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00:00Transcription by CastingWords
00:30It was a clear-cut case of murder.
00:37In 79 AD, Italy's Mount Vesuvius erupted in a torrent of death and destruction.
00:46In the Roman town of Herculaneum, hundreds perished in what was one of the worst volcanic disasters in human history.
00:52Now, after 2,000 years, archaeologists are piecing together the details of their tragic end.
01:00Buried under tons of ash, their lifeless bodies testify to the horror of their final moments.
01:05What really happened on that fateful day?
01:11For the first time, science is unraveling the secrets of who these victims were and how they died.
01:17These two people were young. This one here must have been only about 14 or 15.
01:23He's lying here embracing this other person.
01:25A man and a woman caught in a last embrace.
01:32What can they tell us about the last desperate hours before Vesuvius unleashed its deadly fury?
01:38The extraordinary discovery under the arcades by the seafront of dozens of skeletons is one of the most vivid signs we have of the last moments of the city.
01:46But it raises many questions.
01:48Why are hundreds of people down here, deep in the night, by the seashore?
01:52In 79 AD, Vesuvius suddenly explodes for the first time in over a thousand years.
02:22The eruption wipes out half a dozen towns and cities, among them Pompeii and the aristocratic seaside hamlet of Herculaneum.
02:39Situated in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, 12 miles southeast of Naples, Vesuvius wasn't considered a volcano at the time.
02:47Here, in a period fresco, it's depicted as an ordinary mountain.
02:52Pliny the Younger, the only eyewitness on record, writes,
02:58A cloud was rising from a mountain which I could not pinpoint.
03:02No tree better than the pine describes the shape of the cloud.
03:05A long trunk widened out to a vast umbrella, at times white as snow,
03:10and others dirty and stained, depending on whether it carried ash or soil.
03:17Downwind of Vesuvius is Pompeii, located seven miles southeast of the volcano.
03:22It's the first to be hit by the terrifying cloud of ash dome.
03:30Four miles west, Herculaneum is spared the initial onslaught.
03:34But within hours, both cities will vanish from the face of the earth.
03:37Even now, Vesuvius is considered one of the world's most dangerous volcanoes.
03:49For this reason, it's kept under constant surveillance by the Vesuvius Observatory,
03:53in collaboration with a team of international volcanologists.
03:55Jacques de Rieu is one of them.
04:00He pays regular visits to the crater.
04:05Around-the-clock monitoring of seismic activity and variations in the shape of the mountain
04:09could help scientists predict when and with what force the volcano will strike again.
04:14Gases seeping from the crater are clues to changes that might be occurring deep within the magma chamber.
04:25What gases are you taking samples of?
04:31It's mostly carbon dioxide with a small amount of magmatic gases.
04:36What temperatures are you getting?
04:38The temperature today is 70 degrees.
04:40Is it constant?
04:41Well, it's been falling over time.
04:43So, the volcano's cooling down.
04:44Yes.
04:44The steady decrease in temperature indicates there's no immediate danger.
04:49For thousands of people living close to the volcano,
04:52it means a temporary reprieve from the deadly events of the past.
05:00Today, the modern city of Herculaneum lies directly on top of the mud and rock left by the eruption of 79 AD.
05:07Below is the ancient city.
05:10For volcanologists Giuseppe Mastro-Lorenzo and Jacques de Rieu,
05:13the past is a window on the future.
05:18This staircase leads to the theater.
05:21It was discovered in the 18th century when a local farmer digging a well struck marble instead of water.
05:27Later, a team funded by the Bourbon king of Naples uncovered an inscription identifying the site as Herculaneum.
05:35This is the well excavated in Bourbon times to carry up all the archaeological findings.
05:41We're in the city below the city.
05:42Exactly, the city below the city.
05:47Modern archaeology began with this accidental find.
05:50We're at the back now where the columns collapsed.
05:53And over there is the top of the theater.
05:55In 1737, King Charles III, driven more by greed than by curiosity,
06:06ordered his army to dig tunnels and passageways to unearth any hidden treasures.
06:11Armed with axes and spades, the soldiers uncovered the theater's staircase and got as far as the stage.
06:16And now we're on the stage.
06:19We're facing the audience.
06:21The audience is in front of us and above us is a massive stone.
