August 24 - Mount Vesuvius erupts

On August 24, 79 The volcano Mt. Vesuvius, near Naples, Italy erupted and buried the cities of Pompeii, Herculaneum and Stabiae under thick layers of layers of lava and ash.

What must have been rather inconvenient for the citizens of these small and sleepy Roman provincial towns at the time, proved to be an invaluable stroke of luck for the archaeologists and historians of future generations. Indeed, it could be argued that the history of modern archaeology as an academic science begins with the excavations of Herculaneum and Pompeii in the mid 18th century.

Around 1740 the Family of Karl, the Bourbon King of both Sicilies, began to show an increased interest in the Roman antiques that had been collected and displayed in their palaces for centuries. A large number of those had come from the countryside surrounding the Vesuvius and the King began to search for more.
Excavations started, and as they were undertaken by a company of The Royal Engineer corps, they were of a somewhat volatile nature. Nevertheless, explosives and heavy pick-axes soon unearthed some remarkable treasures, and those attracted connoisseurs and experts from all over Europe.
Amongst them was the German scholar J.J. Winkelmann, who until then had spent most of his years in a Dresden library. He made his way to Italy in 1750, and became the Curator of all antiquities in Rome and surroundings.



J.J.Winkelmann

Winkelmann took a special interests in the excavations of Herculaneum which under his influence became more serious and systematic and in 1762 Winkelmann published a short work: �About the discoveries of Herculaneum�, the first serious recording of an archaeological dig.
Many of the finds were incorporated in his main opus and legacy to the archaeological sciences, the �Monumenti antichi inediti�, published in 1767, the first systematic description, classification and interpretation of the art of Greek and Roman antiquity, that made him the "father" of modern archaeology.

But by 1760, the discovery of Herculaneum and Pompeii had just begun. Although large numbers of buildings, statues and artifacts had been found by the time Winkelmann could describe them, it took two more centuries to reveal the full extent of the possibilities , the eruption of the volcano had opened to archaeology.
Mt. Vesuvius began to erupt at noon , hurling thick clouds of volcanic ash into the air that sunk onto the surrounding countryside and the cities that lay in their reach; a spectacle that the Roman author Plinius the Younger famously described in a letter to Tacitus.
Pompeii and Herculaneum were caught in an instance by the eruption, their citizens were killed by poisonous gases or suffocated under meters of ash that covered the cities in a matter of minutes. With no chance of escape, they were killed where they happened to be, the moment the catastrophe occurred. Thus, archaeologists did not only found the ruins of buildings preserved under layers of ash, but a snapshot of everyday Roman life in the first century AD. The houses and public baths with their famous frescos, the amphitheaters and fora were excavated, but also the people that had gone about their daily business therein. They had died eating, working, sleeping and playing, and their well preserved remains helped archaeologists to piece together a detailed picture of the banalities of day-to-day existence, something that wasn�t possible amongst the ruins of temples and palaces of other sites.
Anyway, instead of waffling on further, here are some images of Pompeii and Herculaneum:




What else happened on this day?

1572 The murder of French Protestants at the hands of Catholics began in Paris. Charles IX of France attempted to rid the country of Huguenots. Charles, under the influence of his mother Catherine de Medici, believed the Huguenot Protestants were plotting a rebellion. During the Massacre of St. Bartholomew�s Day, 50,000 Huguenots and their leader, Admiral Gaspard de Chastillon, Count the Coligny, were killed.

1814 British troops led by General Ross invade the city of Washington and set fire to buildings in the capital, including the White House and the Capitol.



1967 Two penguins from Chessington Zoo, UK, were taken on a day trip to a local ice-rink to cool off during London's sweltering temperatures.


Full list:

Wikipedia