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00:01Vesuvius.
00:03The eruption of this mighty volcano is one of the most
00:07catastrophic events in ancient history.
00:10Yet it perfectly preserves Pompeii and Herculaneum.
00:16The eruption gives us really rare glimpse into what life was like.
00:21How did Romans live?
00:22Now, a team of experts investigates a mysterious third Roman settlement.
00:28Discovered beneath the ash that explodes out of Vesuvius.
00:33A plantis.
00:34It is unique.
00:36We don't have anything this well preserved in any site or any museum in the world.
00:42This extraordinary place reveals new evidence about the wrath of the mighty eruption.
00:47It was a really instantaneous destructive force.
00:52And that's what you see reflected in that fresco.
00:55How the Romans lived and died.
00:58Plantis is really answering questions that we have had for years.
01:03And offers tantalizing clues that lead to Rome's most notorious emperor.
01:08The owner of this villa may have been the famous wife of the Emperor Nero.
01:17With unique access to this incredible site, we will unearth its vast villas.
01:23We'll discover dozens of ancient skeletons.
01:27And decode their lives to reveal new information about the catastrophic eruption.
01:32And the ancient civilization, it changed forever.
01:45In 79 CE, the Roman world is rocked by one of the worst natural disasters in history.
01:54The eruption of Mount Vesuvius covers Pompeii in molten rock.
02:00Ash envelops and preserves Pompeians, turning the site into a macabre time capsule of the past.
02:09Pompeii is the volcano's most famous victim.
02:12But it's not the only one.
02:15Vesuvius also cast its lethal shadow over nearby Herculaneum.
02:22Today, archaeologists are unearthing a third victim.
02:26A plantis.
02:29Hidden for nearly 2,000 years, this incredible site is now slowly being freed from Vesuvius' volcanic grip.
02:39A plantis is unique because of what it preserves.
02:42It preserves really one of the largest and most elaborate Roman villas.
02:49In 1964, archaeologists uncover an ancient ruin here.
02:55Buried under 30 feet of volcanic ash, almost twice as deep as Pompeii.
03:00It is once a sprawling Roman residence.
03:04Bright, lavish frescoes adorn many of its 99 rooms.
03:10Exquisite courtyards, called peristyles, accompany its lush gardens that have unbeaten views of the Bay of Naples.
03:19And on the east side, an enormous 200-foot pool extends out across the grounds.
03:27What can this magnificent villa reveal about one of history's deadliest eruptions?
03:34It's a remarkable place, and it's also a place that not a lot of people know about.
03:40Two miles outside Pompeii, the villas of a plantis cover more than four acres, split into two main sites.
03:51Michael Thomas has been investigating here for over 15 years.
03:57When you look at the site of a plantis, there's a lot of keys to understand the eruption of Vesuvius.
04:02The way it was damaged, and where the damage came from.
04:06Vesuvius is never too far away.
04:10Archaeologists have been excavating this site for decades.
04:14Yet a third of the area is still covered by the thousands of tons of volcanic debris.
04:21This wall is probably close to 30, 33 feet of material that covered the site.
04:27Michael examines the ash and rock that smothers Oplantis.
04:32Here, we have a column that was literally snapped in half from the eruption of Vesuvius.
04:38He believes this pillar reveals a clue about the power of the blast.
04:43The fallen section lies pointing towards the volcano, not away from it.
04:49We really get a sense of the power of the eruption, sort of like a football player sliding in and
04:55taking you out from your feet.
04:57You're going to fall forward, you're not going to fall backwards, and that's what's happened here.
05:01The force of Vesuvius hits, snaps this forward, and here we have that bit of broken column still stuck in
05:10the wall of unexcadented material.
05:14This large pillar isn't simply pushed over, it's brutally mown down.
05:22Whoever was still at Oplantis had no chance of outrunning Vesuvius' wrath.
05:29There are different layers in this wall of volcanic material.
05:33In between thick layers of the crumbling ash and pumice stone are thin layers of dense rock.
05:44The great mushroom cloud collapses and creates this hard, thin layer, which is the remnants of the pyroclastic flow.