06:24How thick is it?
06:25It's more than 49 feet thick.
06:27It filled the whole theater, but without damaging it.
06:30It's...
06:30Intact?
06:31Yes, the theater remains standing.
06:33Incredible.
06:34Full to the brim.
06:42Here's the well that led to the discovery of the ancient city of Herculaneum.
06:45Well, for what?
06:47Yes, this is where the whole story began.
06:52The eruption of 79 AD buried the ancient city of Herculaneum under 60 feet of volcanic rock.
07:01300 years of digging finally brought it to light.
07:05While the city is remarkably well preserved, there's no trace of its 4,000 inhabitants.
07:10Only 30 skeletons turned up, supporting the view that the people of Herculaneum were lucky.
07:15They had time to flee.
07:18Then, in 1982, a startling discovery was made.
07:23Not everyone escaped.
07:31Recently, archaeologist Mario Pagano teamed up with Giuseppe Mastro Lorenzo
07:35and anthropologist Pierpaolo Petrone to solve a mystery.
07:40The find raised new and tantalizing questions about what really happened in 79 AD.
07:47This is old Herculaneum today.
07:50Down below, a swamp has replaced what once was the shore of the Mediterranean.
07:58Overlooking the ancient beach are 12 vaults, possibly used as boathouses.
08:03Here, 300 people sought refuge from a night of terror.
08:10The team wants to find out how and why they died.
08:18Removing the ash without scattering the bones is a painstaking job.
08:21Is the material grainy or fairly homogeneous?
08:26No, it's rather compact.
08:28The water makes it a little muddy, but this is the only way to clean it without disconnecting the bones.
08:32It's like doing surgery while balancing on a six-inch plank.
08:41This looks interesting.
08:42Looks like a coin or something.
08:45Yes, I'm right.
08:46Or rather, a load of coins.
08:48I'll try to get the whole lot.
08:49There must be bronze coins.
09:01Here's one.
09:02There must be a sesterce.
09:04You can't see very much.
09:06Just a figure of some sort.
09:07And on the other side, there's the emperor's head.
09:14Artifacts found with the victims are clues to their social status.
09:18Their bones reveal their age and sex, even what they were doing at the time of death.
09:25Here, we can just begin to see a tiny bone.
09:30The scientists can't believe their eyes.
09:33In the womb of a young woman is the skull of an unborn child.
09:38How strange.
09:39The fetus is really very deep down.
09:41Can you see it?
09:41You can just see the skull here.
09:42She was probably allowed to lie down here like this because she was pregnant.
09:46In fact, she's the only one who's lying without somebody's legs over her.
09:50What's interesting is that she's propped up against the wall in the exact same position as when the surge hit.
09:59The skull of the fetus reveals how old it was.
10:13This baby was only four weeks away from being born.
10:16Next to the skeleton of another woman, a gold bracelet, suggesting that even the wealthy took refuge here.
10:36In the summer of 79 AD, Rome was in its glory.
10:46The empire stretched from Spain to the Mideast and Britain to North Africa.
10:50Under Emperor Augustus, Pompey and Herculaneum flourished.
10:54A fortune could be made by anyone willing to seize the opportunity.
10:59One was a former slave.
11:01Now a wealthy merchant, he spared no expense to flaunt his newfound status.
11:06From records found in a house in Herculaneum, historians like Andrew Wallace Hedrill have been able to reconstruct the remarkable story of how a poor boy made good.
11:16A splendid house like this, with beautiful decoration, should belong to one of the most distinguished people in town.
11:21In fact, we know that it belonged to someone who started his life as a slave.
11:25His name was Vanidius Enicus, and he was freed at a relatively young age and went on to make a fortune.
11:31You get an idea of the sort of fortune he made from this room, the Black Saloon, one of the largest rooms in Herculaneum, where he could entertain his friends.
11:42It's from the miraculous preservation of wooden tablets like these, turned to carbon, but still with the writing legible on them, that you can tell the whole story of Vanidius Enicus.
11:52Vanidius was one of many slaves from the eastern Mediterranean, who, once freed, went on to make a fortune.
12:05A sumptuous home, which offered a luxurious and impressive setting for business deals, was the ultimate status symbol.
