she's super rich, obviously, because she's living in a place like this, she has to make a bit of money.
15:23Yeah, she needs an income to survive.
15:26So she's not an elite member of society.
15:28But she really is kind of a sort of savvy entrepreneur.
15:31The unearthing of Julia Felix's home was phenomenal, and it meant excavations would now be able to continue in the area.
15:46Yet, astonishingly, no one knew where they were actually digging.
15:52Nothing had told them this house belonged to the lost city of Pompeii.
15:57But a few years later, after tireless searching, a new critical piece of evidence would emerge.
16:04So this is it. This is the missing link that allowed archaeologists to decode and understand the place they were working.
16:12It's an engraving, an inscription carved into a stone.
16:16It deals with fairly mundane public business, government instructions and things.
16:20But down here, there's a phrase,
16:22Re publici pompeanorum, refers to the people of Pompeii.
16:29They finally realized where they were digging.
16:33It was the city of Pompeii.
16:35It was back on the map.
16:36It would change things forever.
16:40Now people knew.
16:42This was the lost city of Pompeii.
16:46The previous discoveries, the amphitheater of Julia Felix's home,
16:49were part of the once hidden Roman city.
16:54Then, in 1764, there was another breakthrough.
16:57A key public building was found, the massive Temple of Isis.
17:02Pompeii's reputation was spreading far and wide.
17:10Tourism and digging started to feed off each other.
17:13The more amazing discoveries were made, the more grand tourists showed up here,
17:18bringing with them the funding to do yet more digging.
17:22To keep the tourists interested and the money flowing into the site,
17:29it became essential that new and incredible discoveries were made.
17:35In the hope of unearthing more of Pompeii's buried secrets,
17:39digging began in the south of the site.
17:41The new dig was led by Spaniard Francesco La Vega.
17:53La Vega's men dug down into the volcanic debris,
17:56removing tons of the stuff,
17:58until they came upon a strange kind of structure.
18:02They made a note in the dig diary.
18:05Continued to clear the earth in the building,
18:07which lies adjacent to the town walls,
18:09which reveals a large courtyard or piazza
18:12surrounded by a portico with columns painted red,
18:15and rooms on two floors.
18:17As more material was cleared, more mysterious rooms run-earth.
18:30It clearly wasn't a normal house.
18:32It didn't feel like someone's home.
18:38It was small, cramped.
18:40They felt like cells.
18:47Then, as the digging team slowly emptied the cells of rubble,
18:51they made an incredible discovery.
18:54It was in the corner of one of these buildings
18:56that they found some objects that finally solved the mystery
19:00and told them exactly what this building was.
19:03What they had found was a huge gladiatorial barracks.
19:14For the first time ever, evidence had been uncovered
19:17of where Roman gladiators had once lived and trained.
19:22And it was groundbreaking.
19:27Many of those greatest finds are now in downtown Naples,
19:31at the city's Grand Archaeological Museum.
19:35And Professor Valerie Higgins has agreed to show them to me.
19:40These are absolutely amazing.
19:43Yep, this is the best collection of gladiator helmets in existence.
19:49Isn't there actually wariness
19:50when they went out to fight in the arena?
19:52Yes, you would put into fight, into the arena,
19:56someone who was potentially covered head to foot in armour
19:59with sort of massive weapons.
20:02And then, pitted against him, would be another guy, maybe,
20:06who we call the Retiarius, who would be practically naked,
20:11except for a net and a trident.
20:14And so this guy has got all the protection,
20:17but he can't really move very fast and he can't see very well.
20:21The Retiarius can, like, dodge in and out
20:23and can be quick and try and get it.
20:27For thousands of years, Rome's gladiatorial games
20:31had been the stuff of legend.
20:33Now, the discovery of the gladiator's barracks in Pompeii
20:37gave us unique insight into this terrifying sport.
20:40Two thousand years after they were last used,
20:46we could touch the armour they wore as they entered the arena
20:50and see first-hand the gruesome weapons they once held.
20:54Gladiators like Pompeii's Marcus Satilius
20:58wielded swords like these to slay both man and beast.
21:02At the end of the 18th century,
21:09after the incredible excavation of the gladiator barracks,
21:12more and more of Pompeii began to be revealed.
21:18But this spectacular holiday period was about to come to a sudden end.
21:23In 1806, the armies of Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte marched on Naples,
21:34and Pompeii soon fell into his hands.
21:48When Napoleon invaded Italy, he was a man on a mission.
21:50He believed that his empire was the heir to the Roman Empire.
21:55He even said of himself,
21:57I am a true Roman emperor.
22:00I am of the best race of Caesars.
22:04He wanted to gather together all the treasures of ancient Rome
22:08to boost his power and prestige.
22:13He turned to someone he could really trust.
22:16His little sister, Caroline.