05:52A pyroclastic flow is a shockwave of fast-moving ash and hot gases.
05:59It is produced by the most violent volcanic eruptions.
06:05This process repeats several times, and it's present in this wall of material.
06:10We have a good idea of the series of events of the eruption.
06:14Much of this comes from the historian, Pliny the Younger, who watched it from the far reaches of the Bay
06:19of Naples.
06:23Pliny writes that in August of 79 CE, he sees a frightening cloud coming out of Vesuvius.
06:33He vividly describes the cloud as it rises for miles into the sky.
06:39It becomes known as a Plinian column.
06:44As the column collapses, millions of tons of ash and hot gas hit the sides of the volcano.
06:51It spreads out in a pyroclastic flow.
06:56Traveling at incredible speeds, it engulfs anything in its path.
07:02Imagine it doesn't fall over. It just goes straight down.
07:06Hits the sides of Vesuvius and takes off.
07:10Some people estimate as fast as 300 miles an hour.
07:13Some people estimate as much as 1,000 degrees Fahrenheit.
07:16The avalanche of toxic hot gases sweeps across Oplantis in a matter of minutes.
07:22It would have been very terrifying because you're talking about intense heat.
07:26It was not a pleasant experience.
07:28Not one body has been found at this villa.
07:32But a neighboring villa at Oplantis conceals a different story.
07:40Here, archaeologists unearth an area of 60,000 square feet.
07:45As they clear ash from inside the rooms, they make a gruesome discovery.
07:54Fifty-four skeletons. Men, women and children.
08:00Huddled close together in the corner of the room.
08:07What can the evidence here reveal about the final moments of these people's lives?
08:21Pier Paolo Petrone has dedicated his career to investigating the victims of Vesuvius.
08:29The eruption caused different effects at different distances from the volcano.
08:34Different ways of death, principally due to the amount of heat.
08:40Pier Paolo examines skulls from nearby Herculaneum.
08:46Herculaneum is hit by the same thermal shock wave that rocks Oplantis.
08:51The skulls show the effect of the extreme heat of a pyroclastic flow.
08:57Here we have very clear evidence of the effects of heat on the skull of this individual.
09:04You see this kind of blackening outside and also inside the skull.
09:08And this kind of cracking of the bone, which indicates that the brain of this individual is going to boil.
09:16And then let the skull to explode.
09:18The bones snap, as if they are severed with a sharp blade.
09:24Here there is a femur from a young individual.
09:27In a normal fracture, when you broke your leg, your jacket edges.
09:31But in this case you have just clear cut edges, which is typical of exposure to high temperature.
09:38The evidence from Herculaneum initially suggests the people of Oplantis will suffer a grisly and painful death.
09:45But Pier Paolo makes a surprising discovery.
09:50At the very beginning, archaeologists thought that people suffered a prolonged agony.
09:56But in this scan of the victims from Oplantis, we don't see any kind of conscious reaction, like self-protective
10:06stance.
10:07The adult individuals are just laying very relaxed.
10:12So that means that people had no time to react to the heat.
10:18So the brain was switched off instantly, just in a blink of an eye.
10:23The 54 men, women, and children at Oplantis lose their lives to the volcano.
10:29But 2,000 years later, we know at least they felt no pain.
10:35Why are they found huddled close together in this particular room?
10:41And can jewels discovered on their bodies reveal more about these unlucky victims?
10:56Oplantis.
10:58Buried by the devastating eruption that also destroys Pompeii in 79 CE.
11:05Inside a room at the south side of the estate, archaeologists discover 54 people killed by the deadly fury of
11:12Vesuvius.
11:17The 20 people at the back of the room have no valuables with them.
11:21They're possibly slaves or workers.
11:24But when archaeologists examine the group at the front, they find many still grasping precious jewelry.
11:38One woman wears an elaborate hairpin depicting a goddess.
11:44Another carries delicate pearl earrings.
11:48And close to her body, she cradles over 300 gold and silver coins.
11:54Could these riches help unlock the mystery of who these people are?
