Original subtitles

(volcano erupting)

Narrator: Pompeii, the ancient roman city,

Destroyed and buried by a volcano.

Dicus: The sky went black, the earth was shaking,

There was fire falling from the sky.

Narrator: Now experts are re-examining

A 2,000-year-old crime scene in the city,

A basement full of dead bodies,

Many robbed of all their worldly goods.

Killgrove: Every individual grabbed what they could

In trying to escape.

Narrator: It's an investigation that will expose

Pompeii was living in fear of criminal gangs.

Dicus: The dog was left behind specifically to guard the house

As the owners fled.

Narrator: Where rough justice ruled.

Russell: There's never anything like a modern police force.

It's up to you, you have to find the perpetrators.

Narrator: And where retribution and brutality

Were never far away.

Benefiel: These groups were trying to stake out territory

Like the bloods or the crips.

Narrator: Far from being civilized,

New evidence reveals pompeii had a dark underbelly

Of lawlessness, political intrigue

And underworld godfathers.

Dicus: They call him the prince of pompeii.

Narrator: A city where the fear of death loomed large

Long before the volcano erupted.

Russell: People had a difficult life, had a short life,

A much more violent life.

(dramatic music)

Narrator: The relics of the past hold secrets.

(dramatic music) (debris falling)

Written in gold.

Stone and blood.

We can unlock them.

These are the secrets of history's greatest treasures.

(dramatic music)

(dramatic music)

Pompeii, an ancient roman city built

In the shadow of a volcano,

Spectacularly frozen in time.

Streets and buildings impeccably preserved

Under millions of tons of ash.

And the haunting molds of citizens captured

In the final moments before death.

This was once a vibrant city, wiped out in 79 ad

By the catastrophic eruption of mount vesuvius.

Dicus: The eruption has made

This town extraordinarily important for

Modern archaeology because even though the eruption

Destroyed pompeii, it also preserved it like no other city.

Narrator: But even after decades of excavation,

Mysteries are still emerging from the ashes.

The most puzzling scene is a basement where the bodies

Of two very different groups of people were discovered.

Those at the back of the room

Had almost no possessions between them,

But the group closest to the door

Were laden down with riches.

Killgrove: There were a lot of coins.

There was a lot of jewelry and they didn't find

As many artifacts with the second group,

Leading some to suggest that maybe these

Were two different social classes.

Narrator: The bizarre division of wealth

Has led to a dramatic theory emerging.

(scarpati speaking in foreign language)

Narrator: To work out what happened in this basement,

A team of experts are re-examining the evidence.

It's a cold case investigation that will delve into a world

Of lawlessness, organized violence, and revenge.

But using state-of-the-art science,

The 2,000-year-old mystery may finally be solved.

(dramatic music)

August 24th in the year 79 ad.

At 1:00 p.M., the long dormant volcano mount vesuvius

Explodes into life.

(volcano erupting)

Within 24 hours the catastrophic eruption

Has destroyed not only pompeii,

But numerous coastal communities,

Including the upmarket suburb of oplontis.

Dicus: Oplontis is just a little bit closer to mount vesuvius

So it was entirely buried, wiped off the face of the earth.

It was unknown for centuries after it was buried.

Narrator: Since its discovery,

Archaeologists have spent decades excavating the remains

Of oplontis, including a once lavish seaside villa.

Known as villa a, experts believe it was built

By emperor nero as a retreat for his second wife, poppaea.

Killgrove: At the time of the eruption of vesuvius

Nobody was living at villa a, although when it was occupied,

It probably would have been by a large extended family

As well as their slaves.

Narrator: In the 1980s, archaeologists discovered

A second set of buildings just feet from villa a

Buried under the ash.

It was a sprawling commercial complex

Used to store locally produced wine and oil.

But in a basement storeroom, now known as room 10,

They discovered the first traces of human remains.

The body count in this one room would eventually exceed 60.

Men, women, and children all buried

Under 20 feet of volcanic ash and debris

When mount vesuvius erupted.

(scarpati speaking in foreign language)

Narrator: But the experts were perplexed

By what appeared to be two separate groups:

One destitute, the other weighed down with gold and silver.

(scarpati speaking in foreign language)

Narrator: Closer analysis revealed

This was no ordinary haul.

