In Search Of... Season 4 # 10, POMPEII

In a single day in 79 A.D. the entire city of Pompeii was buried by a massive volcanic eruption. The lava covered secrets which would be hidden for 1500 years. The city as a whole gives us a large window looking at a single day in that area - 1900 years ago.  The city was preserved because it was built right to mount Vesuvius. On a morning in August 79 A. D. the volcano began to rumble.

On the day Pompeii was buried great winds of change were sweeping across the old world. A thousand Egyptian dynasties had collapsed. Rome had crushed Israel and conquered Europe. Followers of the new religion, Christianity, were worshipping in secret from England to Jerusalem.
In distance and in spirit no city could be much farther from the Holy Land than Pompeii. It seems impossible that in only 25 years Christians have begun to convert this city where people have thought that mount Vesuvius was a god. Vesuvius had never erupted and they believed it never would.
The wells had dried because the water had shifted building up enormous pressure. When the smoke steamed up miles into the air, the people did not flee, because they had no idea what a volcanic eruption was. Many were killed on the spot by falling hot lava. Three days later Pompeii was 30 feet under volcanic ash and rock.

All knowledge about Pompeii came from Roman records. Only when a peasant named Giovanni Nocerino dug a hole for a new well for his farm, he discovered a marvel. Digging went on in  secret. They found treasures beyond their dreams. They realized: The old legends of a lost city were true.

After 50 years of treasure hunting diggers made a discovery: Pompeii. From that day excavations have continued. Only in the last century the stealing of historic artifacts could be stopped. Cavities were found filled with human bones. In 1864 the archeologist Giuseppe Fiorelli used the holes like a sculpture's mold. The resulting cast was more detailed than he had dared to hope. This was once the shape of a living person.
In Herculaneum, sister-city of Pompeii, a cross was found - just 49 years after Jesus. Answers lie out of reach. Excavations are stopped because of the people who nowadays live on top of those grounds.