Original subtitles

Narrator: Pompeii, mid-October, 79 A.D.

Thousands of ordinary people

were going about their everyday lives

unaware that time was running out for their ancient city.

In just 25 hours,

the cataclysmic eruption of mount Vesuvius

rained thousands of tons of ash in the region,

destroying everything in its path,

but there's still more to the story.

They found these boathouses.

Every single one of them was filled with bodies.

Narrator: Now a team of experts is uncovering

amazing new discoveries...

A group of convicts was sent down here

and told to tunnel through this theatre

and effectively mine it for treasure.

Narrator: ...Giving new insights...

Dave: Oh! I love it.

It's so beautiful, like it was made yesterday.

...about the extent of the devastation...

Man: This is an exploded skull.

They've literally just boiled their brain.

Yes.

...and the events that took place

across the entire region after the eruption.

Snow: There's volcanic debris under my knees and hands here.

It's pretty dangerous business when you're mining illegally

through layers of pyroclastic surge.

♪♪

Narrator: Pompeii, October 24, 79 A.D.

Mount Vesuvius, a volcano

that laid dormant for over 700 years, erupted.

In the hours following the eruption,

ash and pumice continually rain down on the ancient Roman city.

The catastrophic event killed thousands of people.

A once-flourishing city was now left abandoned.

The rediscovery of Pompeii over 1,500 years later

turns what had been an obscure provincial Roman town

into one of the most famous places on earth.

Narrator: Recent archaeological discovery

suggests that the rock and ash

that tragically killed thousands of people actually preserve

the city streets and buildings from the ravages of time.

The incredible preservation of Pompeii

provides a glimpse into everyday Roman life.

Ordinary homes,

shops,

bathhouses,

theatres.

The eruption even preserved some of the townspeople

during their final moments in the form of casts.

Historian Dan Snow and archaeologist Raksha Dave

are in Pompeii to investigate the preserved 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.

♪♪

What was discovered in Pompeii and the surrounding area

after the eruption is absolutely astonishing.

In 1592,

Pompeii re-emerged when workers unearthed parts of the city

as they laid underground pipes 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 very 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.

Narrator: An acclaimed architect, Domenico Fontana,

was in charge of the pipe-excavation project.

But the Duke that employed Fontana

refused to allow any further investigations

due to a lack of funding.

He ordered the trench backfilled,

and once again, Pompeii was forgotten.

The buried Roman ruins were once again rediscovered

over a century later.

In 1709, workers digging a well 8 miles northwest of Pompeii

started to uncover slabs of beautiful marble.

A French aristocrat, Emmanuel d'Elbeuf,

was building a mansion nearby,

and he was in the market for marble.

He decided to cut out the middleman and bought the well

and its marble reserve for himself.

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 realized that this must be a Roman theatre.

Narrator: To d'Elbeuf, this was an opportunity

not only to mine materials

he needed for his nearby construction project, but also,

to recover and claim valuable Roman relics.

A group of convicts was 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 of them 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 colors are still perfect, bit of graffiti

from the 18th and 19th centuries.

What a good arc there on the arch. It's beautiful.

And they stripped whatever they could find.

Well, slowly, these convicts hollowed out

more and more of this structure

until it uncovered pretty large parts of the theatre.

♪♪

Narrator: These steps lead to the auditorium

that would have accommodated up to 2,500 people.

♪♪

This is where the people would have sat side-by-side

watching the action on the stage below.

It's a Roman theatre

buried under 25 meters of volcanic rock.

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

♪♪

Narrator: 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 wanted 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, try and mine anything of value.

They came in through doors.

They liked to work down walls because they realized that lots

of the statues and sculptures would be next to 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.

Narrator: Anything of value was taken to the magnificent palace

that Charles had built for himself just next door.

Almost all the decorations in this palace

were built with treasures found in the ancient city.

The grand staircase and altar were built using marble.

These statues were dug up and proudly displayed.

And here is an original Roman mosaic floor.

It was taken out in sections and then relayed here.

Narrator: King Charles was so possessive of his excavated

treasures that only a select group was allowed to view them.

Unfortunately, many of the frescoes that weren't claimed

and moved to Charles's palace were defaced

to prevent others from having them.

But perhaps the greatest treasure found

in king Charles's tunnels is this...

Clues that Pompeii was not the only city

affected by the eruption.

A once-thriving coastal town to the northwest of Pompeii

was met with a very different fate.

♪♪

♪♪

Narrator: Pompeii is one of the world's greatest

archaeological treasures.

The devastation of this once-bustling Roman town

is one of the most dramatic and tragic events in history.

[ Explosion ]

But what happened to the cities surrounding Pompeii

after the eruption is just as shocking.

Down there is Herculaneum,

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

3/4 of it still lie beneath our feet.

Narrator: Events here transpired

very differently from those in Pompeii.

Snow: 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.

Narrator: In the 12 hours following Vesuvius's eruption,

relentless torrents of volcanic ash and pumice

blew south, battering Pompeii.

