All language subtitles for Pompeii The New Revelations Ch5 1080p EN SUB_ENG_Subtitles01

Welcome to Italy.
Behind us is Mount Vesuvius.

The volcano that buried the Roman
town of Pompeii under thousands of

tonnes of ash and pumice in 79 AD.

Last year, we told you the story
of the three days leading up

to that catastrophe.

And now, we're back again
to tell you what happened next.

We'll reveal what occurred in the
hours, the days and the centuries

after that cataclysmic eruption,

and how it devastated not just
Pompeii, but this entire region.

We explore the extent of the
devastation caused by the eruption.

They found these boat houses.

Every single one of them was
filled with bodies.

We get access to the latest
scientific investigations.

This is an exploded skull.

They - literally just boiled
their brains? Yes.

And we reveal brand-new evidence
transforming our understanding of

how the region recovered
in the aftermath.

Oh, gosh look at that!

We tell the incredible story of how
Pompeii was eventually rediscovered,

and then, plundered.

They stripped whatever
they could find.

And bring things right up-to-date
with special access

to a new excavation.

Now, we're entering this
incredible house.

We discovered a lot of painting -
and also, victims.

And we also investigate a real
archaeological crime story

taking place in Pompeii today.

Found some here on the floor.

I think this could be a
human vertebrae.

Pompeii is one of the world's
greatest archaeological treasures.

The story of the devastation of
this once-bustling Roman town

is one of the most dramatic
and tragic in history.

But the little-told story of what
happened to Pompeii and the

surrounding area after the eruption
is just as astonishing.

The rediscovery of Pompeii over
1,500 years later turned what had

been
an obscure, provincial Roman town
into one of the most

famous places on Earth.

The rock, the ash that tragically
killed thousands of people here

ironically preserved these streets,
these buildings and their contents

from the ravages of time.

The way that Pompeii died
allowed us to see how it lived.

The incredible preservation
in Pompeii allows us to glimpse

everyday Roman life.

We can visit ordinary homes...

..shops...

..bathhouses and theatres.

And most movingly of all, here,
the eruption preserved some of

the people frozen in their
final moments of life

in the form of casts.

This is haunting - it's so easy to
get enthusiastic, isn't it, Raksha,

about the mosaics and the
archaeology here.

But this is where the true cost
of what happened here

becomes very clear. Absolutely.

And I think people forget that
these are real people.

Looking at the face here, you get
a snapshot of horror and pain

from almost 2,000 years ago.

Recent archaeological discoveries
suggest that the catastrophic

eruption that destroyed Pompeii
struck at midday on 24 October,

79 AD - not in August,
as previously thought.

In the first hours after
the eruption, ash and pumice

rained down on Pompeii.

Metres accumulated in the streets.

What happened next here in Pompeii
is really just part of the story.

In those hours after the eruption,
this entire region was devastated.

This wasn't just any old region.

This was one of the richest and most
densely-populated parts

of the Roman Empire.

The rich, volcanic soil here meant
that there were a network of farms

and vineyards - while down on the
coast, there were resorts and ports.

And one prosperous seaside resort
eight miles north west of Pompeii

tells us a huge amount about what
happened in the aftermath

of the eruption.

Down there is Herculaneum.

At least, the part of the
Roman town that's been excavated.

Three quarters of it still lie
beneath our feet.

Things went very differently here
to how they went in Pompeii.

Pompeii was buried by about
five metres of volcanic debris.

But here at Herculaneum...
the town was buried by 25 metres!

This giant cliff is made from the
debris of that eruption

of Mount Vesuvius.

What's interesting about this cliff
is there's no pumice layer.

It's almost entirely composed
of very fine volcanic ash.

And over the years,
that's hardened into stone.

And what that suggests is that in
the first 12 hours after

the eruption, Herculaneum was
largely spared bombardment

by volcanic debris.

The millions of tonnes of pumice
and ash spewing from Vesuvius

was blown south towards Pompeii.

But Herculaneum was just upwind
of a volcano.

So, in the first phase of
the eruption, the town largely

avoided the inundation.

That meant that in the first
12 hours after the eruption,

the people of Herculaneum
had an opportunity to evacuate.

Sitting right next to the coast,
the best way to escape was by sea.

This street would have been packed
with a terrified mass of people

all heading down here, clutching
their most precious possessions,

heading for the harbour, which lay
at the bottom of this hill.

Now, we know that, really, most
people would have made a run for it

because when archaeologists came
to excavate all these houses,

they found very few bodies of
people that stayed behind.

In Pompeii, the pumice raining down
forced many to shelter

in their homes.

While in Herculaneum,
evacuation was the obvious choice.

In 79 AD, the town of
Herculaneum was up there,

and this was the seafront.

This was the beach.

And it was down here that the people
of Herculaneum came once Vesuvius

starts to erupt.

And they'd have used any boat they
could to try and get off the shore,

and get out to sea and to safety.

For a long time, it was thought
that most of them did get away.

But then, archaeologists working
down here made a horrific discovery.

For 12 hours after the eruption of
Vesuvius, Pompeii was inundated

by metres of volcanic debris...

..while the nearby town of
Herculaneum escaped

relatively unscathed.

But then, around midnight on that
last day, the full force

of the volcano struck Herculaneum
with staggering ferocity.

The vast column of debris spewing
from Vesuvius collapsed,

causing an avalanche of superheated
ash called a pyroclastic surge

to cascade down the volcano.

By the time the first pyroclastic
surge reached Herculaneum,

it had lost much of its momentum.

