you might be forgiven for thinking that
the most disturbing part of the eruption
of Mount Vesuvius in 79 ad was the sheer
suddenness of Pompey's destruction but
while the town's destruction was
unspeakably tragic the speed at which it
happened wasn't nearly the worst thing
about it to festivals happening in the
town at the same time meant the tragedy
at Pompeii ended up so much worse than
it should have been according to the
book Pompeii an archaeological guide the
Pompeians were in the middle of a
multi-day celebration in honor of the
Emperor Augustus known today as the
first emperor of the Roman Empire
Augustus had died sixty-five years
earlier and had just been made of God as
well as having the month of August named
after him Pompey's streets were filled
with public celebrations including
street musicians fortune tellers plays
and athletic events many of those
performers and athletes came from
outside Pompeii to take part in the
event as did the visitors and tourists
who came to see them we can't know
exactly how many extra people were in
the town at the time of its destruction
but it is certain a lot more lives were
lost than might have happened if the
eruption had happened a month later even
worse the day before the eruption was
vulcanalia the festival of the god
vulcan otherwise known as the god of
fire and volcanoes it wasn't so much
that the people of Pompeii didn't get a
warning that Mount Vesuvius was going to
erupt because there definitely would
have been smoke small earthquakes and
loud rumblings at the very least it was
more that because of vulcanalia they
would have interpreted these signs as
good almonds from the God rather than
the warnings to get out of Dodge as far
as the town's people cared these
warnings were simply signs that Vulcan
was busy at his Forge inside Mount
Vesuvius perfectly happy that everyone
was celebrating his special day
it wasn't just the timing of the
festivals that screwed everyone over in
Pompeii though it was also the weather
according to perspective whether the
wind in that part of Italy during August
tends to blow in a southwesterly
direction if this had been the case
during the eruption the cloud of Ash and
deadly gas from the volcano would have
blown away from Pompeii sure there still
would have been the whole heat and lava
thing to contend with but that wasn't
what killed most people in the city if
the ash and gas had spread in the
direction the wind normally blew far
more people would have likely survived
but for some reason that day the wind
was blowing to the northwest straight
towards Pompeii aside from dooming the
town itself this also meant that many of
the townspeople couldn't escape Pompeii
sits on a Bay and some people evidently
attempted to escape by ship but our only
eyewitness account of the tragedy by
Pliny the Younger says the wind was
blowing dead inshore and stopped
terrified residents including his own
uncle from leaving that way their most
effective escape route was blocked off
because of a bizarre change in the
weather
in fact the nature of the wind that day
was so bizarre that it has caused some
historians to think we have the date of
the eruption wrong according to the
Australian National Maritime Museum the
unexpected wind pattern could mean the
eruption took place in autumn later in
the year than first thought
considering many of the people of Rome
lived around 2,000 years ago it's easy
to feel a disconnect between their lives
and our own but with Pompeii we don't
just have the skeletal remains of those
who died we can actually see in great
detail the fear on their faces at the
moment of their deaths the nature of the
detail in these remains makes the town's
destruction feel like so much more than
just history when Pompeii was being
excavated in the early 1800s the
archaeologists realized that when they
found a skeleton it was always
surrounded by a void in the compacted
ash the digger started pouring plaster
of Paris into the spaces and what
emerged were essentially casts of people
during the last moments of their lives
in essence the archaeologists could see
the exact positions they took as the ash
rained down there are even animal casts
including one of a dog riding on its
back twisted as if in great pain
find several groups together three
people together four people together it
seems that they may be helping each
other but modern technology can take
this information even further seeker
reports that in 2015 many of these casts
were cat scanned this means we now know
the victims ages sexes and intimate
details about their health we can even
construct accurate images of their faces
such as a four-year-old boy frozen in
terror or a baby asleep on its mother's
lap Giovanni babbino the head
radiologist on the project said working
with these casts was extremely moving it
felt like I was dealing with real
patients
plenty the younger provides our only
eyewitness account of what happened on
that day in Pompeii and he didn't even
write about it until more than two
decades after the event but his account
shows that witnessing the city's
destruction had a profound effect on him
plenty was 18 and living across the bay
in my sea gnome when the eruption began
his uncle Pliny the Elder had also been
a naval commander in the early Roman
Empire and decided to sail to Pompeii to
try and rescue people plenty and his
mother were left to escape my seen him
on their own eventually they left their
house because the strength of the
earthquakes made stayin inside dangerous
and they had to keep shaking off ash so
they wouldn't be crushed by the weight
of it elsewhere in the town people began
to panic and false rumors quickly spread
about my scene I'm being on fire
but according to plenty it was the noise
that was the worst he wrote you could
hear the shrieks of women the wailing of
infants in the shouting of men some were
calling their parents others their
children or their wives trying to
recognize them by their voices people be
wailed their own fate or that of their