Some of the city's occupants tried to flee,

but most didn't have a chance to escape their homes.

Meanwhile, Herculaneum was located west of Vesuvius

and only suffered from a fraction of the early eruption

debris that befell Pompeii.

This gave the people of Herculaneum 12 hours

to evacuate the city.

This street would have been packed

with a terrified mass of people all heading down here,

clutching their most precious possessions,

heading for the harbor, 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 had stayed behind.

Narrator: Research suggests that many residents

tried to escape to the sea.

This was the beach, and it was down here

that the people of Herculaneum came once Vesuvius

started 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.

Narrator: For 12 hours after the eruption of Vesuvius,

Pompeii was inundated by volcanic debris.

At the same time,

the nearby town of Herculaneum escaped relatively unscathed.

But then, around midnight that day, the full force

of the volcano finally struck Herculaneum.

The vast column of debris spewing from Vesuvius

collapsed, causing an avalanche of superheated ash

called a pyroclastic surge that cascaded down the volcano,

causing a wave of destruction in all directions.

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.

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

Narrator: For centuries, historians

believed that everyone in Herculaneum had escaped.

But in 1980, that theory was disproven

when a group of archaeologists made an astonishing discovery.

As they excavated the seafront, they uncovered multiple

30-foot-long wooden boats on shore

and the human remains of over 300 victims on the beach.

They found these boat houses,

and the full horror of what happened here

became immediately apparent.

There were 12 of them in all.

And every single one of them was filled with bodies.

Narrator: Archaeologist suggest that more than 300 people

may have been seeking shelter in these boat houses.

After the human remains were discovered,

80 of the victims were removed and stored for preservation.

Today, scientists are analyzing the bones

in a lab above Herculaneum's old ticket office.

Archaeologist Raksha Dave is meeting with Pier Paolo Petrone,

who has been extracting samples from the remains

to perform the project's first-ever DNA analysis.

[ Drill whirring ]

What have you learned about the people who died here

at Herculaneum?

These initial results reveal for the first time

that women from the boat houses

were related to each other and native to this area of Italy.

But results disclose a very different story about the men.

So where do you think that these men came from?

And the bones offer more than DNA

and the beginnings of an origin story.

They also shed light on their owners' demise.

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

What are the effects that we can see on these skeletons

of how they died?

How do you know that?

It's very dark, actually, isn't it?

So the pyroclastic flow was extremely hot,

and it literally just boiled their brain.

Oh, it just snapped.

Gosh.

And what are they?

So this is this poor person's blood

that we can see on the bones?

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

But the reality is that

they didn't really feel it or they didn't really know it...

Yes, exactly. ...Because it was so quick.

Narrator: Their swift but incredibly violent deaths

likely occurred during the fourth pyroclastic surge

of Vesuvius.

While it spelled the end for the citizens of Pompeii,

this particular wave of deadly superheated volcanic matter

was only the terrifying beginning

for other villages in the region.

♪♪

♪♪

Narrator: The catastrophic volcanic eruption

of mount Vesuvius in 79 A.D.

Devastated the once-prosperous Roman cities

of Pompeii and Herculaneum.

The explosion killed thousands of people

and buried both cities

under a thick layer of volcanic material.

Research suggests that as many as 16,000 people

lived in and around Pompeii.

Many died from the smoke

and toxic gases that enveloped the city,

while others were obliterated by the pyroclastic surge.

The pyroclastic surge that struck Herculaneum

was only the first of a devastating series

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.

Yet it wasn't just the cities of Pompeii and Herculaneum

that were affected by the eruption.

The countryside was enveloped by farms and luxurious villas.

♪♪

19 hours after the eruption began,

the sixth and final surge struck.

The most potent wave of all reached as far south

as the port of Stabia,

where luxury villas lined a cliff above the town.

Stabia was located almost 10 miles away

from mount Vesuvius.

Unfortunately, even at this distance,

no one was safe.

Author Pliny the younger wrote about the sequence of events

that unfolded at these villas above Stabia.

To this day, this is the only

first-hand account of the disaster to survive.

Pliny wrote that 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 cliff top here,

possibly this one.

His nephew tells us

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.

Narrator: Historian Dan snow is meeting up with

Paolo Gardelli, who oversees excavations at the villas,

to learn more about how the eruption affected Stabia.

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 Stabia, under 6 meters of volcanic materials.

In the early morning of the second day of the eruption,

so around 7:00,

we know that the sixth surge destroyed Stabia.

And did many people die in that?

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, yes.

But what about Pliny the elder?

Pliny, at the time, was a quite old man,

so we can say that in Stabia,

probably, old people, the very young people died,

but fit people, probably, they survived.

It sounds to me like Pliny and his team

were on the edge of the area where you could survive.

If you were closer than 10 miles...

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

So that's a huge area. A huge area.

Quite huge area.

So when we're here in Stabia looking out at Vesuvius,

almost everything between us and mount Vesuvius

would have been a killing zone.

