Misfortunate Monday: The Mt. Vesuvius Eruption of 79 B.C.E.

     Hello everybody and welcome back to another edition of Nations Made Fun! I'll be your host, Mr. Nations, your tour guide to the history of the world! Today we're going to be taking a look one of the worst volcanic eruptions in history, the Mt. Vesuvius Eruption of 79 B.C.E. Well, what are we waiting for? Let's dive straight into it!

     Mt. Vesuvius, a large volcano near the Bay of Naples in Italy, is thousands of years old and has erupted more than fifty times. Its most famous eruption was in 79 B.C.E. when it buried the town of Pompeii under a thick layer of volcanic ash. 2,000 people died and the city was abandoned for almost 2,000 years until explorers re-discovered it and found that most of the artifacts inside the city were still intact. These have been able to tell us a great deal about what ancient life was like.

     If you live near the Ronald Regan Presidential Library, you might know that not too long ago, they were featuring a Pompeii exhibit that showcases many of the artifacts found in Pompeii. It has since been removed to make room for more exhibits, but it was cool when it was around.

     Mt. Vesuvius didn't form overnight, obviously. In facts, scholars say that the volcano is thousands of years old and has been erupting for generations. In 1780 B.C.E. an extremely powerful volcanic eruption (now known as the Avellino eruption) occurred and destroyed everything manmade within fifteen miles of the destructive mountain.

     Many figures of people were found in the ash. They were not sculpted by people, but by nature. When the ash surrounded a person, it usually hardened around them if they didn't move and they couldn't move because they're dead (duh.) After the ash had been there for a very long time, the person would decompose and leave the ash statue that bores a striking resemblance to the person suffocated. If people wanted the statue to be removed, a team would carefully fill it with plaster so that the statue would hold its shape, allowing it to be transported easily. This was certainly fun to discover!

     Picture of a Pompeii citizen that was essentially fossilized:

     

     Fun Facts:

• The ruins on the city are covered with graffiti. It was analyzed and was dated back to before the eruption of Mt. Vesuvius. Some of it is even pretty rude!
• Pompeii is the world's largest archaeological site, spanning a whopping 150 acres.
• The city of Pompeii would be spared if the wind was blowing the way it usually blew. On that particular day, the wind was blowing directly towards Pompeii. How unlucky!

     Sources: https://www.history.com/topics/ancient-history/pompeii

     https://www.tours-italy.com/blog/10-mind-blowing-facts-about-pompeii