11:59Some of these people had very important, very rich objects with them, and other people had almost nothing with them.
12:09Investigators are intrigued by one of the wealthy victims discovered at the front of the building.
12:14A very particular finding was the one of a young woman, probably she was in her 20s.
12:22She had a box with her just full of golden objects.
12:27Coins, a snake golden ring, and also a pair of pearl earrings.
12:35Pearls are the ultimate symbol of wealth in Roman times.
12:38They are extremely rare and more expensive than gold.
12:44So these are one of the most expensive pieces found all around Vesuvius with skeletons.
12:52So this person had to be very rich.
12:54Her identity remains a mystery.
12:57But the excavations reveal one last dramatic clue about her life.
13:03Some very tiny bones were found near her of a fetus.
13:07So she was probably, at the moment of the tragedy, was just in the later stages of pregnancy.
13:15Rich and poor, young and old, all meet the same terrible fate.
13:24Jenny Muslin has been working at Aplantis for 10 years.
13:29She's investigating why the 54 victims huddle in this room.
13:34She believes the room's location holds the key to this mystery.
13:38We're walking along the south side rooms, which would have been used for storing goods as well as taking goods
13:44in.
13:45Archaeologists excavating in front of the storeroom discover intriguing clues.
13:50They analyze soil samples and reveal that when Vesuvius erupts, this building directly overlooks the sea.
13:59In antiquity, we would have been on the seacoast.
14:01This is actually a small cove, and we found parts of a pier so that we know that ships could
14:06have docked here and loaded and unloaded at their leisure.
14:10This discovery might explain why so many people die huddled in this building.
14:17On the day of the tragedy, Vesuvius erupts violently.
14:22It launches a huge cloud over Aplantis, four miles away on the coast.
14:29Families quickly gather their valuables, taking coins and jewelry, and seek refuge.
14:40Over 50 people, rich and poor, pile into a sheltered room together and watch in fear as Vesuvius spews out
14:49ash and pumice.
14:51Then, suddenly, the cloud collapses.
14:54The pyroclastic wave of volcanic debris hits the victims and buries them 30 feet deep.
15:03These people, among whom there were women, children, and adult men, we think they were probably waiting for a ship
15:09to come and save them.
15:11The people of Aplantis look to the sea for rescue.
15:16The reason why may lie a few miles away.
15:21Putzoli, the biggest port in the entire Roman Empire, is just 18 miles across the Bay of Naples.
15:29Mycenaum, the base of Roman's military fleet, is only three miles further to the west.
15:36But no rescue ever arrives.
15:39We found them all huddled at the back of the room, waiting for a ship that never ever came.
15:44And they've died here in the pyroclastic flow.
15:47Still waiting.
15:49These storerooms are built right on the waterfront.
15:53They have direct access to two of the busiest ports of the Roman Empire,
15:58with trade lanes connecting to all the known world.
16:02So is it possible that this villa is more than just a luxurious seaside estate?
16:09And how can a mysterious discovery inside this villa,
16:13overturn what we thought we knew about the ancient eruption?
16:25At Aplantis, excavators uncover two monumental Roman buildings.
16:33Evidence here is transforming our understanding of Roman life in the shadow of Vesuvius.
16:40And is revolutionizing what we know about the eruption itself.
16:47When archaeologists unearth the smaller villa at Aplantis,
16:51on the ground floor, surrounding the central courtyard,
16:55they find a series of storage rooms frozen in time.
17:00On the southern side, a room filled with piles of mysterious charred material.
17:07And in a nearby space, they discover hundreds of upturned amphorae,
17:13large ceramic containers used to transport wine.
17:17They're stacked from floor to ceiling, ready for use.
17:22What can these clues reveal about the last days of Aplantis?
17:33Archaeologist Jenny Muslin takes a sample of the strange burnt substance outside to examine it more closely.
17:42These are carbonized pomegranates that were carbonized in the eruption.
17:46As you can see, they are very, very well preserved.
17:48You can make out the skin of the pomegranate, right?
17:51As if it was new, but blackened.
17:52The pomegranates are evidence that the villa's owner runs a lucrative export business.