12:10Vanidius and his wife and daughter could flaunt their new status as full citizens.
12:16But the crowning achievement of Vanidius' success would be membership in the College of Priests of the Emperor.
12:22On that fateful day in August, Vanidius was in the thick of dealings with his lawyers, drawing up the final documents to seal his promotion.
12:33But what political connections lay behind the extraordinary fortune put together by an ex-slave?
12:39Well, it's here, in what must be the most prestigious clubhouse in town.
12:45We can see our friend Vanidius has actually made it.
12:48Over here you see, secret to Augustus, this is the place for the worship of the Emperor, Augustus.
12:53And the people who are in charge of the worship, the Augustales, are, on the whole, people like Vanidius, who have been slaves.
13:01Because the Romans are very worried about worshipping a living man, as we would be, and particularly they thought it was bad for citizens to worship other citizens.
13:11And so they left it to the slaves.
13:13But paradoxically, those slaves, and ex-slaves like Vanidius, found themselves in a really prestigious position.
13:19Because the worship of Augustus is the worship of the ruling power.
13:22And here you see the sort of decoration that goes with all this ideology.
13:26You have the figure of Hercules standing there with his club.
13:29And on the other side, you see why Hercules is important.
13:32Because he's enthroned there in heaven.
13:35He's the man, the hero, who by saving mankind got promotion to being a god.
13:40And he's sitting there in heaven with Hebe, eternal youth.
13:44And he is a symbol, he's a symbol for an emperor.
13:48Because an emperor, by his good deeds, becomes a god.
13:51And that's why we worship him.
13:53And in a funny way, he's also a symbol for the freedman himself.
13:56The freedman is a man who has been a slave, and the lowest of the low.
14:02And he's been promoted to citizenship, and beyond citizenship, to the status of a respected man in town, an Augustalis.
14:09He's gone up to the gods, Cesare Vanidius.
14:12For the ex-slave who rose to wealth and prominence, the future couldn't be brighter.
14:19Little did he know that within hours, the world around him would come crashing down.
14:24At the bakery in neighboring Pompeii, it's business as usual.
14:34Workers arrived before dawn to grind grain and fire up the ovens.
14:37In a few minutes, patrons will begin arriving for their morning loaf of fresh bread.
14:41A small tremor is not unusual.
14:55Earthquakes are common.
14:56Seventeen years earlier, a jolt rocked the city, causing extensive damage.
15:00The most recent excavations in Pompeii have revealed a bakery, which illustrates beautifully the determination of the Pompeians to keep on business as usual, whatever Vesuvius chucked at them.
15:11Here we have the furnace, the oven, and it's just like a modern pizza oven in construction.
15:17And you can see, going up its side, a series of bricks, which are knitting together a great big crack.
15:23That crack must have been made by an earthquake, say, the earthquake of AD 62-63.
15:29They've repaired it, they've plastered it over, and they've gone back to life as normal.
15:35Here you can see the whole sequence, from the grinding of the grain at the back, to the baking of the bread in the middle, and out here in the front, the selling of the loaves.
15:43There'll have been a wooden counter, giving straight on the street.
15:47And on the side here, a very nice detail, you see strings of numbers, which have evidently been written by the shop assistant, who's keeping the tally for the day's sales.
15:59And then there's been another earthquake, and we can see the signs very clearly over here.
16:03These are the tops of the grinders. There are four grinders back there.
16:07Only one of the grinders has still got its top on, and is still functioning.
16:11The others have been put aside, and instead of flour, what we find in them is mortar.
16:15And they're busy using these to repair the results of another very recent earthquake.
16:20So they're determined to carry on, business as usual, though they've got some problems to sort out.
16:26They don't believe there's going to be more trouble.
16:27Pliny the Younger writes,
16:45In those days, earthquakes were frequent, so much so that they no longer caused much fear or anxiety.
16:51But on the morning of August 24th in 79 AD, the tremors were different.
16:59They foretold an event unlike any other in Pompeii and Herculaneum.
17:02No one knew that Vesuvius, a long, dormant volcano, was waking up.
17:07Three miles below, in a lake of molten rock called the magma chamber,
17:16incessant chemical reactions form heavy crystals that fall to the depths of the chamber.