It moved through the abandoned town
without destroying the buildings,

then it came like a mighty waterfall
over this cliff down onto the beach.

But the heat was still intense.

500 degrees centigrade.

And as it crashed onto the beach,
nothing could survive.

For centuries, it was thought
that almost everyone

in Herculaneum had escaped...

..until 1980, when archaeologists
excavating the ancient seafront

began discovering bodies
on the beach.

Then they found these boat houses.

And the full horror of what happened
here became immediately apparent.

There are 12 of them in all.

Every single one of them was
filled with bodies.

Men, women, and children who'd been
seeking in vain to find shelter

down here, perhaps hoping for
rescue from the sea.

Possibly there weren't enough
boats for everyone.

In desperation, more than 300
people packed into these

boat houses seeking safety.

They're huddled together.

Children embraced by their parents.

Their final moments frozen in time.

I find these more affecting than the
plaster casts of the human bodies

in Pompeii - you really get a sense
here of the scale of this human

tragedy and the terror,
the horror of the last few moments

of these people's lives.

The skeletons here today are copies.

The actual human remains have been
removed and stored for preservation.

And they've undergone intensive
scientific study,

including DNA analysis.

Raksha's gone along to find out what
that reveals about how they died.

Analysis of the bones is under way
in a lab above Herculaneum's

old ticket office.

The remains of 80 victims
are stored here.

DRILL WHIRS

Pier Paolo Petrone has been
extracting samples from them

to undertake the first-ever
DNA analysis.

Paolo's just...drilling this part
of the skull off, cos apparently

that's the best place to take
a DNA sample from.

Gives you better results.

He's almost broken through.

But to be honest,
it's almost giving me a jaw ache -

it's a bit like being
at the dentist.

Yep. I've got it.

Just keep it like this -
I got it. Ah.

Look at that. We can put it here.

That's my first DNA sample...
that I've ever taken.

This sample will be sent
for analysis - but excitingly,

the results from the first six men
and six women have just come back.

What have you learnt about the
people who died here at Herculaneum?

Some of these female -
they were related to each other,

and there were local.

Some of them, there were close
to each other in a chamber,

but some of them -
they were in different chambers.

So, that tells us that probably,
there were some extended families.

These initial results reveal for
the first time, women from the

boat houses were related and
native to this area of Italy.

But intriguingly, it's a very
different story with the men.

We know that two men -
they were not local people.

So, where do you think that
these men came from?

We know that they came
from the Middle East.

We don't know exactly from where,
but - so we are sure that

they are not local people.

Herculaneum's a port town,
isn't it?

I'm sure there's lots of migration,
and people coming through

all the time, aren't they? Yes.

And we have historical proof that
tell us that, in their town,

there were a lot of slaves
and freedmen - also freedmen,

that they became very rich.

That's absolutely fascinating.

So, these foreign men were probably
the women's slaves,

or their freed slave husbands.

So, what about all of these other
bones on the table?

What are the effects that we can see
on these skeletons of how they died?

I want to show you this skull.

This is an exploded skull...
due to the very high temperature.

How do you know that?

Because you see this kind of
black staining around the edges...

..and also inside.

It's very dark, actually, isn't it?
Yes, yes.

And this dark staining tell us that
the brain of these people

was just boiling.

And there was bleeding of the brain,
and all the pressure caused

the people to die very sudden.

So, the pyroclastic flow
was extremely hot?

Yeah, it's so very...

And it literally just boiled
their brains? Yes.

And let the skulls to explode,
and the long bones to break -

like this femur is the femur
of a young man. See?

Just with very clear-cut edges.
It...just snapped.

Gosh. If you break a bone,
it'll never break like this.

And also, you can see here,
this femur -

these red encrustations, you see?

And what are they?

This is iron.

So, iron and iron oxides are just
the residuals of the vaporisation

of the blood of these people.

So, this is this poor person's blood
that we can see on their bones? Yes.

So, this testifies that the people
died very suddenly.

Their flesh was vaporised.

And then, very rapidly there was
a replacement by the ash,

and the people were just covered
by ash, and they stayed for

2,000 years like this.

I mean, actually,
it's a really horrific way to die.

But the reality is, is that they
didn't really feel it,

or they didn't really know it,
because it was so quick. Exactly.

They had no time to feel anything.

They died just in a fraction
of seconds.

It wasn't just the people of
Pompeii and Herculaneum who died in

the first hours after the eruption.

The countryside around was filled
with farms and luxurious villas.

The location of more than 150
villas has been identified

under these volcanic debris.

But there are certainly many,
many more.

This vast mansion is one of the few
that's been excavated.

Today, it's called Oplontis.

The villa lay on the coast halfway
between Pompeii and Herculaneum.

It reveals the extraordinary luxury
enjoyed in the area by Rome's elite

before the eruption.

This region was their summer
playground, where they competed

to build the most lavish
holiday homes.

This cavernous atrium is only one
of more than 90 rooms and gardens

that have been found so far.

No-one knows how many others
are still hidden.

These seaside palaces were designed
for entertainment and hospitality,

crucial for networking.

Many had vast swimming pools,
where serious pool parties

would have been thrown.

I wouldn't want to be on
pool-cleaning duty.

Perfect for doing your lengths.

I think one length's plenty.

Oplontis was only a few miles -
and downwind - from Vesuvius.

So, like Pompeii, it was inundated
by metres of pumice in the first

hours after the eruption.

But no bodies were found here.

