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00:00This region is full of traces of the past, waiting to be discovered.
00:30Just 28 miles from Pompeii, across the Bay of Naples, are the sunken ruins of the Roman port of Misenum.
00:40It was the main military harbour of the Roman Empire, the basis of the biggest fleet of this time.
00:51In AD 79, the Roman writer Pliny the Younger is here, visiting his uncle, the admiral of the fleet.
01:02Pliny is just sitting on the terrace of his villa.
01:11When he notices something strange and amazing, a big cloud is exploding from the top of the Vosuvius, creating the shape of a very high pine tree.
01:30Pliny records every detail as he watches the drama unfold.
01:42Today, he lends his name to this deadly type of eruption.
01:47He is witnessing the beginning of a Plinian eruption.
01:52The most famous volcanic eruption of the history.
01:59While Pliny watches from safety, for the residents of Pompeii, the eruption is a matter of life or death.
02:08Within hours, thousands will perish as their city is entombed in metres of ash.
02:21Two millennia later, a team of archaeologists is removing that volcanic debris.
02:30This is the most ambitious dig in a generation.
02:36The all-Italian team are excavating an entire new city block on a wealthy commercial street, as they look to write the next chapter of the last moments of Pompeii.
02:49In one corner, they have discovered what was once a commercial bakery.
03:08In a small room, they made a shocking discovery.
03:13Buried under the debris were the crushed remains of two women and a young child, all killed by a collapsing ceiling.
03:23I don't think it would be a death that had been required for a long time.
03:29I think it would be something distant.
03:32Next door, an internal courtyard connected the bakery to the living quarters of a wealthy townhouse.
03:40The lavish frescoes include what looks like one of the first ever depictions of a pizza.
03:47You understand that you are facing something that is exalted.
03:54You know that it is precious.
03:56Now, the excavation continues.
04:02What more can it reveal about those who lived and died in the eruption of AD 79?
04:26What we see in this one today?
04:45We have to because we're tracing the last block.
04:48We're removing Covid half ofbr virginia.
04:52So the curiosity increases because the lapillo always hides many surprises.
05:22It's telling that the whole building was under reconstruction at the time of the eruption.
05:52Oh, let's go, let's go, let's go, let's go.
05:58I see a hook, Maury, what do you see?
06:01Oh, even this one.
06:03Let's go, let's go, let's go.
06:06What do you think?
06:09Let's go, let's go.
06:12It's all decorated.
06:16Come on, Maury, what do you think this is?
06:19Mamma mia, Maury, have you understood that I have an idea?
06:25I have an idea, I have an idea.
06:27What do you think of this?
06:29Imagine something like this.
06:31Ok?
06:33This is a hook.
06:34This, you know what they are?
06:36What are they?
06:37They are the armature.
06:39The horse.
06:40Great.
06:42This, inside the lapillo, had a hook,
06:45where they put the armature of the horse,
06:48and this is an exception.
06:49This means that...
06:51What kind of height are we?
06:54More or less from the pavement?
06:55One metre.
06:57So, one metre, a metre and a half?
06:59Who came with the horse
07:01and he was pulling the horse from the bottom
07:04and it was holding it,
07:05it kept it there.
07:08Look, how cool, Maury.
07:10Good, Maury.
07:11For 2,000 years, this bronze harness lay where it was left.
07:33Gennaro and his team now have evidence of builders and horses
07:37on the site just before the eruption.
07:41But as they haven't found any more bodies, the question is, what happened to them?
07:49Could they have escaped the volcano and made it to safety?
08:04It's hard to make decisions during volcanic eruptions
08:07whether to stay and guard your property and stay with your loved ones
08:15or whether to flee.
08:17Volcanologist Professor Chris Jackson believes the Pompeians would have had to act quickly to stand a chance of survival.
08:25Within the first hour to hour and a half of the eruption, the column grew from around 14 kilometres high to about 22, 23 kilometres high.
08:35That's about twice the altitude at which a commercial aircraft flies.
08:41The rising column driving everything up skyward would have caused a zone of low pressure, meaning that the air from the surrounding region was sucked in.