17:20The sudden arrival of hot new magma from the Earth's interior sparks an unstoppable chain reaction.
17:34To release its pent-up energy, the magma begins to rise,
17:38breaking through the weakest layers of rock, causing a wave of earthquakes and tremors.
17:42The tremors that rattle Pompeii on the morning of the 24th also jolt Herculaneum.
17:56The quake might seem ominous, but several have occurred over the past few months,
18:00and there's no apparent cause for alarm.
18:05With each new shock, the people of Herculaneum hold their breath and hope to get through it unharmed.
18:12Here we have a relatively modest workshop,
18:18rented out part of a big block of flats,
18:20and there was some sort of activity, of workshop going on here.
18:23They found a basket of cut stones, which makes us think there was some sort of gem cutter here.
18:28And here was one of the few skeletons found,
18:31in a little bedroom, a bed with the body of an adolescent.
18:36Why the adolescent was there, we can't tell.
18:38May have died in the first moments of the eruption, perhaps ill,
18:40but anyway, a rare exception.
18:47We can imagine that on that fateful August morning,
18:50that young boy is ill in bed with a burning fever,
18:53and is being tenderly cared for by his father, the gem cutter.
18:56The arrival of the learned doctor, with his wide range of herbal cures,
19:05raises this worried father's hopes.
19:12But the future is not to be.
19:14When the magma finally reaches the surface, the pressure suddenly drops.
19:35Like an uncorked champagne bottle, a foaming mass of magma and gas,
19:44up to 1,000 degrees, is hurled into the atmosphere.
19:47The gas imprisoned in the magma explodes,
19:50turning the fiery liquid into a hail of stones called pumice.
19:53The column of gas and ash reaches a height of 18 miles,
20:04three times the altitude of a transcontinental jet.
20:09Pliny was 20 miles away to the west when,
20:11about one in the afternoon,
20:13my mother pointed out a cloud with an odd size and appearance.
20:16It was found afterwards to be Vesuvius, he reported.
20:19In Pompeii, a team of fresco painters is decorating a house.
20:29The eruption will take them totally by surprise.
20:34Looking at the decoration of Pompeian houses,
20:36it's amazing what money and energy they lavished
20:40on having their houses beautifully decorated.
20:42And they keep going right to the last moment.
20:45This house, you can see decoration actually happening
20:48at the very moment of the eruption.
20:51Scattered around on the floors
20:52were all sorts of signs of painters at work,
20:55compasses and so on.
20:56And if you look here,
20:57look at how beautifully fresh all the painting is.
20:59The white is bright, the details are all sharp,
21:02because it's been done yesterday, so to speak.
21:05Here you see a very clear sign of work really in progress.
21:09The central panel has been left out.
21:11It's never been completed,
21:13because they leave it for the master to do
21:15at the very last moment.
21:16And he comes on and he puts plaster on
21:18and he does the final touches.
21:20And we can see in other parts of the room
21:21he's already done it.
21:29The fact that the paints are still there
21:32and it's ready to go
21:33suggests that they're actually at work
21:35the day of the eruption.
21:45And they're simply dropping their tools of their trade
21:47and running in the middle of the day
21:49when the eruption happens.
21:50Only the deafening roar of Vesuvius
22:16can interrupt the routine of daily life.
22:18For some of the inhabitants of Herculaneum,
22:22it must have seemed like a frightening
22:23and inexplicable omen.
22:26For others, a moment fraught with anguish and despair.
22:34In Pompeii, the blast is just a warm-up.
22:38The disaster is about to become far worse.
22:40Like a sandstorm of unheard-of proportions,
22:52a huge wall of ash descends on the city.
22:55The spectacle will soon turn into a living nightmare.
22:57Here is what Pliny the Younger observed.
23:07I looked around and saw a thick blackness advancing on us,
23:11pouring down onto the earth.
23:14It rushed against us like a torrent.
23:19Then day turned to night.
23:21The people of Pompeii can hardly believe their eyes
23:32as they watch the cloud advance.
23:34Meanwhile, the sun still shines in Herculaneum,
23:56and its inhabitants marvel at the incredible mushroom cloud,
23:59steered by the wind in a southeasterly direction towards Pompeii.