17:59But this is a truly revolutionary discovery for a different reason.
18:06For centuries, historians believe the eruption of Vesuvius is in August of 79 CE,
18:13because of the date reported in Pliny's eyewitness account.
18:19Since pomegranates are a fall fruit, this could not have been picked in August.
18:24It's very clear that this has to have been October.
18:27The eruption of Vesuvius has been closely investigated ever since the chance discovery of Pompeii nearly 300 years ago.
18:37Here at Aplantis, it is still giving up its secrets today.
18:43Further evidence reveals that the villa's owner exports more than just raw fruit.
18:50This was a massive industrial operation for bottling wine.
18:53And this is wine in the amounts that were going to go all over the Roman world.
18:58At the time, the city of Rome alone tops one million people.
19:03It's estimated the Roman citizens drink more than 26 million gallons of wine here every year.
19:10While we have about 70 amphorae still stacked here, this is only a fraction of a much, much larger operation,
19:16where we had amphorae stretching all the way back here, all the way on this side, all the way on
19:21the opposite side of the colonnade.
19:23And there were 1,431 of these.
19:26So this is a huge, massive operation, very successful business.
19:30They were in full swing at the time of the eruption.
19:37Most of the amphorae have now been moved into storage rooms, where they are catalogued and further analyzed.
19:44They reveal more clues to the technology in use here.
19:51When we're first analyzing an amphorae, we can also tell a lot from evidence of what was inside organic material,
19:57for example.
19:58We can see inside the neck of this amphorae this dark brown residue that is from the pine pitch that
20:03was used to waterproof it.
20:06The discovery of the pine pitch reveals the Roman winemakers are surprisingly sophisticated in their packing.
20:14But it also reveals that Roman wine has a strange taste.
20:19Pine resin gives a very strong gasoline flavor to the wine.
20:23And we don't think the Romans cared that much about it, although they seemed to care more about what it
20:27looked like.
20:28So they did various things to make wine look older than it was, like adding lentils to it to turn
20:35white wine into a darker, tawny yellow.
20:37They would smoke wine, again, to have that aged feeling to it.
20:41But in terms of taste, this wouldn't have been very good.
20:45The fertile lands around Vesuvius are perfect for vineyards.
20:50Locals pray to the wine god Bacchus for good harvests.
20:58Aplantis ships more than 11,000 gallons of wine across the empire every year.
21:08The Romans mixed the wine with water.
21:11All members of society enjoy this drink, including children in their early teens.
21:18After use, amphorae are recycled, washed, and dried, and re-waterproofed, so they can be filled again.
21:28We have here unparalleled evidence for what workers were doing to put wine into bottles in preparation for shipping.
21:35This is really answering a lot of questions that we have had for years about how does wine travel, how
21:42does that process happen.
21:44And Aplantis is answering those questions, which is really exciting.
21:47But in October of 79 CE, just as workers here prepare a new consignment of wine for shipment,
21:56Vesuvius strikes and abruptly ends this booming business.
22:02What happens at the neighboring villa in those terrible hours?
22:05And can clues reveal the identity of the owners of this luxurious residence?
22:22At Aplantis, archaeologists are unearthing a lavish Roman mansion.
22:27Frozen in time by the apocalyptic eruption of Vesuvius in 79 CE.
22:34No skeletons are found inside this villa.
22:40So investigators hunt for other evidence that can shed light on the villa's owners.
22:47The residence is fitted with every comfort, down to a beautifully decorated private spa.
22:55This is the private bath, the hot room of the villa's bathing complex.
23:00And it's a room that saw heat in regular use because they were pumping hot air from below the floor
23:06and around up through the walls.
23:09The owners of this villa can afford heated floors to warm their steam room.
23:17Most of the wall is painted in yellow ochre, except for a strange red section.
23:23But in the corners, the paint fades to yellow.
23:27Michael believes this is not an artistic choice, but the result of Vesuvius.
23:34The heat essentially changes the color.
23:36It was originally a yellow ochre, and then by heating it, it turns into red ochre.