So, either no-one was at home,
or they tried to get away.

Raksha, what's your thinking
around casualties?

How many people do you think died
in this catastrophe?

So, I think we have to look at
Pompeii, and look at how many people

were recovered in the excavations.

We're thinking that about 3,000
people died our of an estimated

population of 15,000.

So, thousands must have escaped.

Well, you say "escape", but not
necessary survive, cos I mean,

you can escape the city walls,
the area that's now been excavated.

But lots of them would have
perished, right? Because the roads

would've clogged up with refugees,
it was pitch-black.

The pumice, the ash was falling -
and then, every living thing

would've been obliterated by
that pyroclastic surge.

The pyroclastic surge that struck
Herculaneum was only the first of

a succession that swept
down the volcano.

The first three superheated
avalanches of ash

didn't actually reach Pompeii.

But the fourth did - obliterating
all remaining life in the town.

19 hours after the eruption,
the sixth and final surge struck.

The most powerful of all, it reached
as far south as the port of Stabiae,

where more luxury villas lined
a cliff above the town.

We're quite a long way from Vesuvius
here, you can just make it out

on a hazy day like this.

In fact, we're about ten
miles south.

You can see Pompeii way over there
at the foot of the volcano.

You'd think that here, we'd be safe.

But that wasn't the case.

We know the reality of what unfolded
at these villas above Stabiae,

thanks to the only first-hand
account of the disaster to survive.

..written by the author
Pliny the Younger.

He tells us his uncle, Pliny the
Elder, sought safety here

after attempting to sail
a rescue fleet to Pompeii.

Pliny took refuge in the villa of
a friend called Pomponianus,

one of the grand villas that
lined the clifftop here -

possibly this one.

His nephew tells that the ground was
being shaken by violent quakes,

and so much pumice was coming
through the hole in the atrium roof

that the doors were blocked up.

They headed to the beach, hoping
to escape further away by boat.

But it seems they were caught up
in the final pyroclastic surge.

Pliny, Rome's most famous and
respected scientist,

was overcome by noxious gases...
and died.

To discover how many others
died here in Stabiae -

ten miles from the volcano -
I'm meeting Paolo Gardelli,

who's overseeing excavations
at the villas.

The day of the eruptions, everything
here had been completely covered.

Probably just the top of
the roof was -

that was sticking out of the ash.

So, were these buildings destroyed
by just the fall of volcanic debris,

or by the surge that reached here?

By - both.

We know that at the beginning
of the eruption, the falling ashes

and the falling pumice cover the
villas of Stabiae, under six metres

of volcanic materials.

In the early morning of the second
day of the eruptions -

so around 7.00 - we know that the
sixth surge destroyed Stabiae.

And did many people die in that?

Er, so, during the excavation,
we found a few bodies.

But we're sure that many other
people survived.

So, they were able to escape?
Probably, yes. Probably, yeah.

But what about Pliny the Elder?

Pliny, at that time, was...
quite an old man.

So we can say that, in Stabiae,
probably the old people,

the very young people died.

But fit people -
probably they survived.

Sounds to me like Pliny and his team
on the edge of the area where you

could survive - if you were
closer than ten miles...

Yeah, probably, they would die.
For sure, they would die.

So, that's a huge area?
A huge area, quite a huge area.

So, when we're here in Stabiae,
looking out to Vesuvius,

almost everything between us and
Mount Vesuvius... Yeah.

..would have been a killing zone?
Exactly.

So, as then port marshal wrote
some years later -

it was a land of fire,
a land of ashes.

So, we'll never know how many people
in Pompeii died, cos even the people

who escaped the town could have
been killed out on these roads,

in these fields as they
were escaping? Exactly that.

Cos probably there are thousands
of bodies still underground.

Thousands of people still there.

The extent of the devastation
is shocking.

Any inhabitant who hadn't made it
more than ten miles south

of Vesuvius would have died.

It's easy when you're talking about
the scale of this gigantic tragedy

to forget about individuals.

And every so often, when you're
exploring the archaeology here,

you do come across something that
connects you with a particular

person in the past,
even though it was so long ago.

And this is one of those moments -
discovered recently by the

archaeologists who were
excavating this site.

This is the drawing of a child -
graffiti left on the wall

of this villa.

And it's a gladiator, the great
stars - the football stars

of their time.

And you can see it's got the
rectangular shield, the wrapping on

the right arm, and helmet.

This child might have gone
to the arena and watched

this particular gladiator fight.

Makes you wonder whether the child
that scrawled this on perhaps their

bedroom wall survived.

I'd like to think they did.

Many didn't.

Well, what was the fate of those who
did escape the wrath of Vesuvius?

It's hard to imagine, looking out at
this view now, that after the

eruption of Vesuvius in 79 AD,
this entire area was a

blackened wasteland
buried under volcanic debris.

The story of how this region
recovered from that eruption

is rarely told, because there's
so little evidence.

But an exciting new dig just down
here in the town of Stabiae

has given us new insights into
what happened after the disaster.

Raksha's gone to have a look.

What occurred here in the weeks
after the eruption is being revealed

for the first time in this
excavation of a large building

found in the centre of Stabiae.

How are you? Please come in.
Hey, Giovanni!

SHE GASPS

HE SPEAKS IN ITALIAN

Giovanni Demeyer is showing
me around.

I'm in my happy place now.

This is my happy place.

Come with me.

SHE CHUCKLES

Yep, got it.

Gosh. Well, look at this.