24:02An hour after the eruption,
24:11the Pompeians begin to hear the strange sound
24:13of pumice stones drumming down on their roofs.
24:23The bakers have just enough time to untie the donkeys
24:26and take them to the stable.
24:30Two thousand years later,
24:31they'll be found where they fell,
24:33suffocated to death.
24:39Many seek refuge indoors,
24:41but the weight of the pumice stone is soon felt.
24:47Six hundred people will die when their roofs cave in.
24:50For others, the relentless downpour of ash makes breathing increasingly more difficult,
24:57and visibility is limited.
25:01In Pompeii, time is quickly running out.
25:07Incredibly, Herculaneum has spared its neighbor's fate.
25:11Its inhabitants have all day to decide what to do.
25:13Apart from a dusting of fine ash, the sky is clear, because the wind is blowing towards Pompeii.
25:27Still, many choose to evacuate the city and head for Naples.
25:31Southeast of Vesuvius, nearly 200 square miles of surrounding countryside, including Pompeii,
25:43will be hammered for 24 hours by ash and pumice.
25:47The distribution of the material deposited by the volcano reveals the dynamics of the eruption.
25:51Bosco Reale is just outside Pompeii.
26:02These trees were engulfed in pumice six feet deep.
26:05To bury them would have taken some 18 hours.
26:08But the worst wasn't over.
26:10At seven the next morning,
26:12a deadly pyroclastic flow hit the trees,
26:14bending them at a sharp angle.
26:16The first of several struck Herculaneum,
26:20but never reached Pompeii,
26:22nor the second.
26:24But the next two surges,
26:26which bent this tree,
26:27swept down over Pompeii,
26:29ripping off rooftops
26:30and toppling the upper stories of most buildings.
26:33Anyone left alive was doomed.
26:37When it was over,
26:39a gray blanket of ash and pumice surrounded Vesuvius.
26:42Not a village, a vineyard,
26:44or a living soul could be seen,
26:46for hundreds of miles.
26:48From the trail of ash,
26:50volcanologists can reconstruct the path of the surge near Pompeii.
26:55This is the house of the Castiamanti.
26:57Here you can see both the pumice stone pebbles
26:59and the sequence of surges.
27:01This is the real killer,
27:02the one that killed all those left standing.
27:03And this one was devastating
27:04because it brought down the buildings.
27:06Then came the others.
27:07But look at how this one raises everything to the ground.
27:10The wall was carried by the surge all the way down here,
27:12taking with it these roof tiles.
27:13So, actually, we're on the roof.
27:16They were carried off with the roof,
27:17so the building must have already completely collapsed.
27:19For those who'd weathered the relentless storm of ash and pumice throughout the night,
27:32any hope for survival would soon be dashed.
27:35Within hours,
27:36the lost souls of Pompeii will finally be asphyxiated by a pyroclastic flow.
27:41The ash killed them.
27:48But how?
27:52To find out,
27:53Giuseppe Mastro Lorenzo uses a scanning electron microscope.
27:57It's very spongy and vesiculated.
28:10It's highly vesiculated.
28:11I want to raise the magnification.
28:13What is it now?
28:14We're at 5,000.
28:17Magnified 5,000 times,
28:19a grain of ash looks spongy.
28:22Its structure makes it light and able to float in the air.
28:24It's 1,000 times finer,
28:27but with the same degree of vesiculation.
28:33Its porous nature is lethal.
28:36When breathed in,
28:37the ash penetrates the lungs' alveoli,
28:39absorbs moisture,
28:40and turns into a sticky paste,
28:42gradually clogging them up.
28:43At around 7 in the morning on the 25th,
28:53the lethal cloud of deadly gases and hot ash
28:55fills their mouths and penetrates their lungs,
28:58putting them out of their misery.
28:59The mold of this dog was made by pouring plaster
29:10into the space in the ash left by the animal's body.
29:13It captures the agony of the last horrifying minutes in Pompeii.
29:17For the citizens of Herculaneum,
29:27destiny will take a different turn.
29:30By the evening of the 24th,
29:32the eruption has been underway for almost six hours,
29:34but the volcanic storm that darkens Pompeii
29:37never reaches Herculaneum.
29:38While some take advantage of the daylight hours to escape,
29:42others head for the vaults to ride out the storm.
