Herculaneum: A Fate Worse Than Pompeii | Vesuvius Uncovered | Real History



Pompeii, the lost Roman city buried by the eruption of Vesuvius in 79 AD, has long been a source of fascination to archaeologists. But its sister city Herculaneum, buried in the same eruption but to a much greater depth than Pompeii, reveals far more detail of how the Romans lived. For many years the city appeared to have been abandoned and it was assumed the inhabitants had managed to escape in the hours before Herculaneum was engulfed by the volcano.

Then in the 1980s a macabre discovery was made. Burrowing through the volcanic mud, archaeologists found hundreds of bodies huddled pitifully together. Vesuvius is still active and is on course to erupt again. The lure of its rich volcanic soil and the delights of the Bay of Naples have attracted a far greater population than lived there in Roman times. And while civil servants at the Vesuvius observatory express confidence that there will be ample warning and time to evacuate the surrounding population, many geologists disagree. Evidence from an eruption in 4000 BC reveals that the volcano is capable of destroying Naples, a cataclysm far greater than that of 79 AD. If that were to happen today it could engulf 3 million people. On that scale, in an area where motorway traffic jams are a fact of daily life, present evacuation plans are completely inadequate.

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45 thoughts on “Herculaneum: A Fate Worse Than Pompeii | Vesuvius Uncovered | Real History”

  1. The Holy Roman Empire never fell
    The Empire Strikes Back
    Every government today is Roman
    You live in the Holy Roman Empire now
    The rulers lie and change history
    for their own wealth and rule
    Religion will never be real

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  2. People had no idea Vesuvius was about to erupt, despite of all the warning signs. Until it was too late. Now we ignore the warnings of climate changes across the world.

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  3. I had the privilege of living in Naples Italy from 1970 thru 1976……..been to both Pompeii and Herculaneum as well as walking down in the mouth of Vesuvious. I was born in 1963. Awesome experiences. Then I went to Athens Greece where i finished high school in 1981. So was there from 76 to 81. I could see Mt. Vesuvius from my bedroom window.

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  4. Thank you for this wonderfully informative video ! I had never heard of Herculaneum and it's tragic fate, much less the amazing work involved in the recovery and preservation of this marvelous town. Now I do know, thanks to this video and channel .

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  5. Edgar Cayce predicted that this volcano would erupt again soon…. and not long after….. Yellowstone will also go.
    They are on the same channel (so to speak)… when both of them go…
    Bad times

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  6. There is an excellent book written for school aged children about Herculaneum, The Secrets of Vesuvius, by Sara Bisel. It is a great starting point with plenty of photographs and illustrations.

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  7. If wood has been preserved at this site, there is a reasonable chance that if a library is found, its scrolls might be readable. How amazing that could be, it could teach us so much! The Bourbons were nothing but criminal looters, looking to enhance the decor of their personal palaces with priceless treasures from the past, to their eternal shame.

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  8. I don’t like them showing human remains, even in those filled-void molds. It’s disrespectful, these were real human beings like us, with hopes, fears and dreams, and their remains deserve better.

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  9. Modern day synchronized looters called, "Archeologists", skillfully go about their whisking away artifacts in which further fund even more professional looting.Looting is big business and they're angered by past treasure seekers even so much so as to brand them as looters, even so too, with their little scrapers and dust puffers go about ahhmmm, looting?I wonder if the bank has been imbelished?

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