Absolutely just full of stuff,
isn't it?

Tile, lots of like, roof debris...
Yeah, pottery.

They've dug down
three metres already.

But this is just the tip
of the iceberg.

We detect the thickness of the
archaeological levels.

And it is, in some parts,
more than 80 metres deep.

We're not at the foundations, then?

No. This is the top of the
first floor.

Hang on, so we're actually at
the top of the buildings?

Yes, this is the first floor.

But these walls are very beautiful.

How old are these walls, then?

First century, before Christ.

So, these were here about
60-70 years before the eruption

of Vesuvius in 79 AD?
OK, OK. You're right.

This excavation reveals that,
by the time it reached Stabiae,

ten miles from the volcano, the
pyroclastic surge didn't have the

energy to knock down upper stories.

And other new discoveries prove
this building continued in use

for many years afterwards.

I can show you the proof of
the date of this level.

And it is an oil lamp...

..still entire, with the... Ohh.

I love it.
It's so beautiful and perfect.

And I love this design - it's like
as though it was made yesterday.

Yeah.

So, Giovanni,
how old is this lamp?

This is coming from the
fourth century after Christ.

And the palm that you can see here
is the proof of the dating

of this object.

That's unbelievable,
cos in my head, I just think

of Herculaneum and Pompeii.

They got completely destroyed.
The people left.

But that's not the case here, is
it?

Yeah, this is the really
exciting stuff.

Pompeii and that volcano...
was dead with the eruption.

Stabiae was recovered, because the
effect of the eruption was not

so strong, like in the other parts.

And the people lived here for
more than four...centuries.

So, how quickly did they come back,
then, after the eruption?

Probably they never went away.

They stayed here and reconstructed,
and repaired everything

in a, sort of, a continuity.

That's incredible. Mm-hm.
Life just carries on, doesn't it?

While the people of Stabiae could
return to their town in the weeks

after the eruption, the destruction
of Pompeii and Herculaneum

was too great.

To discover what happened to the
inhabitants who escaped those towns,

we need to look at the area on the
opposite side of Vesuvius,

which survived relatively unscathed.

Roman Naples is hidden under
the modern city,

but ten miles west are the
exposed ruins of Cuma,

a city that was two-and-a-half
times bigger than Pompeii.

This is the road that leads from
Pompeii in the south,

through Cuma here,
to Rome in the north.

It was along this road
that the survivors traipsed -

refugees beginning the process of
rebuilding their shattered lives.

And it was also along this road
that news of the disaster spread

from Pompeii to Rome in less than
a day, thanks to the remarkable

Roman Imperial Postal Service -
the cursus publicus.

The postal networks spanned
the empire.

It can be seen on an
extraordinary map called

the Tabula Peutingeriana.

All right, let's get this laid out.

It was made in the 13th century,
but copied from an older Roman map.

This is a reproduction
of the six-metre long original.

Right.

That's disappointing.

That should help.

We're getting somewhere.

Right.

What's fascinating is the original
version of this map must have been

created before the eruption.

Because Pompeii is on it,
as is Herculaneum here.

By the medieval period, these towns
were buried and long forgotten.

News of the eruption would have been
sent by riders in relay.

Around every 12 miles, there were
mansiones - places that supplied

food and fresh horses.

Riders carried laurel leaves
if they had good news,

but a feather on a spear indicated
bad news requiring great haste.

So, when the eruption began,
riders probably left Pompeii,

galloped along this road here,
passed through Cuma, changed horses,

got fresh horses, allowing them
to speed north along this very

road here, and then, join the
Villa Appia, which like the big M1

of ancient Italy.

And then, straight to Rome -
where, as you'd expect...

..all roads lead.

In Rome, the news would have been
told first to the Emperor Titus.

He'd only been ruler for a few
months when the disaster struck.

The Roman historian Suetonius said
that Titus showed not only

the concern of an emperor,
but the deep love of a father.

He sent aid from the imperial
coffers, and two senators down

to oversee relief efforts.

He also visited the area twice in
the year that followed himself,

probably staying here in Cuma.

In the years after the eruption,
imperial money was used to

regenerate the cities that
had survived.

When Titus died only two years after
the eruption, his successor,

Domitian, continued the financial.

Here at Cuma, there's evidence of
their large-scale building projects.

In the middle of Cuma is this
hill known as an Acropolis.

The Romans would have had beautiful
temples on top of it.

It's an impressive feature -
but it was actually a bit of a pain,

because it blocked off the harbour
and the sea on the far side

from the town over here.

So, the Romans decide to
build a road.

And in typical style, they didn't
build a road around it...

..but straight through it.

Before the eruption, there was a
small tunnel under the Acropolis.

But in the years soon after....

..it was massively enlarged...

..probably thanks to imperial aid.

In later years,
Christians used it as a catacomb.

Corpses were laid to rest
in these niches -

some have crosses carved above them.

Which all shows that, unlike
Pompeii, where the clock stopped

in October, 79 AD, life here in
Cuma went on for centuries -

right up to the Middle Ages.

Cuma also saw a population boom in
the years following the disaster.

Larger public baths had to be built,
along with new temples.

This was the town's amphitheatre,
and it had to be enlarged.

This whole level
I'm sitting on now was added,

almost doubling its capacity.

And it's thought this was because of
the huge numbers of refugees from

Pompeii and Herculaneum who were
coming here to settle in Cuma.

New research has revealed that
family names found on tombs in

Pompeii appear here in Cuma for
the first time after the disaster,

and those families marry
one another.

