On the morning of August 24th, 79 AD, the sky was clear in Wan Li, Naples Bay. In the seaside holy land of Herculaneum, baker Sekstas Patkas is baking bread and cakes in the bakery; In the repair shop, the repairman is repairing a bronze candlestick and a bronze statue of the oil god; Horace Fafe Gus, a vegetable and fruit vendor, is sprinkling water on fruits and vegetables; A sculptor is carving a beautiful jade. A sick child was lying in the house behind a jewelry store, waving his hands and shouting as if he wanted chicken legs and a bunch of walnuts on the table. Not far from here, a stout porter is carrying boxes of goods at the shipyard, and a 14-year-old nanny is looking after a baby who is only ten months old; In the snack bar at the crossroads, the waiter is scribbling the number and date of wine delivery on the wall of the house; He lives next door to Patumnas and his lover Effie Anda. Ivanda was absorbed in drawing a sketch of a gladiator fighting with antlers, while her lover Patumnas watched her affectionately. Suddenly, Patumnas went to the slope of the room and wrote a few simple words on the wall: Patumnas loves Ivanda ... The residents of the whole city are immersed in a quiet and happy atmosphere.
At noon, the residents of Herculaneum felt the earth shaking and heard deafening explosions and thunder. Looking up, I saw a mushroom-shaped column of smoke rushing out of the mouth of Vesuvius, four kilometers to the east. In an instant, the sky was covered and it was dark. Hot magma rushes to the city at a speed of about 100 km per hour, and its temperature is estimated to be as high as 900 degrees Celsius.
Terrified residents rushed to the beach, coast or boat to take refuge. When Mount Vesuvius calmed down, the city of Herculaneum had been buried under more than 20 meters thick black magma. 18 an hour after Vesuvius erupted, that is, around 6 am, it rained heavily, and the city of Herculaneum suddenly became a water country: before that, the residents of Herculaneum who ran to the seaside thought they could survive. Unexpectedly, the heavy rain washed away the forest on the hillside, and at a speed of about 200 kilometers per hour, it rushed from Vesuvius volcano to Herculaneum City, and the city was instantly submerged under a torrent of 20 meters deep. When the flood caused by the rainstorm surged, panicked people rushed to the harbor along the narrow streets; However, the volcanic eruption triggered a tsunami at the same time, and the way for people to escape from the sea was cut off: the flood first washed away the northeast wall, and then ran along the streets of Herculaneum. ...
I don't know how long it took, but the flood finally receded and the sediment buried the whole city.
Centuries later, the city of Herculaneum and the ancient city of Pompeii, 1 1 km away, were gradually forgotten. Until 1709, when workers dug wells in the "dead city", they found the ancient stage. After further excavation, they found many marble components. Herculaneum discovered it by accident. At that time, Italy was occupied by Austrian troops. After hearing the news, an Austrian prince ordered his soldiers to dig tunnels in order to grab beautiful marble to build the villa he was building.
1738, Marquis Don Masero Vanuti, curator and humanist of the Royal Italian Library, began to dig in the city of Herculaneum. He used the excavation method of shaft and roadway to clean up and unearthed three marble statues of Romans wearing robes, some colored columns and the trunk of a bronze horse. In the same year, 65438+February 1 1, I found an inscription and learned that a man named Roufos invested in the construction of the "Hercules Theatre".
By 1927, the Italian government decided to excavate the city of Herculaneum in stages, and the original appearance of Herculaneum gradually emerged. Herculaneum was built on the high ground between two streams flowing down from Mount Vesuvius and surrounded by high walls. Therefore, when Mount Vesuvius erupted, the fiery magma first attacked the city of Herculaneum. Seven hours later, when it became an island in the mud flow hot sea, Pompeii was also destroyed. The city of Herculaneum is much better preserved than Pompeii, which is covered by volcanic ash and pumice, because of the influence of moist soil infiltrated by a large amount of groundwater flowing down from Mount Vesuvius. Many perishable things in daily life are not affected by air at the same time because they maintain a certain temperature and humidity. Although it has been burned by boiling magma, it is still as well preserved as the four administrative districts that have been unearthed, as well as Stone Street, Rome Square, Rectangular Hall and half an arena. When they were dug up, they were almost the same as when they were buried.
Because the volcanic ash and pumice falling on Pompeii are loose, they are buried shallowly, with an average depth of only 3.6 meters; However, the lava covered by the city of Herculaneum is mixed with many huge rocks, which are deeply buried with an average depth of 20 ~ 26 meters, which brings many unimaginable difficulties to the excavation work, but it plays a protective role for the city of Herculaneum. Although it carbonized the wood, it did not destroy it. Therefore, many doors and windows can still be opened and closed at will in their original positions, and bronze pumps can still operate freely. Moreover, they also stopped the crazy treasure hunting and sabotage activities of early diggers.