23:42That little piece of painting really shows us the damage inflicted by the eruption of Vesuvius.
23:47It was a really instantaneous destructive force, and that's what you see reflected in that fresco.
23:56Before Vesuvius turns it into an inescapable inferno, this is a luxurious sanctuary of relaxation.
24:06John Clark has dedicated nearly 20 years to decoding the mysteries of this villa.
24:13He wants to know more about the rich people who own this palatial residence.
24:20We've discovered 99 spaces, including huge gardens, this enormous swimming pool, and the entire East Wing, just for entertainment.
24:35Here we have the most beautiful room in this villa.
24:39It is unique.
24:41We don't have anything this well preserved in any site or any museum in the world.
24:48Here we have a whole room, just as it was in ancient times.
24:53Faux marble panels and alabaster columns are painted on the walls.
24:57These columns go around the entire room to give the illusion that you're surrounded by luxury.
25:03The frescoes transform the room to make it look like a sumptuous royal hall.
25:09But it's all a fantasy.
25:13Strict Roman law forbids citizens from building grand halls in their private residences.
25:20But here, the villa's owners find a loophole to satisfy their ambition.
25:26They want to show that they belong to the upper echelon of society.
25:31They paid artists to create the most fantastic regal architecture as possible without breaking the rules.
25:39The high level of craftsmanship and the monumental size of the frescoes are important clues to the identity of the
25:48people who live here.
25:51The location alone is testimony to the exceptional affluence of the owner.
25:59Our investigations have proven that this villa was on a cliff situated 45 feet above the sea itself with its
26:07own private harbor.
26:11The owners of this magnificent mansion likely live most of their time in the empire's capital.
26:20These sort of expensive, opulent villas dotted the entire coastline of the Bay of Naples.
26:26And many of them are owned by the senatorial elite of Rome.
26:29These are summer houses.
26:30You can only imagine, just like we have in the Hamptons, for example, where the rich and famous come.
26:36And they all gather around at each other's houses for these big parties.
26:42Villas like this are where Rome's rich escape the noise and sweltering heat of the crowded capital.
26:51John looks for the name of the aristocrats who vacation here.
26:57In a storage room, a small stack of plain amphorae hides a possible clue to their identity.
27:05There it is, that's the amphorae, which has this inscription on it.
27:10It reads, to Secundus, the slave of Poppaea.
27:14So many people, for that reason, call this the villa of Poppaea.
27:19This is not an ordinary family name.
27:24Poppaea may have been the Poppaea who was the famous wife of the emperor Nero.
27:31Nero is the most notorious emperor in Roman history.
27:36He is infamous for a lifestyle of debauchery and excess.
27:43The Bay of Naples is his favorite playground.
27:47He frequently comes to the nearby town of Baya to enjoy its famous hot springs and to Pozzoli, where he
27:55stages lavish boat parties.
27:59Nero owns several properties here, including a spectacular villa now underwater due to sea level changes.
28:12More clues found in the area offer further evidence that Nero's wife, Poppaea, might own the larger villa at Oplantis.
28:22There was a whole clan called Poppaea.
28:25The clan is attested in Pompeii as well.
28:28There's a magnificent house, the best one in Pompeii, which we know is owned by somebody who had this clan
28:36name.
28:37Poppaea's relatives are a prominent family in Pompeii.
28:41Their names appear in inscriptions all across the town.
28:47Nero and Poppaea die more than 10 years before the eruption.
28:52By the time disaster strikes in the fall of 79 CE,
28:57the new owners of this villa might have already returned to Rome from their vacation.
29:03But what happens to their servants?
29:06And what can this mansion reveal about life in servitude to the rich and powerful in the Roman world?
29:23Aplantis.
29:26Hidden between Pompeii and Herculaneum sits the villa of Poppaea, a holiday home fit for an emperor.
29:35Buried for 2,000 years in the volcanic rock of Vesuvius,
29:41discoveries here shed light on the darker side of Roman life.
29:47Slavery.
29:49This villa gives us a clean shot of life, not just of the wealthy owners, but also of the slaves
29:56who were tending them.