08:59The weather was changed by this volcanic eruption.
09:03The wind would have picked up as the wind swept along these narrow streets towards Vesuvius.
09:09For people fleeing the city, racing down these streets, behind them would have been chaos, ash falling out of the sky.
09:23We would have seen lightning as electrically charged particles started to interact.
09:31Imagine trying to run through metres of freshly fallen snow with a horse or a cart or just carrying things in your hands.
09:49Panicking as well at the same time.
09:53It would have been almost like the end of the world.
09:57But at this moment, people in Pompeii would still have had a chance to escape.
10:04They'd have been disorientated, they'd have been scared, but they would still have had a chance to exit the city through one of the gates.
10:13But any window that was open for the residents to leave was rapidly slamming shut.
10:28Experts have never known exactly how many people lived in Pompeii in AD 79.
10:34But it is believed to be 10,000 to 12,000.
10:41However, in 300 years of excavation, archaeologists have only found just over 1,200 bodies.
10:51So, did some of the residents escape the horror?
10:55And if so, where did they go?
11:04Scholars have long thought there must have been people that made it out.
11:09It's just that nobody ever went looking for them before.
11:14Now, Professor Steven Tuck of Miami University is attempting to trace survivors in a pioneering new research project.
11:26I always wondered, what happened afterwards?
11:29What if people got out?
11:32Where might they have gone?
11:34What were their lives like?
11:37There's just so many questions that spiral once you open up the possibility that somebody got out.
11:52For the last decade, Steven has combed online databases of Roman inscriptions looking for clues.
11:59Now, he's come to Pompeii to try to prove his theory.
12:07What an amazing find!
12:16Look at the carving on this.
12:17This is absolutely beautiful and just in pristine condition.
12:26His first stop is a newly discovered tomb on the edge of town.
12:30This Latin inscription holds vital evidence that Steven believes changes the thinking on how many people really lived in Pompeii.
12:43So, this was found about four years ago.
12:47You can still see, attached to the tomb, the remains of the pumice and the eruption material.
12:52While the owner's name is lost, the inscription describes his life in detail.
13:04The dinners he held, the giveaways of bread, the gladiatorial games, the animal hunts he sponsored.
13:11It's his entire life defined by his acts for the community.
13:15Most intriguingly, the inscription reveals a lavish banquet he gave for all the male citizens of Pompeii.
13:27So, we've got 456 dining couches with 15 men on each one.
13:33Knowing that the benefactor hosted nearly 7,000 male guests, Steven believes he can work out Pompeii's true population.
13:44Every one of these guys has families and wives and kids and enslaved people.
14:00Which means that there can't only be 10,000 people in the community.
14:04We think that this indicates probably a population of about 30,000.
14:08This inscription tripled what we think the populace of Pompeii was.
14:12If 30,000 people lived in the city, it means over 90% of Pompeians are still missing.
14:25People could have perished outside the city, on the roads or on the coast.
14:30But, with this vast, much larger number, there may have been thousands and thousands of people that made it out from the city.
14:40There's a lot more people missing than we were aware of.
14:49And Steven believes a major clue as to where they went is hiding in plain sight.
14:55As you walk around the city of Pompeii, there's some really intriguing evidence that I think of as evidence from absence.
15:04And one of those is right at your feet, tracks in the road.
15:09Many of the roads have these cart tracks in them, indicating in the last years of the city, dozens, perhaps hundreds of carts and wagons, pulled by mules, donkeys, maybe even by slaves, filled the streets of the city.
15:25And then when they excavated, they found almost none of those, almost no carts, very few horses.
15:37All of these are gone, and they're not within the city limits, indicating that perhaps people got out.
15:43At the dig, Gennaro and his team are still looking for the remains of a horse that had once worn the brass harness.
16:02While the horse may have escaped, the team have found another animal, part of a highly decorated roof.
16:27These lion heads are ornate gutters, used to channel rainwater.
16:40The old lion is back home.
16:43There are some repairs.
16:53Ah, and where?