29:46The fading rays of dusk light their faces for the last time
29:50as they prepare for their tragic appointment with a killer.
29:57The cause of death is written on their bones.
30:02Here we have the frontal bar of the skull we unearthed yesterday.
30:05Look here, it's incredible.
30:06See here, this is very significant.
30:09There's a distinct blackened area from this point on.
30:12In this case, it comes all the way to the edge.
30:14The sutures are open.
30:15This person was still young.
30:17In some cases, the blackening comes all the way up to the surface.
30:22Now let's try to reconstruct the skull.
30:27Ecco.
30:27A number of skeletons found in the vaults
30:37show clear signs of exposure to extremely high temperatures.
30:41Heat high enough to blacken bones
30:43is a dead giveaway to the type of phenomenon
30:45that struck Herculaneum,
30:46a pyroclastic flow.
30:48These deadly clouds of gas, ash, and rock
30:59roar down mountains at nearly 200 miles an hour.
31:03As they pick up speed,
31:04they tend to split into two distinct waves.
31:07The heavier material forms a compact mass
31:10that moves at a slower speed,
31:11while the lighter ash and gas
31:13create a burning cloud that travels faster,
31:15igniting everything in its path.
31:24Mastro Lorenzo and Petrone
31:25are searching for traces of the pyroclastic material
31:28that hit the beach at Herculaneum.
31:30Here you can see clearly the point of contact
31:32between the surge material and the sand.
31:36On top of the black sand is a layer of grey ash,
31:39evidence that the first wave of the surge,
31:41a superheated cloud,
31:43swept through the city and overwhelmed the beach.
31:46According to the scientists,
31:47the killer cloud had only minutes
31:49to exterminate its victims
31:50and enveloped them in a thin layer of ash
31:52before the second wave buried the city.
32:01The best place to see this volcanic flow,
32:04which seeped down all the streets
32:05and into all the buildings
32:06before solidifying into Tuffa Stone,
32:08is in the suburban baths.
32:11Look, Jacques, this is very interesting.
32:13The pyroclastic flow came in through this door
32:15and flooded the whole place,
32:16rising to 10 or 12 feet.
32:18Yes, you can see the level here very clearly.
32:20Here are the pickaxe marks
32:22where they tried to remove the stone from the plaster.
32:24An incredible operation.
32:25But the most impressive of all
32:27is over here in the calderium.
32:29The place was almost completely filled
32:31from floor to ceiling with pyroclastic material
32:33when the windows broke from the pressure.
32:35This basin was thrown several meters
32:38against the stone here,
32:39creating a mold with pieces of glass scattered
32:41and embedded here and there.
32:43Here's another big piece.
32:45Incredible.
32:49In the vaults,
32:50the scientists are trying to understand
32:52the effects of the pyroclastic flow
32:54on the refugees who sought shelter here.
32:57One intriguing clue
32:59is the reddish discoloration
33:00found on some of the skulls.
33:02Here, too, the skull is lying on a surge layer.
33:09About 7.8 inches.
33:11What's interesting are these reddish marks
33:12on the inside and the outside of the skull,
33:14just here.
33:15I see them.
33:16It could be the brain,
33:17which comes out of the skull
33:18at the time of the explosion.
33:20But is there a fracture here?
33:21Yes, right here.
33:23I'll take a sample.
33:24Yes.
33:27The scientists are increasingly convinced
33:29that the impact of the burning cloud
33:30was death by thermal shock.
33:32The heat was so intense,
33:34it caused the victims' brains to boil
33:36and then explode.
33:39F9, S1.
33:42To confirm their suspicions,
33:44they seek out microbiologist Giuseppe Geraci.
33:49This is a sample of what we think
33:51is organic material.
33:52It needs to be analyzed.
33:53In this 2,000-year-old sample,
33:57Geraci is looking for hemoglobin,
33:59proof that the reddish discoloration
34:01is due to traces of red blood cells.
34:03This is the moment of truth.
34:07Let's add the final reagent
34:08and see what happens.
34:13See the difference in color?
34:15I'd say that was definitely positive.
34:17This confirms your hypothesis
34:20that the brain must have exploded,
34:22leaving these traces.
34:24As a result of the excessive temperature.