30:00Long striped corridors lead to the inner workings of the villa.
30:06The slave's domain.
30:10At its center, a peristyle featuring a large water fountain.
30:19On the upper floor, bedrooms where the slaves sleep.
30:29Alongside simple latrines and washrooms.
30:34What can these living quarters reveal about the lives of slaves in the Roman Empire?
30:43Michael looks for traces of the men and women who work here behind the scenes.
30:50As he leaves the luxurious entertainment rooms, something catches his eye.
30:56This painting gives us a clue about what happens in this room.
31:01These simple frescoes stand in stark contrast to the opulence of the rest of the villa.
31:09This is not painting that one would stop and admire and look at the details of.
31:14This is a huge corridor.
31:16It's a place of movement.
31:17And who's doing the most movement in a Roman house?
31:20Slaves.
31:20This corridor would have been a thoroughfare for slaves.
31:24Throngs of slaves run up and down these halls.
31:28Possibly attending to the whims of Nero himself.
31:32To find out more about them, Michael follows the corridor to a secluded courtyard.
31:38This peristyle is the hub of the slave activity of this villa.
31:43It's where the slaves slept.
31:45It's where they worked.
31:46It's where they washed.
31:47These holes that you see up above the roof line here,
31:51those are the windows for the upstairs corridors.
31:54This is the engine room that keeps the villa of Poppeia running smoothly.
32:00Hundreds labor here in the shadows,
32:03perhaps so that Nero's family can enjoy their luxury vacation.
32:13Slaves make up one in ten of the population of the Roman Empire in the first century CE.
32:20Even middle class Romans buy slaves.
32:26In Oplantis, the men maintain the villa and tend to the lush gardens, vineyards and orchards.
32:37While the women cook and serve expensive wine to the guests at elaborate banquets.
32:45Those with specialized skills become tutors and accountants to the elite.
32:50Slaves are a vital part of every elite Roman household.
32:57Michael ventures upstairs to their sleeping quarters.
33:00So this is another clue about the slaves here.
33:04What we have is some graffiti.
33:05This is their voice and this is how we see what they're thinking and what's important to them.
33:11One graffito in particular captures Michael's attention.
33:15There's a Greek graffito here which actually says,
33:19Remember Birilos.
33:22These words provide a window into the slaves' aspirations.
33:26Most people believe it's a reference to this famous freedman who was a tutor
33:31and an important member of the court of the Emperor Nero.
33:35The graffito is more evidence that this villa is connected to Emperor Nero.
33:41And is a reminder that even a slave can earn freedom and greatness.
33:46Maybe this is a message for other slaves or maybe it was just something that made him feel good.
33:52This message of hope survives, frozen in time by the eruption.
33:57It's a rare find to have this kind of evidence of spaces dedicated to slaves and their activities in the
34:03Pompeian area, really in the Roman Empire.
34:05But their death remains a mystery.
34:09The bodies of the people who work here have never been found.
34:13Michael wants to know if they could have escaped the fury of Vesuvius.
34:20In one corner of the courtyard, a mysterious ramp of stairs appears to lead straight down into the ground.
34:30A team that excavated on the other side of the villa found the exit of this tunnel.
34:36So we now know it provided access from the slave parasail out to the cliff face that led down to
34:43the sea.
34:44This tunnel would have been a way to bring supplies in so slaves could have gone down and met boats
34:50that had supplies like wine and food that were needed in the villa.
34:56The impressive tunnel cuts half a mile through the cliff and is the quickest way to reach the sea.
35:03As Vesuvius begins to erupt, this might provide a perfect escape route.
35:10But as investigators unearth more of the villa, it becomes apparent that something else, as well as bodies, is missing.
35:18Where are all the personal objects, all the precious items of the rich owners?
35:24Are they rescued from the villa before the eruption?
35:352,000 years after Vesuvius' catastrophic eruption, archaeologists are unveiling the secrets of Pompeii's mysterious lost twin, Oplantis.
35:49They uncover an enormous and luxurious villa that might at one point belong to Nero's wife, Poppeia.