16:54Look.
16:56Here is an old pump, with a lesion.
17:03This means that they repaired this element when this element was still mounted on the roof.
17:09Yes.
17:10Archaeologist Auxilia Trapani notices subtle differences in the design over time.
17:19These masks of Leone are more ancient and are around the second century a.C.
17:30This means that there were at least two centuries of difference.
17:36So, this means that this is an inheritance of the first century.
17:44So, this means that this is an inheritance.
17:45I think there is also a desire to preserve something more ancient, which could give prestige.
17:56These lion head gutters were an integral part of the atrium roof, which was open in the middle.
18:05When it rained, they funneled water into a central tank, called an impluvium.
18:11An ornate solution to a practical problem designed to show off the owner's wealth and status.
18:16The more the team dig, the clearer it becomes, the clearer it becomes, the more the team dig, the clearer it becomes, the more it becomes.
18:38The more the team dig, the clearer it becomes.
18:44This building owner spared no expense to decorate his atrium.
19:08Oh my God, look at this.
19:13Look at this, the decoration. Look how beautiful it is.
19:17Yes, there is a face, a lion, and the other is on the other side.
19:26Look at this table.
19:27This is the table that was in the atrium.
19:30Look at how it is in position, Gilbert.
19:32Just to impress the clients.
19:34When they came, they were very rich.
19:42The solid marble table and other fittings all suggested to the team
19:46that the owner of this property was a rich and influential Pompeian.
20:04They are born a beautiful and important house.
20:18Perfect, good.
20:20Good, good, good, good, good, good.
20:26Just behind the marble table,
20:28in a room at the rear of the site,
20:30the team turn their attention
20:32to the elaborately decorated walls.
20:47Hidden under layers of hardened ash is an ornate fresco.
20:51It's a wonderful feeling.
20:53It's a wonderful feeling.
20:55I think that from 1979 to today,
20:59it's the first time it's been exposed.
21:07After being buried for 2,000 years,
21:10the exposed painting is vulnerable to the weather.
21:21Only after they have protected it from the rain can the team begin to restore it.
21:31What is the purpose of really the skin?
21:45What is the skin?
21:46We are cutting out a very soft layer of paint with alcohol.
21:50with alcohol, to make it out more,
21:56in addition to the scene, the red and red colors.
22:03So, we have this male figure dressed as a woman.
22:08Yes.
22:10This is a scene from the Greek myth of Achilles,
22:13the famous hero of the Trojan War.
22:16It is also known as a man's leg,
22:23unlike this other figure here in Steta,
22:28which has a much more feminine body.
22:33On the floor, we can see the shield of a sword on the floor.
22:39I'm glad you're here.
22:41But Fresco depicts the moment Odysseus
22:46discovers Achilles disguised as a woman.
22:48The mother of Achilles, Tethi,
22:54knew the fate of his son
22:58and to protect him, he hides his sons of the king of Ciro.
23:05But without him, he could not win the war of Trojan.
23:08So they had to find him.
23:10So this is the moment when he is discovered.
23:14The paintings had a social function in this society.
23:25And you could show off your knowledge of Greek mythology.
23:30The basic message is, you know, I've made it.
23:33I'm part of this local elite,
23:37not only financially, but also culturally.
23:41It's interesting because it's an iconography
23:44that's quite well-known, not only in Pompeii.
23:47It's an iconography linked to the Emperor Nerone.
23:50One of the most important paintings of the Domus Sauro
23:53is Achilles and Sciroc.
23:57Gennaro thinks this room was the main office
24:00from where the wholesale bakery was run.
24:03Clients and guests would have been greeted first
24:06by the guests of the Domus Sauro.
24:09The guests and guests would have been greeted first
24:11by the impressive fresco,
24:14and then by the manager,
24:16sat behind his imposing marble table.
24:19The guests and guests would have been greeted first.
24:23This room was the hall of representation
24:29where the manager, the libertarian,
24:33the guests, the guests,
24:37who brought them money,
24:39who made contracts, etc.
24:42and the guests and guests and guests.