So, it seems that this town of
Cuma played host to a

tight-knit community of Pompeiian
refugee families.

Whilst over in Naples,
one area of the city was even

renamed the Herculaneum Quarter.

But some people did return to
Pompeii in the early years

following the eruption.

There's evidence that they tunnelled
down through the five metres

of debris covering the city.

They were possibly refugees trying
to salvage their belongings -

or more likely, scavengers
searching for valuables.

This is the forum,
the town square of Pompeii.

I'm surrounded now by grand public
buildings and temples.

And these would've been tall enough
so they wouldn't have been entirely

covered by the volcanic debris.

That would have acted as
a giant signpost.

Salvagers would have known this
was the location of this forum,

and there would have been rich
pickings if they borrowed down here.

The temples would have been faced
with valuable marble.

The piazza would have been lined
with dozens of fine statues.

These are the plinths where
the statue stood.

In fact, you can still see the
clamps here, which would have

held the statues onto them.

What's interesting is that in the
19th century when this place

was excavated, none of the
statues were found.

And almost all of the marble
had been stripped from the walls.

Many houses also show signs of
systematic tunnelling.

In a doorway in one of the villas,
there was a message scrawled on

the wall that said in Latin,
"House tunnelled through".

Archaeologists also discovered
many holes in walls -

made by the scavengers prepared to
risk their lives tunnelling deep

into the unstable volcanic debris.

Right, here's one of the holes now.

Classic tunnel made by the people
that were burrowing down here.

It's amazing to think what they
would've discovered in this room.

It would've been presumably
partially filled with pumice

and ash, collapsed ceiling roof
structures, maybe all the way up

to the top - but maybe there's
a void up there, and they were

crawling on top of a layer of debris
here - digging down, no doubt,

looking for valuables.

And when they came to a wall -
beautiful wall, covered in murals -

they weren't there for the artwork.

"Bang", through they went, looking
for treasures that lay beyond.

But over the centuries,
Pompeii was forgotten.

People returned to farm the
rich volcanic soil.

But some flicker of it must have
remained in the folk memory -

as the area of wheat fields and
vineyards above the buried town

was known as the...
SPEAKS IN ITALIAN

.."the city".

And that city is still giving up its
secrets, as Raksha discovers with

special access to the
latest excavations.

We're, like, one of the first
people since 79 AD to walk

on this street, are we?
Yes, you are right.

And I investigate the shocking
lengths modern-day scavengers

are going to,
to steal Pompeii's treasures.

HE GRUNTS

Look at this.

That's extraordinary.

For more than 1,000 years after
the 79 AD eruption,

Pompeii and the surrounding towns
and villas lay lost and forgotten

under the volcanic ash.

Pompeii finally re-emerged
into history in 1592,

when an underground water pipe
was being laid across fields

near the foot of Vesuvius.

And this is the famous pipe here,
encased in this stonework.

And as you can see, they dug right
down to the Roman street level,

straight through Pompeii houses,
all sorts of public buildings.

And then, check this out,
this is really cool.

You can see here the level
to which they dug.

This is original Roman.

And this line of tiles shows where,
in the 16th century,

they excavated that trench.

So, this is all reconstructed.

An acclaimed architect,
Domenico Fontana, was in charge

of the project.

He knew exactly what he'd found.

Fontana wrote in his diary.

"Beyond doubt, what we see
before us is the celebrated city

"once called Pompeii.

She shows us her towers, houses,
theatres, and temples, which one

"an discern almost whole."

But the duke employing Fontana
did not share his excitement.

He refused to allow
any further investigations.

He ordered this trench back-filled.

And once again,
Pompeii was forgotten.

Buried Roman ruins were next
stumbled upon

around a century later.

In 1709, a well was dug in this town
that had grown up on the coast,

eight miles north west of Pompeii.

The workers start to pull up
slabs of beautiful marble.

A French aristocrat,
Emmanuel d'Elbeuf,

was building a mansion nearby,
so he was in the market for marble.

He decided to cut out the middleman
and bought the well for himself.

First, a worker, and then, d'Elbeuf
himself were strapped into slings

and lowered 15 metres down the well.

I'm taking a slightly easier route -
these stairs,

which were added later.

Here is the well that d'Elbeuf
came down that day.

Wow.

Whoa, that's a long way, that must
have been quite an adventure.

At the bottom, he discovered this
cavity, and he started crawling

around and found broken bits
of marble and statues.

And quite quickly, he realised
this must be a Roman theatre.

And it could only be a theatre from
the lost town of Herculaneum that

the Roman authors had talked of.

A group of convicts were sent down
here and told to tunnel through

A group of convicts were sent down
here and told to tunnel through

this theatre and effectively
mine it for treasure.

And they've left us this warren of
tunnels that they hacked out.

Look at this one -
oh, yeah, through here.

And luckily, they didn't take all
the murals, they left some here.

So, you can still see some
beautiful Roman painting.

Look at that. It's been underground
ever since that invasion in 79,

so the colours are still perfect.

Bit of graffiti from
the 18th and 19th centuries.

Look at up there on the arch,
it's beautiful.

And they stripped whatever
they could find.

Slowly, these convicts hollowed out
more and more of this structure

until they'd uncovered pretty
large parts of the theatre.

They revealed the stage...

..steps to the auditorium...

..and some of the rows of
seats that, in total,

would've accommodated up
to 2,500 people.

This is where the people
of Herculaneum would have sat

side-by-side, watching the action
on the stage below.