It was potentially the finest treasure trove in pompeii.

For roman jewelry expert courtney ward,

One find stands out above all others.

A. Ward: These earrings in particular

Are absolutely fantastic

Because it's quite a solid piece of gold.

And if you look at the pearls themselves,

They're really, really high quality, they match,

Which is something that is amazing in the ancient world

And was valued more than the material itself,

Was having two pearls that matched and this pair has four.

The quality of craftsmanship, the cost of the materials,

And just the fact that these match so well

Really showcases the cost of the pearls and the wealth

Of the person who owned them.

Narrator: At first the experts thought these

Were the remains of an elite family taking shelter

From a volcanic eruption.

But this theory doesn't explain the second group

Who had nothing, discovered only feet away

From the superrich.

Now bioarchaeologist dr. Kristina killgrove

From the university of north carolina, chapel hill,

Is trying to piece together the full story

Of the bodies in room 10.

Killgrove: One of the hypotheses that my team

Is currently investigating is a forensic one,

The idea that maybe some of the individuals

Towards the back of the room had died previously

From falling objects or from gasses.

Narrator: If the wealthy group were already dead,

Could it be a group of looters stumbled upon their bodies

And their riches?

The team of investigators are about to find out.

Killgrove: This suggestion, or this hypothesis,

Then raises the possibility that the people

Towards the front of the room may have taken any objects

That they found on the people in the back of the room

In order to have the resources to start a new life

After they were rescued.

(dramatic music)

Narrator: This intriguing theory will lead experts

On a journey that explores a darker side

To the seemingly civilized pompeii.

A world where thieves would steal from the dead

In the midst of a natural disaster.

And new evidence suggests that before mount vesuvius

Erupted, residents of pompeii were already living in fear,

Not of the volcano, but gangs of violent criminals.

(dramatic music)

In a wealthy suburb of pompeii, experts are trying to solve

A 2,000-year-old murder mystery.

They're investigating if a group of super rich citizens

Were targeted by thieves as mount vesuvius erupted,

Burying everyone under volcanic ash,

Because there is evidence throughout pompeii

That the population were doing all they could to protect

Their valuables from robbers.

Dicus: It really is interesting that we have so much evidence

That people were very concerned about the safety,

The welfare of their houses.

Narrator: The most impressive example of this fear

Of violent theft was found at the warehouse

Where the two groups of bodies were discovered.

Killgrove: At oplontis,

Archaeologists found a very large strong box

That they think belonged to the owner

Of this large commercial area

And it's possible that that person was found in room 10

As one of the skeletons.

Narrator: This ornate strongbox was the roman answer

To a state-of-the-art home security system.

It's a clear indication of the lengths

To which the wealthy would go to protect their valuables.

(scarpati speaking in foreign language)

Narrator: Following a painstaking restoration,

The exquisite detailing of the ancient safe

Can at last be revealed.

The highly prized item featured a 4-stage locking mechanism

To protect any riches inside.

The strongbox was so well made,

It took a full-scale natural disaster

To breach its defenses.

And evidence from elsewhere in pompeii suggests,

In the lead-up to the devastating eruption,

Crime was rampant across the city.

Roman historian kevin dicus is examining a tragic remnant

Of one of pompeii's most popular security measures:

A guard dog that died protecting its master's home.

Dicus: Most of the people that come here look at this

And they see their family pet.

We see something different here.

He's contorted, he's on his back and the story is he

Was chained to his post.

(volcano erupting)

Narrator: When vesuvius erupted, this guard dog,

Like hundreds of pompeii's residents,

Was encased in layers of pumice and ash.

The void left when the body decayed allowed experts

To create a perfect plaster cast of the animal.

Dicus: So it's entirely possible that the dog

Was left behind specifically to guard the house

As the owners fled to protect the home from looters.

He spent the last moments of his life still guarding

This house, chained up as the house was buried.

Narrator: But the remains of pompeii

Also reveal the wealthy elite weren't the only ones

Who lived in fear of thieves.

From the richest households to the poorest,

Every door in pompeii was locked at night.

And one door in particular shows just how scared

The residents of this city were of crime.

In a middle-class residential neighborhood,

A plaster cast taken from a cavity left in the ash

Has revealed a 2,000-year-old door

Designed to keep the most heavy-handed robbers out.