24:44Meanwhile, the hunt continues for solid evidence
24:47that people could have survived the eruption.
24:49Professor Stephen Tuck is joined by local Naples art historian,
24:52Anne Pizorosso,
24:54to look for clues in one of Pompeii's storerooms.
24:57Visiting the repository of objects in Pompeii is, I think,
25:12a really important part of this research
25:14because it gives us the opportunity
25:16to analyse objects of daily life.
25:19This is the sort of material that doesn't normally survive,
25:28and it enables us to really understand these people
25:31and to reflect on their lives.
25:36So much bronze.
25:38Any other museum in the world,
25:42three of these would be all they would have.
25:45I know.
25:46Three of these.
25:50Lead archaeologist Alessandro Russo
25:53is showing Stephen a collection of pots
25:55that once belonged to a famous Pompeian family.
26:01Well, they may not look like much,
26:02but these are incredibly interesting vessels.
26:05They're plane wear,
26:07but each of these is a vessel that held garum.
26:11Garum was a popular Roman condiment
26:15made from fermented fish.
26:23So the flower of garum.
26:26Of mackerel.
26:28So we know what it's made out of.
26:31Crucially, the vessels don't just list the ingredients,
26:33but also who produced the garum.
26:36Skauri ex officina Skauri.
26:41Skauris.
26:43And this is the third name of Aulus Mbruchius Skauris.
26:48This is just amazing.
26:50One third of all garum vessels found in and around Pompeii
26:55bear his name.
26:56Aulus Mbruchius Skauris is the most successful producer
27:02of fish sauce in Pompeii.
27:06Reading the names on it really takes it away from just being
27:10another piece of pottery.
27:12Suddenly I identify with them as human beings,
27:14and I think about, and I worry about, did they get out?
27:22It's a rare name in the entire Roman world.
27:26And that combination of first name Aulus and family name
27:30Umbruchius is unique to Pompeii.
27:32So searching these databases of Roman inscriptions of Latin names,
27:44um, I got a hit.
27:46And I found a name.
27:48And with Anne's help,
27:51tracked down this particular inscription
27:54in a former factory that's now an office building.
27:56Stephen has come to Pozzuoli,
28:0117 miles northwest of Pompeii.
28:09Ta-da!
28:11Oh, there we are.
28:15Aulus Mbruchius.
28:17This is the first time I've seen that name,
28:20Aulus Mbruchius, outside of Pompeii.
28:22Although this isn't Scouris' headstone,
28:26it is his unique family name.
28:30And Stephen is convinced this inscription commemorates a direct descendant.
28:39Umbruchia Eusta, the daughter of A. Umbruchius Magnus.
28:48So this must be a son of Scouris.
28:54And so she, the deceased, is the granddaughter.
28:58Dating to about 20 years after the eruption,
29:02Stephen believes this headstone is proof
29:05that members of Scouris' family survived the disaster.
29:08It says she lived a number of years,
29:1415, 15 years old.
29:18Oh, that's, that's kind of heartbreaking.
29:24While Stephen can't say for sure what happened to the girl's grandfather, Scouris,
29:29he's convinced that the location of this inscription is a clue as to his fate.
29:38In Roman times, Pozzuali was called Puteoli,
29:42and Aulus Umbruchius Scouris might have had good reason to be here on the day of the eruption.
29:48In Roman times, there were these regional markets that would occur every eight days and in different locations.
29:59Traders from neighboring towns would gather to sell a range of commodities, wine, millstones and food.
30:08And most interestingly, a businessman wouldn't go by himself but take his entire household.
30:13Following the traditional dating of the eruption, Stephen discovered that Puteoli might have hosted one of the regional markets on the day of the disaster.
30:27He believes traders from Pompeii could have been there, safe from the volcanic fallout.
30:37Scouris might not have been at home in Pompeii,
30:39but he and his family had been at Puteoli instead.
30:45Stephen's discovery reveals that some of Scouris' family probably did survive the eruption.
30:52But the premature death of his 15-year-old granddaughter shows that tragedy was never far away.