34:26With confirmation that the victim's brains exploded,
34:31attention shifts to pinpointing the temperature.
34:36Pierpaolo Petrone is analyzing several skulls
34:38which all share a distinctive feature.
34:41The brain matter of this skull
34:42has been replaced by ash from the surge.
34:45This is an important clue.
34:49It shows that the brain matter was replaced
34:50before the ash had time to harden.
35:00The heat of the surge
35:01also left its mark on Herculaneum.
35:04As it seeped through buildings,
35:05it touched everything in its path.
35:07But the lack of oxygen impeded combustion.
35:10Instead, wood turned into carbon
35:12and was preserved.
35:15This well rope looks as new
35:20as the day it was woven.
35:27This femur provides another clue.
35:31Such a clean fracture
35:33could only have been produced
35:34by a sudden temperature change
35:35as sometimes happens
35:37when a glass is placed under boiling water.
35:40Here the very high temperature
35:41causes a clean fracture
35:43at the base of the teeth.
35:44Fascinating.
35:45Take a look at this tooth.
35:46It's from the lower jaw.
35:48It's as though it was sawn in two.
35:50Exactly.
35:51There are also microfractures
35:53in the tooth's enamel
35:53which indicate temperatures
35:54of over 500 degrees.
35:58The search goes on
35:59to determine how high
36:00the temperature had to be
36:01to cause the discoloration
36:02in these skulls.
36:03It changes from black to red
36:07depending on the area.
36:09This kind of color
36:10is typical of exposure
36:11to temperatures
36:11between 400 and 550 degrees.
36:14When it's almost black.
36:15This is one of those extreme cases
36:16in which the pressure
36:17caused the skull to explode.
36:19The specific heat
36:23of volcanic ash
36:24is about one kilojoule
36:26per kilogram per degree
36:27whereas water
36:29is about four times higher.
36:33At 500 degrees centigrade
36:34the heat of the burning ash
36:36engulfs the bodies
36:37of its victims
36:37releasing the fluids
36:39in their brains
36:39and internal organs.
36:40This causes the bodies
36:44to vaporize
36:45and the ash
36:46to cool down simultaneously.
36:49So after about 10 minutes
36:50the soft parts
36:51have completely disappeared
36:52and have been replaced
36:53by ash.
36:56The burning cloud
36:58holds them in a deadly embrace
36:59dehydrating their bodies
37:01and reducing them
37:01to mere skeletons
37:02in a matter of minutes.
37:06The ash wraps around them
37:08like a shroud
37:08immobilizing them forever.
37:10The only movement
37:13is a slight curving
37:14of the phalanges
37:15in the foot
37:16caused by the contraction
37:17of the muscles.
37:22Here we have
37:22skeleton number 15.
37:23He was standing
37:24and then fell over.
37:25I see.
37:26His arms were flexed
37:27out in front.
37:28This could prove the theory
37:29that they were actually
37:29lifted off the ground
37:30slightly as the surge
37:31got thicker and thicker
37:32around them.
37:33At the moment it hit
37:34their tissues must have
37:34still been present
37:35because you can see
37:36the articulations
37:36are perfectly in place.
37:37because of the clouds
37:41density and weight
37:42the bodies were floated
37:43as if in a sea of liquid.
37:46Here you can see
37:47how both the right
37:47and the left leg
37:48are suspended in the air.
37:50We can't even see
37:51the sand yet.
37:52We'll have to dig down a bit.
37:53It's nine inches.
38:02Based on the evidence
38:03gathered so far
38:03it's now possible
38:05to reconstruct
38:05the dramatic events
38:06of August 24th
38:07the last tense hours
38:09before Herculaneum
38:10would succumb
38:10to the fury
38:11of Vesuvius.
38:12The city is evacuated
38:30but at least
38:31300 people
38:32decide to stay
38:33and seek refuge
38:34in the vaults
38:34down by the beach.
38:35The huge column of smoke
38:43must be an omen
38:44but no one
38:45can interpret it.
38:46An eruption
38:47on this scale
38:47hasn't happened
38:48for 1700 years
38:49far too long
38:50to linger
38:51in the collective memory.
38:58Earthquakes
38:59on the other hand
39:00are part of daily life.