It's a Roman theatre buried under
25 metres of volcanic rock.

I don't think I've ever been
anywhere so remarkable.

D'Elbeuf didn't have the money to
explore beyond the theatre.

But 25 years later, in 1734,
a new king seized the throne

of southern Italy.

King Charles was part of the
Bourbon dynasty who ruled Spain.

He was keen to bring glory to his
new kingdom by unearthing

its ancient treasures.

An army of tunnelers was
sent underground -

usually convicts and soldiers -
to dig a warren of tunnels to try

and mine anything of value.

They came in through doors,
they liked to work down walls

because they realised that lots of
the statues and sculptural bits on

the walls, they were very valuable,
as were some of these frescoes.

They'd find a nice one and
they'd chop it off,

and haul it up to the surface.

Anything everyday
was discarded as worthless.

Anything of value was carted
off to the magnificent palace

that Charles had built for himself
just next door to show off

all of his new treasures.

Raksha's gone to look at it.

King Charles built the vast
Portici Palace right next door

to the buried ruins of Herculaneum.

And he decorated it with the
plunder he found.

This grand staircase was built using
marble from Herculaneum.

And so was the altar in the chapel.

These statues are also
from Herculaneum.

And here is an original
Roman mosaic floor.

It was taken out in sections,
and then, re-laid here.

The style of decoration is
copied from the houses

discovered in Herculaneum.

And an entire wing was set aside
as a private museum.

But Charles was possessive.

Only select visitors were
allowed in, and were banned

from making sketches.

Most shockingly, frescoes that
weren't removed to the palace were

defaced to prevent others
having them.

Luckily for us, most of Charles's
collection is now housed in

the museum at Naples,
where we can all enjoy it.

But it does make me angry as
an archaeologist that through his

plundering of the site,
we've lost so much information.

Some of the tunnels dug
by King Charles

in the 18th century still exist.

I love this bit - getting to the
parts that are closed.

They head off into the areas of
Herculaneum that haven't been

fully excavated in modern times.

So, I'm now, inside this tunnel, and
can you imagine operating down here

in the 18th century?
It would've been cramped, confined,

you've got 25 metres of rock above
you, there were frequent collapses,

and noxious gases oozed out
from this volcanic debris.

But look at this,
this is why they were down here.

They were finding these marvels
beneath the soil.

This is a grand pillar from
some building still entombed

in this hardened, volcanic ash.

And it just keeps on going
down here.

Imagine the scale of these tunnels,
the scale of what's left

of Herculaneum, buried in this rock.

I'm at the end of the tunnel now,
I've come to a place full of spider

webs and spiders, very nice.
Let's get rid of some of those.

There we go.

Now, look on the floor here.

A mosaic.

I mean, this is partially covered
by the ash that has been here

since that eruption in 79 AD.
Look at this.

That's amazing. I'm the first person
to see this little piece of mosaic

in nearly 2,000 years.

Also in the tunnel,
you can see the thing that

makes Herculaneum unique.

Now, this section of tunnel has got
lots and lots of carbonised wood.

Look, there is, sticking out of
the debris up there.

There's a beam - looks like a beam,
and perhaps a bit of roofing.

Bit of furniture.

There's loads of wood up there.

And then, we got some debris
down here.

Some of it's fallen down to
the ground here, too.

For the 18th century tunnelers,
carbonised wood was, well,

just a waste -
probably threw it away.

And really, who can blame them?

But for modern archaeologists -
eccentric as they are - like Raksha,

this carbonised wood is the most
precious thing you can

find in Herculaneum.

The superheated pyroclastic surge
that struck Herculaneum

instantly carbonised wood,
turning it into charcoal.

It was buried so deep,
water and air couldn't penetrate,

preserving entire objects intact.

The extraordinary wooden furniture
discovered in Herculaneum

isn't on display.

The fact that I've been given
permission to come and explore

the organic conservation lab
in Herculaneum is unreal.

I mean, just look at this.
Just look at this bed.

It's absolutely perfect.

And you've just got this beautiful,
kind of, zigzaggy, dog-leg

kind of motif running all the way
on the edge at the back.

And it seems like as though
you could just go to IKEA

and pick one up.
It's just absolutely stunning.

This place is incredible.

All these domestic items showing
how people lived in Herculaneum.

So, you have this brilliant
chest here.

A shrine that's been
partially reconstructed.

And what I really love about
these pieces is

the incredible craftsmanship.

Here, you can see the
figure of a dog.

I can actually see teeth that
have been carved in its jaw.

And it actually looks
like a hunting dog.

Got this amazing swirly,
shaggy coat that's been carved

all the way down his back.

But the thing that really wrenches
at my heart strings is this cot.

It still rocks.

And I've been told that when
it was excavated,

inside, they found the remains
of a small baby.

It wasn't these everyday objects
King Charles was searching for

in the 18th century.

He was only interested in
treasure and artwork.

And his tunnelling at Herculaneum
had proven so fruitful,

he decided to try for more
Roman ruins.

His attention turned to the fields
locals called...

HE SPEAKS IN ITALIAN

..unaware it was the location
of ancient Pompeii.

This is the ground level following
the volcanic eruption.

And for centuries, local people
would find artefacts down here

in the soil, or their ploughs would
hit the top of stone walls

that seemed to be buried.

Little can they have realised,
though, the extent of what lay

beneath them - because underground
here was Pompeii.

By the middle of the 18th century,
official excavations began.