31:00This is incredibly moving to me.
31:02It gives me a great sense of connection to them as individuals who have made it out from this tremendous tragedy
31:10and now have suffered more personal tragedy.
31:32Meanwhile in the atrium, the team have cleared out all the pumice and volcanic material in the Impluvium.
31:40An ornamental tank used to collect rainwater.
31:45And they've discovered it has a remarkable plumbing system.
31:49There is a small distributor, a reservoir with diramations,
31:56where the first diramation leads directly to the center of the Impluvium.
32:01It's very likely for a game of water for the Zampilli.
32:07The second diramation went to the base base,
32:12where there was a Puteoli who also did the game of water.
32:16It's incredible how, by observing this old technology from 2000 years ago,
32:24it's not far away from our days.
32:28It seems to be built and thought of the other day.
32:35Further excavation has revealed something even more intriguing.
32:38The evidence suggests that the bakery and wealthy residents
32:57source their running water directly from the neighbouring building.
33:00This is an important indication that the owner of the panificio
33:10had the building next door.
33:13But what was the next door building used for?
33:19When it was partially excavated in the 19th century,
33:23archaeologists found a deep basin instead of the usual shallow Impluvium,
33:28leading some to conclude this was a specialised Roman laundry known as a fullery.
33:36But Alessandro isn't convinced.
33:39It's not enough for the basket.
33:40It's not enough for the basket.
33:43Because in the 1800s they excavated it.
33:46We didn't know the objects that were found,
33:47but we didn't know them.
33:48We didn't know them.
33:49We didn't know them.
33:50We didn't know them.
33:51We didn't know them.
33:52We didn't know them.
33:54So we need more evidence.
33:56Working out if this was a fullery
33:57will help the team discover more about the whole building complex.
34:03So Alessandro has asked Dr. Mico Floor,
34:06a world expert in Roman fulleries, to take a look.
34:13Just a few blocks south of the dig lies the fullery of Stephanus,
34:17one of the best preserved examples in the world.
34:20Pompeii is the only place where you will get the full picture of the fulling process.
34:39The fullery was the Roman equivalent of the dry cleaners.
34:42It was here rich Pompeians brought their expensive clothes to be cleaned.
34:50As a fuller, you need to have the technical capacities
34:54to make sure that these garments stay as beautiful as they used to be.
34:59That the colours come out as bright as they were before.
35:04To clean the clothes, fulleries used huge quantities of water
35:07and highly toxic chemicals including human urine.
35:14Original Pompeian frescoes, now at the Naples Archaeological Museum,
35:20reveal the process in fascinating detail.
35:27In the fulling stalls where they do the first phase,
35:30where they stand with their feet in the chemicals
35:33and do the treatment of the clothes.
35:41In the second phase, you try to get rid of those chemicals.
35:45So you rinse and you make sure that everything is washed out,
35:49the chemicals and the dirt.
35:52The third phase requires the most skills.
35:56Clothes are being finished.
35:59And that means that their surface is being pressed.
36:04It's being treated so that it becomes smooth.
36:08And that makes the clothes quite warm and comfortable to wear.
36:17Miko is meeting Alessandro at the building adjoining the dig site
36:22to work out if this really was a fullery.
36:25A fullery.
36:26Ed eccoci qui.
36:29E' fantastico, eh?
36:35Questo, che inizialmente era stata chiamata vasca,
36:40ma che mi sembra un muretto contro terra,
36:44vedi? Non ha foda, non ha rivestimento.
36:46Quindi un muretto di supporto a un bancone di legno.
36:49Ci sono anche qui, con questi grandi bancone di legno.
36:52Sono anche qui, con questi grandi banconi.
36:58Ah, puzzling.
37:00I understand why you think this has something to do with the fulleries,
37:06because there are clear parallels.
37:08But having seen kind of the fulleries of the city,
37:13this kind of looks to me as something really different.
37:17It's clearly productive, but we don't really know what's going on.
37:21I think that's part of our fun also.
37:24So, my starting point was sceptic.
