by Elaina David
I have always been fascinated by the ancient city of Pompeii and the horrible disaster that so well preserved its past. For those who are unaware of what Pompeii is and was, I will take a moment to explain. Pompeii was a Roman city that was famously destroyed in 79 AD by the volcanic eruption of Mt. Vesuvius, a volcano that is still active today. I watched documentaries, read books, and annoyed many people with my incessant tales of the death and doom that took place there. After years of being completely obsessed with the place, I discovered that there was a whole other story that I had been missing. That was when I found out about Herculaneum.
Herculaneum is a city located in Campania, Italy, roughly 5 miles southeast of Naples.
As is depicted in the map to the left, the placement of Herculaneum is noticeably closer to Mt. Vesuvius than Pompeii. You’ll also notice that Pompeii is south of Mt. Vesuvius whereas Herculaneum is to the west. Both of these observations will play key roles in the fate of Herculaneum.
Herculaneum is actually, believe it or not, better preserved than Pompeii in many ways. One example of this is that in Pompeii there is no preserved wood or actual skeletons. Yes, there are plaster casts that are really cool, but they can only tell us so much about the citizens of Pompeii’s last moments. In Herculaneum, there are hundreds of skeletons, 300 in the boathouses alone. The Herculaneum boathouses provide so much insight into the lives of Herculaneum’s residents.
One such insight is a look at the people’s diets. Archaeologists have used an archaeological technique known as Compound-Specific Isotope Analysis, or Stable Isotope Analysis. This basically means that a bunch of people in white coats ran tests on some bones to identify specific isotopes from different plants and animals that may have been eaten in that time period. The results showed that females in Herculaneum ate more terrestrial animals, and males ate more fish and marine life.
Another insight is through the aforementioned preserved wood. As I’ve said, there is no wood left in Pompeii. In Herculaneum, the wood and paper were carbonized, leaving behind exact carbon replicas of beds, chairs, tables, and even scrolls! This is where the positioning of Herculaneum comes into play. Pompeii was downwind, to the south of Mt. Vesuvius, so huge clouds of ash and pumice (a light, porous type of rock common at volcanic sites) covered the city. The pumice fell from these clouds, piling on and destroying the roofs of houses. This crushed the civilians sheltering underneath them, although some people survived. This meant that the wood was surrounded by porous rock, which allowed the wood to slowly rot away.
When volcanoes erupt, they spew hot magma onto the surface, which is terrifying to see if you’re too close. In reality though, the reason eruptions are so deadly is not the lava. It’s the superheated pyroclastic flows and surges that do the most damage. These are floods of volcanic ash and hot gases from an eruption. They suck oxygen from the air, cause terrible burns, and block out all sunlight. In Herculaneum, there was no pumice, just hot ash encasing everything, leaving no air to rot the wood. The superheated gases caused the wood to carbonate, protecting the wood against erosion. In Pompeii, the flows and surges had lost some heat and the wood had already been buried in pumice.
I mentioned in an above paragraph the Herculaneum boathouses. These were arched, beachside rooms where citizens waited for boats. When Mt. Vesuvius erupted, hundreds of people took shelter there. You may wonder, Why didn’t they leave the city? Why stay? The answer lies in history. A few years before the eruption, Herculaneum was struck by a terrible earthquake that destroyed much of the city. The boathouses were the perfect shelter during that natural disaster. In the days preceding Mt. Vesuvius’ eruption, there were also earthquakes as is common before eruptions. Many people hid in the boathouses under the assumption that this was another earthquake.
There is one final amazing artifact from Herculaneum that I’m going to share about. The artifact in question was found in a temple devoted to Augustus called the Collegium Augustalium. A forensic archaeologist named Dr. Pierpaolo Partone discovered the only example of a vitrified human brain there. (Vitrified means turned to glass.) The superheated temperatures, followed by a sudden decrease in temperature, turned a man’s brain to glass. He was found lying in his bed. No where else has there ever been found a vitrified human brain. This is one of the things that make Herculaneum such an important archaeological site.
Herculaneum is a treasure trove of history, and new technologies are helping to uncover more and more about this ancient city’s past. I hope that this article has imbued in you a want for more.
Sources:
Britannica. Herculaneum. 23 August, 25.
https://www.britannica.com/place/Herculaneum
Giordano, G., Pensa, A., Vona, A. et al. Unique formation of organic glass from a human brain in the Vesuvius eruption of 79 CE. Sci Rep 15, 5955 (2025).
https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-025-88894-5
National Geographic. Lost Treasures Of Rome. 24 August, 25.
https://www.natgeotv.com/za/shows/natgeo/lost-treasures-of-rome#episodes-t3
Piercy, L. BREAKTHROUGH: Discovery made from within 2,000 year-old Herculaneum scrolls. 13 October, 23.
https://uknow.uky.edu/research/breakthrough-discovery-made-within-2000-year-old-herculaneum-scrolls
Research Gate. Herculaneum victims of Vesuvius in AD 79. 24 August, 25.
https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Pierpaolo-Petrone
Science Advances. High-resolution dietary reconstruction of victims of the 79 CE Vesuvius eruption at Herculaneum by compound-specific isotope analysis. 25 August, 21.
https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/sciadv.abg5791
The Past. Wooden Wonders Of Herculaneum. 24 August, 25.
The Lighthouse 