It was easier to dig here than
Herculaneum because the volcanic

matter was less dense
and it was shallower,

but it was very much potluck.

You dig a big hole, find what was
ever at the bottom of it,

and move on to another one.

After more than one-and-a-half
millennia, buried beneath the ash,

Pompeii gradually began
to re-emerge.

Over the next 200 years,
great temples...

..theatres, and villas
were rediscovered.

In the 19th century,
archaeologists finally took over

from the treasure hunters.

And in 1910, work began to
link together all the excavated

areas across Pompeii.

An army of diggers made their way
systematically from one end

to the other - it was excavation
on an almost industrial scale.

It soon became clear that this was
a mighty thoroughfare running from

one side of Pompeii straight through
the middle to the other.

And it was as thronged with the
people of Pompeii in the ancient

world as it is with tourists today.

It's been called the
"Street of Abundance".

Today, two thirds of the town
has been unearthed,

revealing one of the world's
greatest archaeological treasures.

But it was the protective layer of
ash that preserved it for centuries.

Now removed, Pompeii faces the
ravages of time again.

As a result, it's an ongoing
battle to save what's

already been uncovered.

There's scaffolding in many places,
and the streets echo

to the sound of construction work.

Sadly, that's a fight
that's sometimes being lost.

Walls are collapsing and
frescoes are fading.

And that means that it's very, very
rare to find new digs going on into

previously unexcavated ground.

But there is one major excavation
going on at the moment...

..and Raksha has been given
special permission to visit.

Today, 1,940 years after
the eruption,

another chapter in Pompeii's story
is being written.

An incredibly rare excavation
uncovering a new area

of Pompeii is under way.

The volcanic debris is being cleared
from this street of houses -

revealing it for the first time
since the disaster.

Hello, professore!

Hello! Welcome.

Be careful. You are walking on
lapilli - on the volcanic material.

It's very soft, and very...
It's very soft, very dangerous.

Please, this way.

The archaeologists are on
summer break, so Pompeii's director,

Massimo Osanna,
is showing me around.

I've got goose bumps on my arms,
cos we're, like, one of the first

people since 79 AD to walk on
this street, aren't we?

Yes, you are right.

Because, for example, if you see
this street - until there?

It is a perfect street.

In ten metres, the street disappears
because they were

repairing the street.

The workers were in progress.

Is that why we've got these, like,
blocks in the street, as well?

Also the block - this is not normal.

Professor Osanna is allowing me
inside a house that's only

just been excavated.

And here, we enter in this new house
with a lot of discovery.

But we can start here, from here,
because there is something

very nice, but funny. OK.

What does mean?

THEY LAUGH
What...why?

Well, I'm not sure my mother would
let me write that on the front

of the house. Gosh! OK, this way.

I'm blushing now.
SHE GIGGLES

And here, we are in
the main room of the house.

The room - the atrium,
with all around the room -

sleeping room, the kitchen this way.

But this is really a terrific room.

Because we discovered in this room
a lot of skeletons.

So, there were women and children
waiting for somebody coming

for helping them.

But at the end, it was impossible
to escape because everywhere

was full of lapilli.

So, it was very,
very difficult to go out.

So, they're just hiding in there?
Yes.

We can see also all the stuff they
put on the door to protect them.

So, this was like their safe room,
and they kind of just barricaded

the door to stop everything
else from coming in?

Yes. It's very, very sad.

Very sad. That's absolutely tragic.

Yes, incredible, really...

..you can imagine the last moment
of despair in the last

moment on Pompeii.

And here, we enter in
the private part of the house.

With the banqueting room, a very
beautiful... Absolutely stunning.

..banqueting room.

I really love coming into the houses
of Pompeii, because everything is

so vivid and bright.

And this is vivid and so bright -
thanks to the new excavation,

because with the new excavation, we
are able to see the original colour.

And now, our goal now is to preserve
in this way, because the previous

excavation, restoring technique
was not so...not so good.

So very, very beautiful is
this portrait. Mmm.

Maybe this is the domina...domina.

So... The lady of the house.
..lady of the house.

Or the grandmother, because her
hairstyle is like the

mother of Nero, because... Oh!
..of course, it was very -

for the ladies, very fashionable...

They were copying all the
emperor's wives? Yes.

So, maybe she is the grandmother
of the women in the house.

I'd love it because,
especially with that portrait,

it makes everything really personal.

And it makes me sad to think that
she might be one of the people that

were hiding in that room,
and she died in there.

The bodies of the victims discovered
in the house have been taken to

Pompeii's lab for preservation
and analysis.

So, here they are.

These are those women and children
that were found in that room

in that house.

There are 11 individuals here.

There are four adult females,
and the rest of them are children.

And the osteoarchaeologist thinks
that the children are between

the ages of two and 12.

I just can imagine them
huddling in that room

and barricading themselves in.

It's an incredibly sad story.

But the thing
that haunts me is that...

..this person here is an older lady.

She's about 50-plus,
we don't know her exact age.

But it just reminds me of that
portrait of the domina,

the female head of the household.

And it makes me wonder
whether this is her.

It's an astonishing connection
to make.

That official excavation here in
Pompeii sadly hasn't been

the only bit of digging in
this region recently.

Shockingly, robbers have been
digging tunnels down to loot

treasures from buried ancient villas
outside the town's walls.

I've got special permission from
the police to go and visit

the crime scene.

700 metres outside the walls
of ancient Pompeii,

police have recently made
a shocking discovery.