37:27I came across a lot of places
37:30where people had found two or three basins
37:33and then they thought this should be a fullery.
37:48Oh, wait.
37:49May I comment on this?
37:52Yes.
37:54I think this is really fascinating.
37:56This is where my fullery alarm bell started wrinkling a little bit.
38:00They made a big drain that was coming right from there,
38:04from the part that's not been excavated yet.
38:07Very clearly this was an enormous quantity of water.
38:13This is not your normal drain. This is a serious drain.
38:16A big quantity of water.
38:19Yes.
38:21If it uses these quantities of water,
38:24it can be a fullery.
38:29With this drain closely resembling the one at the back of the fullery of Stephanus,
38:34Miko believes that this could be a fullery.
38:39It's a discovery that provides the team
38:41with valuable insights into the complex's owner.
38:45As running this sort of high-class laundry was a gateway to the upper ranks of Roman society.
38:54The private clientela of Fullers predominantly consisted of people with above-average socio-economic means.
39:04It gave you a way into society that made it possible to participate.
39:10Pompeii was a wealthy city.
39:14It was also a sharply unequal city.
39:18But it meant that life was relatively good for Fullers in Pompeii.
39:24It seems the owner of this site was managing not one, but two successful businesses.
39:36A laundry and a bakery linked by a sophisticated plumbing system.
39:41But who was this entrepreneur?
39:46Gennaro has found a compelling clue at the base of this bakery millstone.
39:51A-F-V
40:00Potrebbe anche essere un'indicazione per dare il nome al proprietario della casa.
40:07The team, having uncovered initials that could belong to the owner,
40:30hope they can soon identify his full name.
40:33Meanwhile, Stephen is also searching for names,
40:38to provide hard evidence that people survived the eruption.
40:42He's focused on two successful wine merchants,
40:46who lived in this ornate Roman townhouse.
40:49They're freed slaves.
40:51They're essentially nouveau riche.
40:53They've become very wealthy and prominent only after the earthquake of AD 62.
41:03A-F-V
41:07We know their family name, Vetti.
41:10Thanks to a personalised stamp, probably used to mark their possessions.
41:16Aulus Vettius Restitutis and Aulus Vettius Conviva.
41:22While this stamp is a reproduction,
41:25archaeologists found the original in the Vetti's luxurious home.
41:28These stamps are really important for identifying home ownership.
41:34They're relatively valuable to an individual,
41:39but in the greater sense, in the running and screaming of an eruption,
41:43they're the sort of thing that gets left behind as you're grabbing your gold and your household gods and so on.
41:48Stephen's research has found an ancient Roman gravestone that bears the Vetti name.
42:01It's located 12 miles north of Pompeii, in the back streets of the small town of Norla.
42:07Hunting for these inscriptions has been really an intriguing part of the entire process.
42:14So many of them are not in museums.
42:18They're in sometimes curious, unexpected places.
42:21OK, I know it's around here somewhere, but believe me.
42:28I know it's in a medical centre.
42:31Here, Centro Diagnostico Medicina Nuclea. Here we go.
42:36This inscription dates to roughly 20 years after the eruption.
42:51Look at this.
42:53Vetia Sabina.
42:55Vetia Sabina.
42:57Telling us that members of the Vetia's family survived.
43:01And it gets better.
43:03We see the name of her husband, Marcus Tullius Dionysus.
43:10Dionysus. I like that name.
43:12Another Pompeian name with a completely different social profile.
43:17So he belongs to an old money family that had been prominent for decades.
43:23And she belongs to a family which is, we would say, nouveau riche.
43:28You know, recently wealthy.
43:29It's almost Jane Austen here.
43:32So I think this is a clear sign of survivor intermarriage.
43:37Right.
43:38They get out and they intermarry.
43:42The inscription tells Stephen that Sabina and her husband met as refugees
43:48in the years after the disaster.
43:50But just as they were rebuilding their lives, tragedy struck.
44:01And then the final line, of course, is her age.
44:03Okay.
44:04She died at the age of 24.
44:05Okay.
44:06Three months and 22 days.
44:11Okay.
