National Geographic: In the Shadow of Vesuvius Page #2

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of material as hard as cement.

Why this difference? Scientists puzzle

Why was Pompeii covered

by gravel and ash

and Herculaneum

by a rock-solid deposit

when the two towns were buried

in the same eruption?

Unlike the commercial center

of Pompeii,

Herculaneum was a residential

and resort town.

Built on a low bluff

overlooking the sea,

it housed between four and

five thousand wealthy retired citizens

artisans, and fishermen.

The most notable gathering places

in Herculaneum were the bath houses.

Heated by fires and tended by slaves,

the baths drew residents almost daily.

With separate sections

for women and men,

the baths were a place to relax,

socialize, and conduct business.

Now, bases on record from the past,

with the help of an artist's hand,

Herculaneum is magically recaptured

as it was in the glorious days

of the Roman Empire.

They left us image magnificently cast

in bronze,

but where were the people themselves?

Few human remains had ever been found,

and scholars concluded that surely

the people of Herculaneum

had successfully escaped.

The extraordinary number

of everyday objects

provides an intimate look

at Roman life.

A cloth press in a cleaner's shop.

The remains of a bed.

A baby's charred cradle.

A charred doll.

Magnificent jewelry,

hand-hammered from the purest of gold.

And costume jewelry of beads,

stones, and amber.

and perhaps most astounding

of all food set on the table:

walnuts, freshly baked bread, eggs,

and figs preserved for

nearly 2,000 years.

In 1980, more than 270 years after

the initial discovery of Herculaneum,

a skeleton was uncovered on the site

of the ancient beach front.

Then three more were found there,

igniting the archeological community.

The arched chambers facing

the beach had never been excavated.

Now they cried out for attention.

Yet no one was prepared

for the landmark discovery

that would destroy scientific theory

on Herculaneum's final hours.

Many Herculaneans had not escaped.

Huddled together in the dark recesses

of the chambers,

scores were overtaken

by Vesuvius's indiscriminate rampage.

Perhaps members of the same family,

one group died locked in embrace.

Some of the victims were found wearing

valuables gold and shining gems.

Others, no doubt certain

they would escape,

gathered their treasure troves

and carried them as they fled.

Today, the cataclysm that brought

instant death

has become an unparalleled legacy

for modern scientists.

Analysis of the bone may answer some

of history's riddles

about Roman culture and daily life.

Physical anthropologist Dr. Sara Bisel

has spent her career

analyzing human bones,

but this opportunity is unique.

The reason why the Herculaneum

population is so important

is that it may well be the only one

we ever have from

the Roman period in Italy

because Roman burials were

cremations and so aren't studiable.

And we've had artifacts before,

we've had architectural remains,

we've had literature, but this is

the first time we've had real people.

I find it very moving.

Working with chief excavator

Ciro Formicola,

Bisel uncovers treasures locked

in the earth for nearly 2,000 years.

A magnificent bracelet is found

alongside a woman's remains.

No doubt a person of wealth,

she was found with much gold jewelry.

I think she must have had them

in her purse

since her arm is off

in another direction.

Oh, this one has a little chain.

Her earrings, meant for pierced ears,

were probably decorated with pearls.

And as she ran,

she carried a bronze oil lamp

futile protection against the dark.

I take them out of the ground

because they talk to me then.

They don't talk to me as much in

the ground as they do to other people.

But when I get them out, then they

tell me what they did all their lives

and what they did every day.

And they say whether they are male

or female, their ages,

what kind of work they did,

whether they were abused

when they were alive,

what sort of nutrition they had,

if they were sick.

Well, I can't see all the illnesses,

but some of them.

They can tell me that.

Women can tell me how many

babies they had.

They can't tell me whether

they were happy or not.

This is noteworthy.

From a pelvic bone Bisel is able to

tell the woman's approximate age

and how many babies she had.

Twenty-seven years;

two or three children.

She was roughly 27 years old

and had two or three babies.

From that little bone,

all that news.

In all, Bisel will analyze

some 25,000 bones.

It is a monumental task.

After the bones are cleaned, dried,

and dipped in an acrylic-resin

solution to harden them,

Bisel begins the process of

sorting and reconstruction.

In general I think they

are pretty healthy.

I haven't seen some of the gross

diseases that I might see.

Some of the people who, I presume,

were slaves show signs of working very

very hard and they're of course

not nearly so healthy

as some of the other people.

Ancient people have beautiful teeth,

even at ages of 35, 40, 45.

They have very few cavities

and very few abscesses

and all the teeth just line up

like piano keys.

With her trained eye, Bisel is able

to unravel a tantalizing mystery

about two people found lying together

in one of the chambers.

This baby was in the first chamber

that we excavated in the back part.

And actually before we

started taking people out,

all you could see was the top of

the little head,

and it was being held in the arms

of a young girl.

So we didn't know we knew it was a baby

but we didn't know too much about it.

The men that were working

with me all said,

This is the baby and its mother

and everything.

And I looked at the skeleton

of the girl holding it

and it was a prepubertal girl.

So I know it wasn't the mother.

So then they all said it

must be the sister,

but I'll show you that

I really don't think it was.

This baby was the baby of a rich family

because it had jewelry on it.

And I don't really think a child that's

from a poor family would have jewelry.

Now here's the girl

that was holding her.

And I'll show you why I don't think

she was the sister.

Sort of a nice-looking person,

isn't she?

Nice regular features.

But if you look really closely here

at these teeth,

you can see the line,

a really deep line,

and the same here on the first molar.

Now this deep indentation into

the enamel shows that

when the tooth was forming, she just

simply wasn't getting anything to eat.

That in itself does not point to

a girl of a rich family.

This is even more telling the humerus.

You see these places here the

attachment for the muscles here

on the humerus that's the arm bone

the attachment for the muscle here

shows severe pulling of that muscle,

which would really only happen in

someone who was lifting things

that were far too heavy

for her to lift.

And no daughter of a rich family would

have to work like that.

So I think she was a slave.

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