Dicus: We are looking at the preserved form

Of one of the most sophisticated locking mechanisms,

The safest and the stoutest that we can find in pompeii.

The door itself was a double door, opening here inside.

Now the first locking mechanism was this rather simple

Iron rod going from this door to this door,

Somewhat like our modern dead bolts,

But that wasn't enough,

The second locking mechanism

Was this wooden pole right here.

One would insert it into a hole in the wall here

Across between two doors into the hole in the wall here.

It's impossible to open, but that wasn't enough.

The third locking mechanism is this,

This long pole leaning against the door.

Narrator: Pompeii's middle classes

Were fortifying their homes against robbers.

Dicus: It was sort of overkill, but really this gives us an idea

Of what they're thinking about.

There might be bad people afoot outside.

They'd have no idea so they're going to do what they

Can to keep this door shut.

Narrator: The remains of pompeii

Don't just capture scenes of everyday roman life

2,000 years ago, they preserve evidence

Of a city living in fear.

And with no police force to keep the population safe,

It would fall to the citizens to dish out

Their own form of justice.

(dramatic music)

Experts are investigating if a room discovered

In a pompeii suburb filled with over 50 bodies

Is an ancient crime scene.

They suspect that a rich family,

Who sought shelter when mount vesuvius erupted,

Was targeted by a gang of robbers.

Evidence from the remains of the legendary city

Suggests that in the years leading up to the volcano,

Crime in pompeii was rife.

Benefiel: So, theft is a problem because goods are portable,

It's easy to walk off with them, and especially if you

Think about the fact that there are no banks

And there'd be no way to get it back.

Narrator: To work out what happened in the room

Where the bodies were discovered,

Bioarchaeologist kristina killgrove is examining

A unique 3d map.

Using modern techniques, she's hoping to find clues

Missed when the bodies were originally unearthed.

Killgrove: This model was put together through a process

Called 3d photogrammetry.

Numerous pictures were taken with a digital camera

And then stitched together to create an entire model.

Narrator: The model shows the exact position

Of the bodies following their initial discovery,

But kristina has returned to room 10

And through her own excavation,

She's discovered yet more remains.

Killgrove: We found additional individuals as well,

Children in this area, and some additional children

In this area as well.

Narrator: Kristina suspects the group at the back

Of the room, who appear to be protecting the children,

Were a family.

They were evidently killed by falling ash and debris.

But were they the rich villa owners whose bodies

Were then plundered for

Valuables by opportunist thieves?

To find out, kristina and her team will conduct

Isotope analysis of the bones and teeth

To learn what the two groups ate.

This could reveal if a wealthy, well-fed family

Had fallen prey to malnourished robbers.

And if it was theft, there were no shortage of suspects

Because pompeii, like most roman cities,

Had an enormous underclass.

Russell: If you think that you

Want to live in the roman period,

I don't think you'd want to be a slave,

I don't think you'd want to be a freedman,

I don't think you'd want to be a poor person.

Ordinary people had a difficult life, had a short life,

Lived a much more violent life.

Narrator: Historical records tell us that for the poor

In roman society, breaking the law was often

Their only chance of survival,

But it was a risk worth taking.

Because for a sophisticated civilization,

The roman empire was surprisingly lawless.

Russell: Throughout the roman period there's never anything

Like a modern police force.

There's no one whose job it is to go and seek out crimes

And arrest the perpetrators or to investigate what happened.

Narrator: As far as the government was concerned,

Protecting life and property was a matter for individuals.

Russell: It's up to you, you have to find the perpetrator,

You have to arrest him, you have to bring him to court,

And obviously that's much easier to do if you're rich.

Narrator: In the commercial heart of pompeii,

There are still the faint traces of how everyday romans

Took the law into their own hands.

Rebecca benefiel is an expert in deciphering

Ancient messages written on countless walls

Across the roman world.

Benefiel: Ancient graffiti lets us know about the thoughts

Of the people who lived through the roman empire

Because we can see how people were communicating.

Narrator: These messages are the romans talking

And sometimes shouting to each other.

News, advertisements, messages between friends.

It was the ancient equivalent of billboards,

Broadcasting, and social media all rolled into one.