22:18She arrived at Pompeii on a mission to excavate the entire city.
22:25So I have just come out through the gate,
22:30and it should be just here.
22:33There it is. Look at these massive great big stone blocks.
22:37The building blocks of the outer wall of Pompeii.
22:40Originally a defensive fortification.
22:44And this was the big idea, which is you establish the size of Pompeii,
22:50the sort of scale of the archaeological project,
22:53by working out first what the perimeter is.
22:56It's a huge engineering project.
22:57With the grand plan laid out in front of them, the diggers began the back-breaking task of removing thousands of tons of volcanic material.
23:12Collapsing debris was a serious risk.
23:16But they exposed walls that carried on going.
23:21As the months passed, the city's outline slowly began to take shape.
23:26Until they revealed something not seen in centuries.
23:30What they found was stunning.
23:37They realised that the existing areas that had been dug out here and here were just a tiny proportion of a big city.
23:45The walls stretched two miles around it.
23:49The area inside, 163 acres.
23:52This is the first time in 2,000 years anyone had really had a sense of the size and shape of Pompeii.
24:02Revealing the city's walls was an incredible achievement.
24:08But just as this lost ancient world was beginning to come to light,
24:12the dig received a crushing blow.
24:22Napoleon's armies were defeated throughout Europe.
24:27The Bonapartes were kicked out of Naples.
24:30Digging at Pompeii now slowed to a trickle.
24:36But in the middle of the 19th century,
24:38an event took place that would take Pompeii's rediscovery to another level.
24:50Italy became a unified country.
24:55Discovering more of Pompeii became a mission for the new nation.
24:59And a new archaeologist was brought in to oversee it.
25:03Giuseppe Fiorelli.
25:04Giuseppe Fiorelli.
25:09Fiorelli was perfect for the job.
25:11He wasn't going to pass up this opportunity.
25:13He'd worked here since he was a young man.
25:15He was obsessed with telling the real story of normal Pompeians.
25:20People who he saw as his ancestors.
25:23And that passion would lead to one of the most arresting discoveries in the history of Pompeii.
25:28From the very first excavations, Pompeii's archaeologists had been unearthing skeletons.
25:38The tragic legacy of the men, women and children who hadn't managed to flee the deadly eruption of 79 AD.
25:46When the early archaeologists were excavating places like this, they'd often find human remains.
25:56Skeletons that had been obviously killed by falling walls or big chunks of volcanic rock.
26:01But sometimes skeletons had another strange feature.
26:05There'd be a sort of pocket of air around them, like a void.
26:08And archaeologists didn't really understand why.
26:11In this recent example, the gap around the skeleton can clearly be seen.
26:17It was a complete mystery.
26:18Why hadn't it been filled in by the volcanic ash?
26:25To understand what that was, I'm joined by archaeologist Dr Alison Emerson.
26:35So here, we're looking at a set of doors.
26:38Clearly, they're the doors that once stood here.
26:40But not quite the doors that once stood here, because they are made out of plaster, not wood.
26:45Plaster of Paris.
26:46So the Romans would have had wooden doors here.
26:50Exactly. These would have been wooden doors.
26:52These wooden doors have now been recreated using plaster.
26:59During the eruption of 79 AD, ash from Vesuvius covered the wooden door and set hard.
27:05Over the centuries, the wood inside rotted away, leaving a gap or void inside the hard, compacted ash.
27:12But before they rotted, the doors imprinted themselves into the ash, leaving a clear outline of their shape.
27:20So the archaeologists would have seen this long, thin, very, very deep hole in the volcanic material and thought, that's going to be something interesting. Let's pour plaster of Paris.
27:30Exactly. They could use that like a mould by pouring plaster of Paris and then suddenly they have the impression of that object.
27:36Fiorelli decided to apply the same technique to the voids that were left around the bones of the victims of Pompeii after their flesh had rotted away.
27:47But to do this, he would need to discover the right set of remains.
27:51On a Tuesday morning in early 1863, Fiorelli discovered a skeleton with a void around it.
28:04He would later write,
28:06I thought that by quickly pouring in plaster of Paris, the cast of an entire person would be obtained.
28:13What happened that day transformed Pompeii.
28:16They're really evocative.
28:32You're looking at human beings in the throes of death.
28:38Capturing these victims in this way was remarkable.
28:46Nowhere else on earth have human remains been preserved like these at Pompeii.
28:51The pain and suffering shone as they suffocated in a cloud of hot ash.
28:58There's something so amazing about the face of this one. It's so striking.
29:02It's a face of trauma, of terror, of pain.
29:05It's true. It's impossible not to read our understanding of what happened to him into this face and to see that human reaction there.
29:14There's a child there.
29:17Becoming a dad has turned me into jelly.