35:58But inside, all the valuables are missing, and some decorative elements are found in strange places.
36:07These columns came from 200 feet away in the villa, and they were the supports for the porch along the
36:15pool.
36:16They seem carefully laid down.
36:18They are not mown down by the random fury of Vesuvius.
36:24John wants to find out why they are here.
36:28An expert examination reveals these are not regular columns.
36:34They were made from a very expensive material.
36:37This particular marble is quite rare.
36:39It's only found on one island, on the island of Lesbos in the Mediterranean, beyond Greece.
36:45The cost of shipping alone is equal to ten years of a regular Roman soldier's salary.
36:51And they're a single column instead of in pieces, which made them much more precious.
36:58But on the day of the eruption, most of the columns from the poolside terrace are already gone.
37:05Why are only a handful left?
37:07Because the intact ones were sold off.
37:10Only the broken ones are here.
37:12John thinks that these columns fall well before 79 CE.
37:18And the intact columns are not the only expensive decor that is removed and converted into cash.
37:25All of the precious materials of the villa were removed.
37:31They stripped marble decoration from the entire east wing and sold it off.
37:38This evidence suggests another crisis occurs here, before the eruption.
37:48Ivo van der Graaf is part of the team of archaeologists working at Aplantis.
37:54Our cameras have exclusive access to follow him inside the stock rooms of the ancient wine bottling complex.
38:03The space is now used to store materials recovered from the dig.
38:08But at the back, it hides an important piece of evidence.
38:15This is really interesting.
38:17This is a great big cistern used to store water for the complex.
38:22The massive tank is 100 feet long and 5 feet wide.
38:27It's connected to the local network of aqueducts and is meant to supply fresh water to the entire estate.
38:35But at the time of the eruption, it is already out of use for some time.
38:40They decide to shut down the cistern and fill it up with rubble and then they build these great big
38:45walls for the storage rooms you see above us.
38:49Ivo believes that the water network feeding this cistern is disrupted, rendering it dry and useless.
38:56This tells us that there was a major earthquake in the region.
39:00And it affected all the surrounding towns including Pompeii and Herculaneum to a massive degree, destroying the water supply and
39:08destroying the aqueducts that also supplied those towns, including the Aplantis itself as well.
39:13In 62 CE, 17 years before the Great Eruption, an earthquake shakes the hills around Aplantis, damaging its vital aqueducts.
39:26In the aftermath, residents of the larger villa reinforce the pool and push fragments of pottery into the earth to
39:34prevent the portico from collapsing.
39:38The owners sell off valuable materials, decorative marble and wood, a hint that the villa is in decline.
39:47Analysis of organic material from the garden confirms that it's inundated not with lush plants, but bindweed vines, a clear
39:56sign of neglect.
39:58But at the neighboring bottling facility, business must go on.
40:02The clever entrepreneurs repurpose and restore what is damaged, so that the facility can continue to operate.
40:09We actually have evidence of repairs and construction still happening at the time of the eruption, as the population was
40:16still rebuilding after the earthquake.
40:19Traces of the rebuilding are still visible in the courtyard.
40:23Here we have a good example of repairs that happened after the earthquake.
40:27You can see that this column is different from that one.
40:30This one is made out of brick because it was repaired after the earthquake of 62.
40:36In the face of destruction caused by the earthquake, the people in the second villa pick themselves up and rebuild.
40:45Just a few years later, business is once again flourishing.
40:50They cannot imagine that the worst is yet to come.
40:58The catastrophic eruption of Vesuvius buries Aplantis in a thick layer of ash.
41:05Preserving for 2,000 years one of the most exclusive villas of ancient Rome.
41:12The large villa reveals new secrets about the life of the empire's wealthiest and their slaves.
41:19And at the neighbouring villa, evidence of a new date for the eruption.
41:25As 54 victims remind us of the human cost of this terrible tragedy.
41:30The 14th century.
41:334th century.
41:35The 14th century.
41:50Life of an American Year.
41:50A 14th century.
41:51The 15th century.
41:52And we are over the world.
41:52The 15th century.
41:52The 15th century.
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