Benefiel: There are more than 12,000 inscriptions

That were written on the walls of pompeii

So they have information that people

Wanted to get out to the entire city.

Narrator: On the side of a former tavern,

Rebecca has spotted the faint outline of an ancient message.

Having meticulously mapped out the inscription,

It reveals thieves once roamed these streets.

Benefiel: The inscription was right here next to the entrance

To the tavern.

It said, "a bronze vessel has gone missing from this shop."

And then it said, "if someone will bring it back,"

And then in much larger letters it said,

"they will be given a reward of 65 sesterces."

65 sesterces was a lot of money.

Narrator: The reward for the return of something

As seemingly everyday as a bronze vessel was extraordinary.

The equivalent of over three weeks' wages

For an average roman worker.

Benefiel: Maybe a day's wages would be two to three sesterces,

So 65 sesterces was a big reward.

Narrator: But the message goes further.

It offers a bonus reward in exchange for the thief.

In a country with no police force and little state justice,

Residents were dishing out their own punishment.

Benefiel: It's clear that whoever put

This post up was saying,

I know there's a thief out there, I want you to catch

That thief and I'll give you a reward.

Narrator: If apprehended, the thief who stole

The bronze vessel could have faced untold suffering

Because for many roman citizens, justice came in the form

Of vigilante punishment.

(whipping)

Russell: If you were an ordinary person and there was something

Going on in your neighborhood, it seems most likely that you

Would have dealt with it yourself,

So people were on their own a lot of the time.

People settled their own grievances informally,

Potentially by violence.

Narrator: And evidence from the layout

Of a middle-class home in pompeii provides clues

As to who residents would rely on to mete out

Their rough justice.

Dicus: This room would be occupied by

One of the trusted slaves

And what he would do is control access into the house.

And we can think of some slaves

As very frightening characters.

Think of the gladiators, for example,

Doing the master's bidding and they

Could be prone to violence.

Narrator: Just like the mafioso families

That were to come, in pompeii, gangs of citizens

Could be called upon to dish out the punishment.

Russell: There seems to have been

A lot of this informal justice,

Folk justice, going on throughout the roman empire

For things that the authorities

Don't really concern themselves with.

Narrator: Now, new evidence suggests that in the decades

Before the eruption, tension on the streets of pompeii

Was boiling over.

The city was about to succumb to mob rule

And one political figure would harness the chaos,

Emerging as the godfather of pompeii.

Just 20 years before pompeii was buried

Beneath volcanic ash, the city was descending into anarchy

Where families were forced to find ever safer ways

Of protecting their wealth from thieves.

The escalating levels of crime and violence

Would start a chain reaction that would lead to the rise

Of a mafia-like godfather.

But before then, in the lawless neighborhoods

And commercial districts of pompeii,

It was everyone for themselves.

Benefiel: We've come down the strada di mercurio,

There are houses at that end, but at this end,

Close to the forum, there are shops

And this is where the fruit sellers

Would have had their retail establishments.

Narrator: 2,000 years ago this street was lined

With fruit shops and faint traces of graffiti suggest

The fruit sellers were more than simple street vendors.

They'd joined forces to become a workers union

And these faded slogans were campaign posters.

Benefiel: On this building was the most interesting inscription

About the fruit sellers.

They said, "all the fruit

Sellers together ask that you vote

"for marcus holconius prisus," which suggests that they

Made a collective decision about who they

Wanted to endorse for mayor.

Narrator: Evidence of other campaign posters

Have been discovered throughout pompeii.

The fruit sellers were just one of many pressure groups

Now active in the city.

And all were fighting for their own interests.

Benefiel: They are expressing their support for that candidate

And probably expecting some sort of benefit in return.

One scholar has suggested that these groups

Might be similar to modern day gangs

Who are trying to stake out territory and putting their tags

On things like the bloods or the crips gangs from la.

Narrator: In roman society these gangs were known

As collegia and they had the power to change

The course of politics.

Russell: The way that collegia were organized,

The way that they were based around neighborhoods

Or occupational groups, the fact that they were a mix

Of people of different social statuses made them

Potentially a really powerful political tool

And actually members of the roman elite

Could be quite nervous about that.

Narrator: The growing number of collegia

Throughout the roman empire had the state worried

Because for the first time,

The middle and lower classes of society had a voice.

