Ercolano - Part I

 Today we are visiting Ercolano (Herculaneum) which is another Roman town that was buried under volcanic ash by the eruption of Vesuvious in 79AD. However unlike Pompei, half a centry later another eruption further covered Ercolano in lava which compressed the ash and preserved the buildings virtually intact.

This picture shows the depth that the city was buried. The ditch in the foreground was formerly the sea shoreline - there is sand here and they found the remains of serveral wooden boats. The city, to the left, was covered in ash. The rock wall on the right is the lava that has been cut away to reveal the city below.

Removing the ash has revealed the Roman buildings as they were complete with original walls, doors and some of the roofs. Inside are original mosaic floors and walls covered in fresco's.

These two pictures below show what happened to this large marble washing bowl.

The ash cloud broke through the glass window that is shown behind us and filled the bowl. Then later when the lava flow came the ash was compressed into the shape of the bowl shown below.

This is the compressed ash from the washing bowl - if you look closely you can see the outline of the glass fragments from the window that smashed into the bottom of the bowl under the weight of the ash cloud.