44:12So, yeah.
44:13She died, I would say, at 24, unexpectedly.
44:17Pure speculation here.
44:19What do you think?
44:20Childbirth?
44:21Even the people that own this building, where the inscription is, had no idea what it said or, and certainly not what it meant.
44:43My research, it's really about telling the stories, not just the disaster or the destruction, but of the survival, of the rebuilding of lives.
44:57Stephen's research is proving for the first time that there was life after the eruption.
45:07But to survive, people would have had to overcome incredible odds.
45:13Just fleeing the city would not have been enough.
45:19The difference between life or death was knowing which way to run.
45:26So, as Vesuvius continued to erupt, the residents here at Pompeii had decisions to make.
45:39And many of them made what seemed like the logical choice at that time.
45:53To go southwards, towards the Bay of Naples, towards the sea.
45:58But that was the wrong choice.
46:03Because the sea at that time was dangerous for two reasons.
46:07One, is it was coated in pumice.
46:10And also, the wind was blowing onshore towards Vesuvius, meaning it had been difficult to almost impossible to sail away from trouble.
46:18Counter-intuitively, what they really needed to do was head northwards around the volcano and then westwards towards Naples.
46:29So, it's a cruel irony that our natural instinct really is to head away from danger.
46:34Stephen believes the survivors who headed north probably stayed in the area.
46:51So, he and Anne follow the northern escape route to Naples.
46:56Of course, return to Pompeii is impossible.
47:03The city is leveled. It is destroyed.
47:06The survivors from Pompeii aren't just that.
47:08They aren't just survivors.
47:10They're also refugees.
47:12They need to settle somewhere.
47:13In the area north of Vesuvius, in the two decades after the eruption, public infrastructure skyrockets.
47:30All of this new infrastructure really seems to give us great evidence for larger populations.
47:36And that really, I think, opens up the possibility that more people did survive.
47:40To Stephen, this building boom is evidence that a sudden influx of refugees from Pompeii needed rehousing.
48:00In the back streets of Naples, a little-known archaeological site offers another crucial clue.
48:07Oh, wow!
48:08I had no idea this existed.
48:19Oh, this is just extraordinary.
48:22So, this is obviously a residential complex, like an apartment house.
48:28Oh, I see at least three, possibly four stories tall.
48:31You can see the concrete core and the brick on the outside.
48:38That's wonderful, because it dates this right after the eruption.
48:50Do you see this in the wall there?
48:51Oh, yes! Look it! Look it!
48:52Yeah, the terracotta drain.
48:53So, that means they had water.
48:55Hmm.
48:57Okay.
48:58All right, I sound like a real estate agent.
49:00Fully decorated.
49:02Hot and cold running water.
49:04Well, probably not hot.
49:05Good views.
49:07We can't know for sure who lived here, but this is really suggestive of the sort of complex built for the people that we do know survived Vesuvius and got out of Pompeii and moved to Naples.
49:20Stephen's investigation suggests that it wasn't just a few wealthy individuals who survived the eruption in AD 79, but that a much larger number of people escaped Pompeii.
49:38So many, in fact, that the emperor Titus visited to donate money to fund the new buildings.
49:44This inscription celebrates his generosity.
49:52We can see right there, Titus Caesar.
49:56He restored something that had collapsed.
50:00It's right after the eruption.
50:01There we go.
50:03So...
50:04I think it's the, your tax dollars at work here sign.
50:07Back at the dig, the team have made an exciting discovery, unearthing large fragments of a highly decorated fresco.
50:22They believe it came from the upper floor of the building.
50:29Like most houses in Pompeii, the upper floors collapsed and were totally destroyed in the eruption.
50:37Alessandro and Auxilia carefully reconstruct the beautiful fresco.
50:44This one.
50:45This one.
50:46This one.
50:47This one.
50:49Which one.
50:50In the middle.
50:51In the middle.
50:52In the center is an exotic religious ceremony set in the Middle East.
51:22It is sacred, with images of divinities.
51:28Let's see this angle.
51:30It's beautiful.