And groups were known to use violence to get their own way.

Russell: The way we see these collegia operating,

The way we see them being used to mobilize violence

Sometimes when we're talking about high politics,

It doesn't seem impossible that that could also happen

On a more daily basis.

Narrator: The graffiti across pompeii reveals the city

Was gripped by powerful collegia,

Each with their own agenda.

But new evidence suggests when the need arose,

The city's competing collegia would join forces

To fight a common enemy.

Rebecca benefiel has found evidence of growing friction

Between pompeii and its neighbors,

A tension that would soon boil over.

Benefiel: Right now we're in the lupanar and it is a brothel

And there's plenty of decoration to give you a sense

Of the activity that would take place here.

Narrator: The lupanar would have been a popular

Destination for men from pompeii and surrounding towns.

And carved into the plaster walls,

Rebecca has discovered

A treasure trove of ancient graffiti.

Together they can provide an insight into the thoughts

Of everyday roman citizens, but many messages

Are impossible to decipher with the naked eye.

Benefiel: The first thing we do when we're looking

For ancient graffiti is we have to survey the wall

Because they're incised with a sharp instrument into plaster

And there's not much contrast so it's hard to see them.

Narrator: To bring the ancient messages to life,

Rebecca and field director jacqueline dibiasie-sammons

Are lighting and photographing the faint incisions

From multiple angles.

They're now creating ultra-high definition images

Of the graffiti with no shadows.

Sammons: I'm controlling the camera

Through the computer here.

Benefiel: So that's the height and that's the width.

Sammons: To get a really good image of this graffito,

We're going to take about 60 photographs

That we'll then combine

Into one 2d image in which we can manipulate the light.

Narrator: The enhanced messages reveal

All was not well between pompeii and the neighboring towns.

Benefiel: It talks about the inhabitants of different cities

Here around the bay of naples

And it starts off with fell, fell ligitair.

May things go happily for the people of prutali.

Omnibus nucerinis and happy things for all

Of the people of neceria.

And then someone adds in a very different handwriting,

And bad things for the people of pompeii

And bad things for the people of pithacusa.

Narrator: This message is just one of many

Discovered in the city that suggests there was bad blood

Between pompeii and its neighbors.

Benefiel: We have another graffito that says,

At pompeii you eat bread, but at nuceria you will drink.

There was friction between pompeii and nuceria.

Narrator: And in 59 ad, 20 years before the eruption

Of vesuvius, the scribbled taunts and boasts

Between pompeii and nuceria escalated into open warfare.

At the naples national museum of archeology,

A clue to the ferocity of the clash

Can be found within a 2,000-year-old fresco.

Dicus: There's no question of what we are looking at here.

We are looking at a rather realistic rendition

Of what pompeii looked like in the last decades of its life.

What we see here, if we take a detailed look,

Is that we have the people fighting.

Narrator: Depictions of gladiators fighting

In roman amphitheaters are common,

But these are not gladiatorial games.

This is a contemporary record of violent gangs

From pompeii and nuceria,

Fighting to the death in the arena

And out onto the streets of the city.

Dicus: And if we look very closely,

You can see vertical red lines and this is the blood

Spilling from their wounds, so we get a very detailed look

At the violence and the injuries,

Even the death that occurred on this day in 59 ad.

Narrator: Pompeii was used to violent clashes

Between gangs, but this event was off the scale.

It was so extreme it attracted the attention and fury

Of the emperor in rome.

Russell: When something happens

Like the riot in the amphitheater

At pompeii, that's when the state is going to get involved.

If you've got groups that are feuding on the streets,

I think the roman elite would have been very worried

That these groups could start having aspirations to power,

Could start wanting to affect the political process.

Narrator: The situation in pompeii had rome worried.

Believing these rogue gangs could undermine its power

And authority, rome laid down measures to take back control.

Russell: Tacitus,

The roman historian, writes about the riots

In the amphitheater at pompeii

And he says that after the riots,

Illegal collegia were banned in pompeii.

So if tacitus is right, someone in power

Seems to have thought that these groups were active

In pompeii and were involved in the riot

In the amphitheater.

Narrator: Pompeii's most disruptive collegia

Were disbanded and its leaders exiled,

And the city was given its own harsh penalty.

