Pompeii: the New Dig
Pompeii is still delivering fresh finds, from fantastic frescos to a slave-labour bakery, as a new BBC series shows. But it’s the human stories that move us, discovers RT’s Sherna Noah
Monday 9.00pm BBC2
STANDING ON A mound of debris left from the eruption of Mount Vesuvius, which buried the Roman city of Pompeii in southern Italy in ash and pumice nearly 2,000 years ago, a seasoned archaeologist is in tears.
Gennaro Iovino’s team has been carrying out the biggest dig in a generation at the ruins and it’s one that I’ve been invited to witness. Their discoveries include a villa with its own commercial bakery, where slaves endured back-breaking work to feed the city’s inhabitants, as well as a lavish, still-life fresco that has sparked headlines around the world thanks to its representation of something that looks very much like a pizza.
But in one room they have also uncovered the crushed skeletons of two women and a young child, who were presumably sheltering from the terrifying eruption of AD 79. And for Iovino, his work comes with a heavy burden: “Who am I to disturb this peace? It’s a weight of responsibility,” he says, eyes glistening in the early morning spring sunshine.
Italian archaeologists have been excavating for a year in the centre of Pompeii. Their finds and the captivating process of trying to piece together what happened in a vast residential block in a wealthy part of town during that fateful October has been captured on camera in a three-part BBC2 documentary.
The ruins at Pompeii were first rediscovered by chance in the late 16th century. In the 400-odd years since an amphitheatre, theatre, houses, shops, bath houses, laundries, temples, bars and even what is thought to have been a brothel have been unearthed. But only around two thirds have been excavated because of the costs of digging and maintaining the finds, as well as preserving the site for future generations with new methods. This new dig spans around 3,200 square metres.
“Magnificent, isn’t it?” says archaeologist Sophie Hay, showing me what remains of a large house thought to have been owned by an affluent Roman citizen. A vast, brightly decorated dining room would have opened directly onto a portico and afforded diners a view of the garden through the columns. “You have to imagine being here, lying on a couch, being fed food, looking out through the door into the garden. They would have had piped water so there would have been water features, fountains, plants, birdsong.”
The house, on what would have been a busy street packed with