relatives and there were some who prayed
for death in their terror of dying many
besought the aid of the gods but still
more imagine there were no gods left and
that the universe was plunged into
eternal darkness for evermore Pliny the
Elder died at Pompeii having failed to
save a single life historians still
aren't exactly 100% sure how people in
Pompeii actually died but it's mostly
accepted that in general they were
smothered by ash and gas crushed when
buildings collapsed or hit and killed by
falling debris this is why the bodies
archaeologists have found show people
were largely intact when they died but
this might not have been the
case for victims in other cities
affected by the eruptions according to
National Geographic in the cities of
Herculaneum and Oplontis things were all
the more disturbing because they were
probably hit by pyroclastic surges
catastrophic mixtures of ash lava and
noxious gases but the deadliest
characteristics of a pyroclastic flow
are heat and speed they can move at 50
miles an hour and reach temperatures of
1,300 degrees Fahrenheit
that kind of all-consuming heat can
effectively flash-fry a person to death
it causes a person's bodily fluids to
boil instantaneously including those
inside their brain essentially causing
their head to explode within 10 minutes
all the soft tissue on their body would
vaporize and there's strong evidence
that this happened to many of the
victims in Herculaneum and Oplontis if
Egypt has taught us anything it's that
people really do not give a toss about
the sanctity of the debt with tombs in
that country being ransacked almost as
soon as they were sealed the same is
true in Pompeii despite it being the
final resting place for thousands of
victims all grave robbers tend to think
about is how much shiny stuff is buried
with them and the residents who fled
their homes and terror did make it easy
for these thieves since many of them
grabbed all their valuables to bring
with them since Pompeii wasn't really
rediscovered until the 1700s these grave
robbers have remained active up to the
present day Pompey's official website
mentions archaeologists unearthed in one
room and finding tunnels dug in the ash
and the skeletal remains of six
individuals thrown around damage done by
humans not a volcano a shop was also
discovered in 2016 with evidence that
looters had been there first although
thankfully they managed to miss a hoard
of gold coins found inside in 2017 there
was actually so much tomb raiding that
for the archeologists it became a race
to dig out new areas before they were
found by crooks
not everyone who steals digs a tunnel
though some just pick stuff up when they
visit as tourists luckily a lot of them
come to regret that decision
according to The Telegraph in recent
years authorities have been sent a
hundred packages returning items
pilfered as souvenirs with many of the
repentant grave robbers believing the
objects had brought them bad luck
perhaps the worst thing to happen to
Pompeii since the eruption was the fact
that for a
long time it wasn't even properly taken
care of and it wasn't the archaeologists
in the 1800s who screwed up but those in
charge of the site during the second
half of the 20th century in 2008 The
Guardian reported that the Italian
government had declared a state of
emergency at Pompeii not because the
volcano was about to erupt again but
because the historic site was in such a
state of disrepair the conditions were
described as squalid with the amazing
sights warmed by souvenir hawkers fake
parking attendants and bogus tour guides
it had few signs even fewer security
guards in only three bathrooms the third
of the site that was still buried was
even being used as an illegal trash dump
but more dire according to Reuters was
the decades of neglect the UNESCO World
Heritage Site had suffered with visitors
expressing shock at the site's decay
frescoes and stones that had survived
almost 2,000 years were deteriorating at
an alarming rate with thousands of
pieces lost every year restoration work
that had started in 1978 was still
nowhere near being completed the culture
minister at the time stated that to call
the situation intolerable doesn't go far
enough and a year-long state of
emergency was quickly declared a special
Commissioner was thus appointed to try
to save the site before human laziness
and selfishness could destroy Pompeii
all over again to this day the volcano
that destroyed Pompeii is considered one
of the most dangerous in the world Mount
Vesuvius made it pretty clear it wasn't
messing around when it buried numerous
towns and killed thousands of people
back in 79 AD but that eruption wasn't
even the most destructive in terms of
damage that happened in 1631 but for
some reason the area at its base is
still regarded as prime real estate six
million people currently live close to
Vesuvius and according to volcano
discovery three million of them are at
serious risk if it ever erupts again and
the problem is that Vesuvius tends to
get very angry very quickly unlike some
volcanoes Vesuvius doesn't let off small
warning eruptions before the big one
instead this volcano tends to sit
perfectly quietly for a long time and
then suddenly let off a massive deadly
eruption it also has a much tighter time
scale for eruptions than other volcanoes
so even though it last blew in 1944 it
could easily go again tomorrow
even some super volcanoes are considered
less dangerous than Vesuvius the Italian
government has multiple plans in place
should another eruption occur at a
minimum 600,000 people would need to be
evacuated from the immediate risk zone
on the lower slopes of the volcano
unfortunately it's uncertain whether
these plans would actually be effective
or not and seems almost a given that not
everyone will be saved
check out one of our newest videos right
here plus even more grunge videos about
your favorite stuff are coming soon
subscribe to our YouTube channel and hit
the bell so you don't miss a single one
[Music]