51:32It's perfect, it's a very clean surface.
51:35Zerpa?
51:37Yes, the spessure.
51:39Fantastico.
51:41If only this one is left, it's missing a part.
51:44Oh, my God.
51:46Go.
51:47Go.
51:49Go.
51:50Do you serve one Zeppe?
51:53Yes.
51:54Perfect.
51:55But the scene in first piano seems complete.
51:59Yes, there are many characters.
52:00Yes.
52:01Yes.
52:02Here is an aquatic.
52:03Yes.
52:04Here is an aquatic.
52:05And then there is an amphora that looks like an amphora of wine.
52:07Orientale.
52:08Yes, of the form oriental.
52:09And these musicians, with these instruments, clearly identifiable.
52:11Yes.
52:12The double flauto.
52:13And the citra.
52:14The surprise here is that the artist didn't paint the fresco on a wall but directly on the
52:43but directly onto a ceiling.
53:04This kind of artistry far exceeds anything else found in the dig so far.
53:09And the team believe that only the super wealthy,
53:13just the top 1% of Pompeii's population,
53:16could have afforded this kind of painting.
53:20The quality level is very different.
53:24It's exceptional, worthy of the best of Pompeii.
53:32So, on the top floor, there is an environment of...
53:37Of luxury, we can say.
53:409 months into the dig,
53:50the team are beginning to get a vivid picture
53:52of what life was like in this building complex.
53:55This richly decorated atrium connected a commercial bakery
54:04run by enslaved workers
54:06to the wealthy living quarters upstairs.
54:11Next door, the same owner ran a specialised laundry,
54:15catering to an upscale clientele.
54:19The team have found evidence
54:23that the eruption interrupted major renovation work
54:27as builders were refurbishing the living area
54:30with sculpted roof gutters,
54:33highly decorated fresco walls
54:36and expensive marble furniture.
54:39This is a place where rich and poor
54:44were living and working cheek by Zhao.
54:49We certainly find ourselves in front of a house
54:51much more rich than the one we excavated.
54:54And this brings us to an observation,
54:59an eruption.
55:01It doesn't make a difference between social classes.
55:04It's democratic,
55:06it's very democratic.
55:08The eruption destroys everyone.
55:19Several hours after the volcano had started to erupt,
55:24the ash column had continued to grow.
55:29And it's estimated that it reached
55:31about 32 kilometres into the air.
55:36Eventually, in the middle of the night,
55:37there was a change in the eruption behaviour.
55:42There would have been a pause.
55:44Ash was still falling, but maybe at a lower rate.
55:48At that moment, people maybe thought
55:50that the eruption had finished.
55:53The residents of Pompeii may have actually
55:55taken heart from that.
55:58But what people did not know is that
56:00magma was no longer being taken
56:02from the upper part of the magma chamber
56:04below Vesuvius,
56:05but from deeper depths,
56:07where there were less volatiles,
56:09less water, less gas,
56:10to drive the eruption.
56:14This meant the volcano was unable to sustain
56:16the eruption column anymore.
56:22The upward thrust of the volcano
56:23wasn't enough to keep all of that material suspended.
56:29And as that eruption column collapsed,
56:31it formed something much more deadly than ash,
56:33pyroclastic flows.
56:34For the people who'd made the decision to stay,
56:51to hide indoors during the earliest phase of the eruption,
56:55it was too late to exit the city itself.
57:01Where people who maybe thought
57:03they'd escaped the worst of the volcanic eruption
57:05were only then finding out
57:07exactly how bad things were going to get.
57:09Next time, as the eruption enters its deadliest phase,
57:24the team uncover the last terrifying moments inside the building.
57:39They discover, as hope faded, residents desperately searched for salvation.
57:52Some prayed to the gods,
57:54others were just lost in this darkness and hopelessness.
57:58And they uncover a whole new world of wealth.
58:02Well...
58:03Let's wait big surprises.
58:32An person who would need toCE
58:34urship
58:39Could the pacing theuli
58:46Orcs
58:49Orcs
58:51Orcs
58:52In
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