Pompeii was banned from hosting gladiatorial games

For ten years.

Russell: Stopping the games also made

A difference for politicians

And rich people in pompeii because sponsoring the games,

Paying for the games, was one of the ways that they

Advertised themselves, one of the ways that they boosted

Their own political careers, so not being able to use that

Method anymore would have had a real affect on them and they

Would have had to find other ways to promote themselves.

Narrator: But new evidence suggests

Pompeii's amphitheater was not lying idle for long

Because the ban offered one ambitious citizen

The opportunity to exploit the violent gangs

And ultimately take control of pompeii.

In a cemetery on the outskirts of the city,

An impressive crypt has been discovered.

The name of the deceased is missing,

But the inscription reveals the occupant

Had become one of the most powerful men in pompeii.

Dicus: Among the things he did for the city

Was to sponsor games

In this arena, and not just normal games.

A normal game might have 20 or 30 pairs

Of gladiators fighting.

No, he brings in over 400 gladiators.

(fire burning)

Narrator: These were the most spectacular games

In pompeii's history.

The clues from the inscription on the crypt suggest the man

Responsible was alleius maius,

A hugely successful businessman and politician.

Dicus: They call him the prince of gladiator games

And the prince of pompeii and he

Was well known throughout the city.

Narrator: Alleius maius was sponsoring gladiatorial games

In pompeii after they were banned by rome.

And crucially, his tomb inscription reveals how.

His connections went right to the top, to emperor nero,

One of the most feared rulers in roman history.

Dicus: On this tomb inscription he writes,

I was the one who spoke to emperor nero

And got these officials who were exiled and these gladiators

Back to pompeii.

Narrator: Alleius maius took on rome and won.

The arena was active once more, making maius

The man of the people and guaranteeing his path to power.

Dicus: This was for political advancement.

If he sponsored games and made these people happy,

Then he could advance politically.

Narrator: Experts believe once in office,

Maius relied upon hardened gangs of supporters

To maintain his grip on power.

He'd become the roman equivalent of a mafia godfather.

Dicus: If he needed something done that was a bit violent,

A bit under the table, he had a whole group of people

That surely would have done his bidding.

Narrator: Alleius maius had won over the masses

To secure his rise to power.

But his authority was built on a foundation

Of corruption and violence, a legacy that would cast

A dark shadow over the city until the day pompeii

Disappeared off the face of the earth.

Archaeologists investigating a suspected crime scene

In the roman city of pompeii are getting closer to solving

The 2,000-year-old cold case.

Evidence suggests in the 1st century ad,

Pompeii was a city ruled by criminal gangs

Where residents went to extreme measures

To protect themselves and their property from thieves.

But no security measures could protect them

From what happened next.

At 1:00 p.M. On August 24th 79 ad,

After centuries of inactivity, mount vesuvius erupts.

(volcano erupting)

Volcanologist dougal jerram believes the residents

Of pompeii had no idea of the potential danger they were in.

Jerram: Prior to this volcano actually coming to life again,

Many of the people on the ground might not have known

Exactly what the mountain was.

It started at 1:00 o'clock in the afternoon

With this big plinian cloud rising high in the sky.

Narrator: As hot ash rained down on pompeii,

The city fell into total chaos.

Dicus: So the experience of the person actually living here

During the eruption is terrifying.

The sky went black, the earth was shaking,

There was fire falling from the sky.

This would have been horrifying.

Narrator: In the pompeii suburb of oplontis,

A wealthy family took refuge in a basement storeroom.

Knowing thieves were everywhere,

They took all their movable wealth with them,

But were killed by the eruption.

Killgrove: We don't yet know exactly

How the people at oplontis died.

There are several possibilities,

Including being asphyxiated by noxious gases,

Maybe injured by falling architecture.

Narrator: Experts now suspect

Shortly after the first group died,

A second group found their bodies in the basement

And took their valuables because pompeii wasn't destroyed

In the blink of an eye.

Jerram: For me, the real key to understanding

This cataclysmic eruption is that it didn't take place

In an instant.

We can go and look at the layers that form the deposit

From that eruption episode.

Narrator: By examining the sediment layers

In the ash deposits, dougal can read the different stages

Of the eruption.