39:02They know
39:02that running away
39:03when an earthquake hits
39:04is pointless.
39:09All anyone can do
39:11is bide their time
39:12and wait
39:12as the ominous
39:13black cloud
39:14vanishes into the darkness.
39:22The only choice
39:23is to find a solid roof
39:24under which to repair
39:25for the night.
39:27Theirs
39:27is a lethal miscalculation.
39:34Every now and again
39:41lightning bolts
39:42snake up the column
39:43of smoke
39:43renewing the threat
39:44of impending disaster.
39:45everyone tries
39:55as best they can
39:55to downplay
39:56their anxiety
39:57and worry.
39:58As night falls
39:59and fatigue sets in
40:00the refugees decide
40:01to find a place
40:02to sleep.
40:02some time past midnight
40:17the last to arrive
40:18find a corner
40:19and bed down
40:20for the night.
40:20The vaults
40:31quickly become overcrowded
40:32but no one
40:33has turned away.
40:34Every square inch
40:35is filled with refugees.
40:3742 people
40:38lay one next to the other
40:39in the 39 square feet
40:41of a vault.
40:41At 1am
40:52disaster strikes.
40:5612 hours
40:57after the eruption
40:58began
40:59the column collapses
41:00unleashing a pyroclastic
41:02flow that rolls
41:03down the flanks
41:03of Vesuvius
41:04at breakneck speed.
41:06The burning cloud
41:07hits the town
41:07of Herculaneum
41:08just a few minutes
41:09before a second wave
41:10of heavier volcanic material.
41:12Its sheer force
41:12redraws the coastline
41:14pushing back the sea
41:15more than 150 feet
41:16and burying the city
41:17under tons of tough stone.
41:21The sinister shadow
41:22of the surge
41:23descends with hardly
41:24a murmur
41:24from the summit
41:25of the mountain.
41:26It takes just six minutes
41:27to reach the beach
41:28at Herculaneum.
41:34The cloud advanced
41:35in a turbulent manner
41:36towards the city
41:37and down to the beach.
41:39But it's actually
41:40the city's own topography
41:41that causes
41:42the sudden collapse
41:42of the cloud
41:43and explains the mass
41:44of material
41:45that was deposited
41:46on the beach.
41:51Just imagine
41:52all these particles
41:53pouring over the bodies
41:54and engulfing them
41:55completely.
41:56In no time at all
41:57the material hardened
41:58to form a layer
41:59over three feet thick.
42:00death from thermal shock
42:07is instantaneous.
42:09The heat is so intense
42:10it evaporates
42:11all organic fluids
42:12reducing the bodies
42:13to skeletons.
42:14not everyone
42:22who stayed in the city
42:23sought refuge
42:24on the beach.
42:25Fearing only an earthquake
42:26some thought home
42:27was the safest place
42:28but the tragedy
42:29that struck Herculaneum
42:30was far more catastrophic.
42:31The evidence
42:37comes from the home
42:38of Marcus Premius Granianus.
42:44Here in the house
42:44of the gem
42:45we've got another clear sign
42:46of what happened
42:46to our inhabitants.
42:48It's not in these
42:48beautiful rooms
42:49of an enormous villa
42:51looking out over the sea
42:52that we find the inhabitants
42:53and there must have been
42:53many of them.
42:54They took refuge
42:55in the safest place.
42:57Here in the basement
42:58the whole family
42:59sought shelter.
43:00It was here
43:02that our inhabitants
43:03were found
43:03seven skeletons
43:04and in a cradle
43:06a little baby
43:07and they'd taken refuge
43:08in the one part
43:09of the house
43:10that was really safe.
43:11You see it's vaulted
43:12just like down
43:13by the seaside
43:14and in any normal circumstances
43:16this would have saved
43:16their life.
43:17They weren't normal circumstances.
43:19No human could have
43:20anticipated the scale
43:21of this volcanic eruption.
43:26The disaster sealed
43:27the fate of thousands
43:28in Pompeii and Herculaneum
43:30and left a haunting reminder
43:31of 2,000 years ago
43:33when Vesuvius unleashed
43:35its deadly fury.
43:36ORCHESTRA PLAYS
43:39ORCHESTRA PLAYS
43:41ORCHESTRA PLAYS
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