Criminals have been stealing Roman
artefacts by digging a network

of tunnels for a
previously-unexcavated villa.

I've been given permission
to visit the crime scene...

Ciao. Buongiorno!

..by the investigating officer,
Salvatore Sorrentino.

Follow me. Sure thing.

This is the entrance. Si.

So what he's saying is that inside
this building there is a tunnel,

a clandestine tunnel that leads
down under the volcanic debris

and in to the archaeology here
around Pompeii, and that the person

who lives in this house is currently
being prosecuted for the crime

of stealing antiquities.

They deny the charges.

The tunnels burrow into a huge
ancient Roman villa buried deep

below the modern houses.

They extend for almost 100 metres.

And Salvatore is taking me
into them.

But it's dangerous, so we need
the help of the fire brigade

specialist cave and mountain
rescue team.

Ciao...

The SAF.

The outhouse containing the secret
entrance has been seized

by the police.

INDISTINCT SPEECH

It's amazing. It's a vertical
shaft heading straight down there.

A robber tunnel ten metres down.

A ladder and harness system was
set up to get us safely

into the tunnels.

Once into my safety equipment,

the question is whether, at
six-foot-five,

I'll fit down the shaft.
Right, I'm going in.

OK. OK.

Whoa! Oh, that's tight.

Just like the 18th century
Bourbon tunnellers,

the modern robbers followed the
internal walls of the buried villa.

Various other tunnels off to right
and left.

Police believe these tunnels into
the Roman villa were being dug

for more than ten years.

There is volcanic debris under my
knees and hands here.

The walls are covered in concrete.

Which they sprayed to provide
some stability.

Because it's pretty dangerous
business when you are mining

illegally through layers
of pyroclastic surge.

There's a ventilation plate
that the thieves installed.

To go through all this effort
they must have been discovering

large quantities of valuable
treasures.

Oh, my goodness.

Tragically, it's unlikely we'll ever
know what was stolen and sold

on the black market.

But this was certainly an important
palatial villa.

Towards this area. Wow.

Oh, my goodness.

MAN SPEAKS ITALIAN

Portico? OK. Yeah.

So it's all filled up with volcanic
debris.

We're actually walking on the
ceiling, but this might be

three, four metres. Like, there is a

beautiful one at Stabia
that I walked along.

Cryptoportico is the name given to
vaulted corridors in Roman villas.

The one I'm exploring was possibly
this villa's service entrance.

This is huge, it stretches for
miles down there.

Getting down here along the top
of this arched corridor,

I can see the Roman brickwork,
Roman masonry, it stretches miles

off down there. At the end of it
it's filled up with volcanic debris.

But there's a side passage
which I'm told even the authorities

at Pompeii have never been down.

At the bottom of this side passage

the police discovered a remnant
of the villa's stolen riches.

A lot of volcanic debris just
collapsing in on me here.

Ooh, look at this. Look at this.

These are some Roman frescoes.

You can just make out the red colour
there.

They've only been seen by the

robbers, police officer and me in
nearly 2,000 years.

The thieves appear to have
chopped out and removed every

fresco they found.

You can see where the angle grinders
have gone in and chopped

the frescoes out - such a shame.

I can just make out a figure, I
think.

I think that's a figure. That's
extraordinary.

This solitary figure has
survived so much.

As we make our way out,
I make another discovery.

I found something here on the floor.

I'm no expert, but I think
this could be a human vertebrate.

Check this out.

This could well be the vertebrae
of somebody who was sheltering here.

We know that in other villas of this
size, people did seek shelter

in these long, strongly built
corridors like this one here.

But it wasn't enough when that
pyroclastic surge came and submerged

the people even hiding
in these strong spaces.

Incredibly, I'm the first person
to discover possible human remains

in this villa.

There's life at the end of the
tunnel.

Ah, daylight. This is it.

This is actually one of the rooms
of the villa because following

the discovery of these criminal
tunnels, proper archaeologists

took over and carried out proper
excavations.

This is one of the rooms
they uncovered.

They've made some extraordinary
discoveries.

The excavation is across the road
from the house containing the tunnel

entrance, and the archaeologists
have just discovered the villa's

stables with the remains
of the horses still inside.

It's the only discovery of its kind
ever made.

And these aren't just any old
horses, they're big, strong horses.

They're owned by someone
high status.

Perhaps they were in the military

or perhaps they just loved riding,
but this stable

and the villa attached to it was

obviously owned by someone very
wealthy.

Horses frozen just as they were
at the exact moment they were hit

by that pyroclastic surge,

and just like with the human
remains, they poured plaster

into the voids and these casts came
out. This one is almost perfect.

You can see it some paces
through the plaster where the bonus

has survived. That one, the plaster
cast isn't as effective

and you can see much more bone
there.

But look at this. This is part of
the horse's skull.

And here, this is fascinating.
You can see the metalwork here.

They've been tacked up.

They were wearing a harness.
They were in their bridles.

And this, well, it means probably
that the horses had been prepared

for someone to make a rapid escape.

These discoveries are the very
latest chapter in the story

of what happened next here at
Pompeii. That enormously destructive

eruption of Vesuvius 2,000
years ago left a unique

archaeological legacy.

But that legacy has been abused
over the years - people have robbed

and destroyed far too much of that
archaeology.

And that continues today as these
robber tunnels show.

But when that legacy is treated
with the respect and the expertise

and the honour it deserves, well,

then we get an unprecedented view
into what life was like

in the Roman world.

And the people and the animals
that died here

achieve a kind of immortality.

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