29:20Every time I see a wounded or injured child, I just want to cry.
29:23That's really upsetting, isn't it?
29:25It is.
29:29Do we know anything about these people?
29:31We don't know much.
29:32We know that they were fleeing the eruption after it had already been going for about a day.
29:38So they are people who decided to try and wait it out.
29:41And who then decided to run for it at a moment when it seemed like it was about to end.
29:47Unfortunately, the most dangerous part of the eruption was about to begin.
29:50They all took refuge together in the garden where we are sitting.
29:53And here they all died together.
29:55But we can't say who they were or how they were connected or even if they were connected prior to the events of the day of the eruption.
30:03And yet they're connected for the rest of eternity by being here in this unique collection.
30:08The castes were a turning point in Pompey's history.
30:15It was no longer just a unique window into the lives of ancient Romans.
30:20It was now somewhere you could witness the actual moments of their death.
30:24At the start of the 20th century, Pompey had entered a golden age of discovery.
30:43Nearly half of the once lost Roman city had been unearthed.
30:47And the diggers were beginning to focus their efforts in a previously unexplored area.
31:00I'm heading to where that was.
31:04At this time, Pompey was a tale of two cities.
31:09This area had been extensively dug out, the four of them, the Temple of Isis, the grand buildings.
31:14And over the other side of the city, the amphitheatre had also been excavated.
31:20But in between them was basically a gigantic pile of volcanic debris.
31:29No one really knew what lay underneath it.
31:32But they were about to find out.
31:36Over the following weeks, the digging team slowly excavated the area.
31:40Gradually, they began to expose something fascinating.
31:45At first, they weren't really entirely sure what they were uncovering.
31:52But then they started to realise it was a road.
31:57A road that seemed to stretch out endlessly in front of them.
32:00Day after day, they pressed on exposing paving stone after paving stone on this road.
32:08Building after building, side street after side street.
32:11Tons and tons of volcanic debris removed.
32:14And still, they kept on going.
32:19Until finally, they revealed something spectacular.
32:22A 900-metre-long road that would tell them more than anyone had ever known about the way the Romans lived and relaxed.
32:37It was lined with 64 shops, including bakeries, tanners, metalworks and lamp makers.
32:43For me, I think this is the place where I feel closest to getting a handle on the character of the city.
32:53The place where people would come to eat, drink, buy, sell and play.
32:59This was the Oxford Street of Pompeii.
33:01Fittingly, archaeologists called it a via dell'abundanza, the avenue of abundance.
33:11But just as these discoveries were being made, events outside Pompeii would bring all of it to a halt.
33:21In the northwest of the city is the House of the Faun, one of the largest and most expensive homes found in Pompeii.
33:28Once owned by an upper-class Roman.
33:32It was built to the highest of standards, with the interior measuring 32,000 square feet.
33:43But tucked away in the corner of one of its many rooms is a strange, rusting relic.
33:50A relic ignored by most tourists.
33:58Here it is.
34:00This is a bit of a mystery.
34:01You do not expect to find this kind of thing in ancient Roman ruin.
34:05This is a Second World War bomb.
34:14That's the nose there.
34:16And it's gone off.
34:18It's detonated.
34:19You can see the way the casing here has been twisted and fragmented.
34:23The real question then is, what was a Second World War bomb doing here in Pompeii?
34:34100 years ago, Italy had a new leader.
34:38The fascist Benito Mussolini.
34:40He planned for new excavations to show Pompeii off to the world, linking his rule with the glories of ancient Rome.
34:52Excavations were drastically scaled up.
34:55A huge gymnasium was on Earth, where residents could swim in the giant pool, box and wrestle, or just exercise with friends.
35:03But disaster was just around the corner.
35:13Nearly a year after the Second World War began, Italy joined, allied with German forces.
35:21Digging at Pompeii came to a stop.
35:24Three years later, the Allies were on the verge of invading the Italian mainland.
35:31Thousands of British and American troops were just about to land on the beaches of Salerno, 35 kilometres south of Pompeii.
35:40In an attempt to defeat the Italians and kick the Germans out of the country.
35:44The ancient Roman city would soon be on the front line.
35:51At 7pm on the 24th of August, British and Canadian bombers stationed in Libya took off.
35:59By 10pm that night, they could see Vesuvius looming above this landscape.
36:05Conditions were said to be hazy, but good. There was no moon.
36:08There were some pinpricks of light where searchlights were trying to pick out the bombers.
36:14There was anti-aircraft fire and enemy interceptors.
36:18One of the bombers was shot down.
36:20But, despite this opposition, they began their bomb run.
36:24Over the next few minutes, hundreds of bombs were dropped from Allied aircraft.
36:29Pompeii lay beneath them.
36:31The devastation was catastrophic.
36:33In an area closed off to the public, there's still plenty of evidence of that destruction.