Jerram: People think that the whole eruption

Happened almost instantaneously,

But actually this white pumice built up

To about this point over seven hours.

Narrator: Then at eight in the evening,

The volcano entered its second stage of eruption.

Jerram: A different type of magma started coming out

Of the volcano so the volcano was plumbing the depths

Of its roots at this stage,

But it's still this very light pumice

Just falling out of the sky.

Narrator: At 7:00 o'clock the next morning,

The volcano entered its final devastating phase.

Jerram: As we move up you can see that

There's a sharp transition.

You go from this gravelly layered gray pumice horizon,

About 10 hours maybe or so of deposit within there,

And then it becomes a sharp change.

The size of the particles is much more varied,

There's a lot of small particles in there

And you can actually see layers within it that show me,

As a volcanologist, that there was current,

There was turbulent currents depositing this material.

Narrator: This distinct layer of solidified ash

Is evidence of a high-speed current of heated gas

And volcanic debris.

Known as a pyroclastic flow,

It devastated everything in its path.

Jerram: A pyroclastic density current has come and hit pompeii

And what we find when we look at the top surface

Is that's where much of the debris,

Many of the bodies are found.

More than 60% of the bodies that were found in this area

Of pompeii are found in that upper deposit

And that's vitally important for understanding the timeline

Between when the volcano started erupting

And when it finally killed everybody.

Narrator: 2,000 inhabitants of pompeii were killed

By the volcano, but miraculously 10,000 people survived.

The timeline of the eruption reveals how so many escaped

Before the pyroclastic flow hit.

But for those members of society who had nothing to lose,

The unfolding natural disaster could have provided

The opportunity of a lifetime.

Dicus: You could take advantage of the chaos,

These empty properties, go in, look around,

Take what you wanted.

If you left, you really probably couldn't come back.

You could, but you would die.

Narrator: Ancient records reveal

That just before the pyroclastic flow hit,

People returned to the city,

Some to protect their valuables,

Others to rob the dead.

So who was claiming the wealth in the oplontis basement?

Kristina killgrove and her team are homing in on an answer.

Killgrove: So these samples from oplontis

Are giving us information

About what people were eating on a day-to-day basis

In the last five years of their life

Before they were cut down in their prime.

Narrator: The isotope analysis results

Are confirming the experts' suspicions

That the group at the back of the room were a family.

But intriguingly, both groups in the room

Appear to have shared near identical diets.

Killgrove: The clustering of dietary data

That we see in this chart

Suggests that people are eating very similar food.

And who eats very similar food?

A family or an extended family.

Narrator: And detailed analysis of the bones

Provide further evidence that everyone

In the room was related.

Killgrove: There are certain traits

On the skull and on the teeth

That are heritable and that tend to run in families.

Because we found a large percentage

Of some of these traits,

It seems that many of them were related.

Narrator: The experts now believe

This was not an ancient crime scene,

But a far more desperate story has emerged.

This was a family tragedy born out of a fear of crime.

Killgrove: I think a lot of these data

Back up the hypothesis

That we have that the people in room 10 at oplontis b

Were biologically related.

It's possible that it was family wealth

That every individual in this extended family

Grabbed what they could in trying to escape.

Narrator: By choosing to stay in oplontis,

The wealthy family died in the basement

During the early stages of the eruption.

But thinking the worst was over,

Their relatives who'd fled returned,

Only to find the lifeless bodies of loved ones.

And knowing that looters were at large,

They reclaimed the family wealth,

But the volcano wasn't over.

(debris flying)

As the pyroclastic flow tore through oplontis,

It buried everyone in the basement

Beneath tons of burning volcanic debris.

(scarpati speaking in foreign language)

Narrator: The eruption of vesuvius froze a moment in time

When the roman empire was nearing its height.

But pompeii also preserved some of the empire's

Darkest secrets that are only now coming to light.

Dicus: The more we find, the more questions we can ask

And if you imagine that there's two-thirds of the city

Still left to uncover, there are so many secrets

Still held under the ashes at pompeii,

I can't even imagine what more we can learn from the city.

Narrator: The petrified remains of pompeii,

Where violence and seething political rivalries

Simmered just below the surface,

Reveal the last days of this now legendary roman city

Were in fact anything but civilized.