36:39I'm getting special access to it.
36:41This is a tragic corner of Pompeii.
36:52I'm surrounded by shelves on which there are thousands of shards of Roman architectural features, frescoes, bits of stucco, painting.
37:01They survived Vesuvius, only to be shattered by the bombs of the 20th century.
37:18When Allied soldiers arrived in Pompeii, they recorded over 100 damaged buildings.
37:24Countless works of art had been obliterated.
37:26This footage shows a bomb crater in the ancient amphitheatre.
37:34But just why was it bombed?
37:39There are clues to exactly what happened.
37:42In these, wartime squadron records and aerial photographs.
37:46And I've come to meet Professor Nigel Pollard to find out more.
37:49There are loads and loads of accounts of the bombing missions that were conducted on the nights that Pompeii was damaged and the days that Pompeii were damaged.
38:00Here in the National Archive, the RAF accounts, the US accounts as well.
38:05They all essentially tell the same story.
38:09They tell us what those targets are.
38:12They're not the archaeological site of Pompeii.
38:15The night of the 24th to the 25th of August, what they were aiming at were the railway comes through here.
38:22That was one of their targets.
38:23The other one of their targets on that night was the steelworks at Toria Nunciata there.
38:29This is about a mile, two kilometres or so, from the archaeological site of Pompeii.
38:35When the Germans were counter-attacking, they were bringing their supplies and reinforcements down these roads.
38:40You've got all these different routes coming together, with bridges and overpasses, railway, roads and so on.
38:51This is what one of my military friends calls a high payoff target.
38:55In this picture, you can see bombs being dropped from one of the aircraft.
39:00Even if your bombing's not very accurate, if you drop enough bombs in that area, then there's a good chance that you'll hit something, as they did.
39:09But, unfortunately, sometimes the something is the archaeological site, as well.
39:14And the tragedy is that archaeological site is just metres away.
39:18Despite the extensive damage, Pompeii survived.
39:23Once the war was over, its story of rediscovery would start again.
39:30And today, decades later, this amazing city is still revealing magnificent secrets about the ancient Roman way of life.
39:39I've come back to the site, and there's a very special area I want to explore.
39:45This is the north area of Pompeii, where, back in the day, different social classes lived cheap by jowl, rich, middle class and poor.
39:53And back in 2018, the decision was made to do a bit of a limited excavation to push some of this volcanic debris back from some threatened buildings.
40:03And they were about to make a major discovery.
40:05Dr Sophie Hay has agreed to show me around this exciting new find that reveals ordinary life in Pompeii.
40:13Where are we now?
40:15We're at a bar in Pompeii, which would have opened up onto the street.
40:17And there are about 100 of these around Pompeii.
40:20But actually, this one is completely unique, thanks to these amazing frescoes on it.
40:26Really, really beautiful depictions.
40:28Pretty much a menu, to be honest.
40:29There's two dead ducks, probably waiting to be cooked, and a rooster.
40:35And then, looking at them, it's probably the owner's dog who's sort of tied up and a bit straining at the leash.
40:40Oh, so you can't order a dog burger?
40:41Well, I'd hope not.
40:46Unearthing this food bar was a major breakthrough.
40:49It has allowed archaeologists to delve into the lives of ordinary residents, learning how they lived and ate.
40:58Because poor Roman families couldn't afford kitchens in their homes.
41:02It was places like this where they would get their meals.
41:06And there was amazing evidence of what they were eating.
41:11There were these sunken terracotta jars called dolia.
41:14And inside them, they found food remains, which is unheard of across the rest of Pompeii.
41:20Sort of like a buffet?
41:21Exactly, you get to choose which dish you like.
41:23And one of the dishes sounds particularly lovely.
41:25It was a mixture, a stew, let's say, of fish and land snails.
41:30So your first sort of surf and turf dish, if you like.
41:33But this bar also reveals the tragedy of Pompeii.
41:44Inside, archaeologists discover the bones of two people killed in the eruption.
41:48Showing how this ancient wonder remains an incredible window into both life and death in the Roman world.
41:59They're just the latest finds in an incredible archaeological story.
42:04One that has been written for over 300 years.
42:07Pompeii is an archaeological wonder like no other.
42:14And for me, the stories of the discoveries are as exciting as the discoveries themselves.
42:20Pompeii has told us more about the way ancient Romans lived than anywhere else on earth.
42:25It has also shown us how very similar and very different they were to us.
42:32From their places of worship to their rooms.
42:35From how they decorated their homes to how they spent their leisure time.
42:40And best of all, this story is far from over.
42:44With a third of this city yet to be excavated,
42:48who knows what treasures and tales are still buried here.
42:55TN Psalm 409
43:03Hinfeld
43:05The United Nations
43:06G
43:11The United Nations
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