Exactly.

So as they [indistinct] some years later,

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

So we'll never know how many people in Pompeii died

because even the people that escaped the town

could have been killed out on these roads, in these fields

as they were escaping.

Exactly that, because probably there are thousand bodies

still underground, thousand of people still there.

Narrator: Based on this information, any inhabitant

left within 10 miles of Vesuvius had no chance at survival.

But what was the fate of those

who did escape the wrath of this colossal volcano?

For the first time, the events that took place in Stabia

after the eruption are being revealed.

Hey, Giovanni! [ Gasps ]

Benvenuta.

Archaeologist Raksha Dave is joining Giovanni di Maio

to get a better look at an excavation site.

Full of stuff, isn't it?

Giovanni and his team have already dug

10 feet below ground,

but they're only just beginning to unearth the ancient secrets

this site conceals.

We're not at the foundations, then?

Hang on. So we're actually at the top of the buildings?

This excavation reveals

that by the time it reached Stabia,

the pyroclastic surge didn't have enough

force to knock down the upper stories,

and additional discoveries proved

this building was in use for many years afterwards.

Dave: Oh!

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

And I love this design. It's like it was made yesterday.

So, Giovanni, how old is this lamp?

That's unbelievable because 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?

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

Narrator: While Pompeii's and Herculaneum's destruction

was absolute, the people of Stabia may have returned

to their homes shortly after the eruption.

So what happened to the other survivors

who managed to escape the destruction of Vesuvius?

And where did they go?

♪♪

♪♪

Narrator: The world's most infamous volcanic eruption

occurred in Italy, 79 A.D.,

when mount Vesuvius violently ejected gas, ash,

and pulverized pumice,

destroying several ancient Roman cities.

Experts leading the excavation of Stabia,

a coastal village almost 10 miles south of Vesuvius,

revealed that despite extensive damage, some of the villages'

citizens returned to their homes in the weeks after the eruption.

And possibly never needed to leave at all.

But what happened to the people who survived the eruption,

left with ruins where their homes once stood?

For answers, historian Dan snow is heading to a region

located on the western side of Vesuvius,

which remained relatively intact after the eruption.

The ancient city of Cuma,

located 10 miles west of Roman Naples,

was 2 1/2 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.

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.

Narrator: Riders who traveled through Cuma en route to Rome

delivered news of the eruption to emperor Titus.

Snow: 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.

Narrator: In the years following the eruption,

imperial money was used to revitalize the cities

that had survived.

When Titus died just two years after the eruption,

his successor, Domitian, continued to send financial aid.

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's actually bit of a pain

because it blocked off the harbor

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.

Narrator: Before the eruption, there was a small tunnel

under the acropolis,

but in later years, it was radically expanded

and eventually used 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 A.D.,

life here in Cuma went on for centuries,

right up to the middle ages.

Narrator: New research has revealed

that family names found on tombs in Pompeii

appear here in Cuma for the first time after the disaster.

After Vesuvius erupted, Cuma saw a population boom.

To accommodate the influx of people, large public baths

and new temples were built,

and the town's amphitheater was enlarged.

So, it seems that this town of Cuma played host

to a tight-knit community of Pompeian refugee families.

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.

Narrator: While many never returned to Pompeii

after its destruction,

some did.

Evidence suggests that they tunneled through

16 feet of debris that covered the city.

They were possibly refugees

trying to salvage their belongings.

But it's more likely they were thieves

searching the ruins for valuables.

This is the forum, the town square of Pompeii.

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

and these would have 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 burrowed down here.

Narrator: Of course, looting damage

wasn't limited to public spaces.

Archaeologists also discovered evidence of looting

in private homes,

including a complex tunnel system

and holes knocked through walls.

Thankfully, as archaeologist Raksha Dave

is about to find out,

the latest excavations in Pompeii reveal that thieves

weren't able to take all of the city's treasures.

We're, like, one of the first people

since 79 A.D. To walk on this street, aren't we?

Man: Yes, you are right.

♪♪

♪♪

Narrator: In 79 A.D., mount Vesuvius erupted,

burying the Roman city of Pompeii

under a thick layer of volcanic ash,

killing thousands of people and freezing the ruins in time.

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.

Narrator: While Pompeii was buried under ash

from the volcanic eruption, port towns like Herculaneum

were affected by the volcanic pyroclastic flows,

which, in this case, consisted of ash, pumice, and lava.

For years, the region was abandoned,

but it re-emerged in the 18th century

when a group of workers excavated the site.

Historian Dan snow is exploring one of the underground tunnels

discovered during the dig.

I'm now inside this tunnel.

Can you imagine operating down here in the 18th century?

It would have been cramped. 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.

Imagine the scale of these tunnels,

the scale of what's left of Herculaneum buried in this rock.

Narrator: And it's here that researchers discovered something

that makes Herculaneum an archaeological treasure.

Now, this section of tunnel has got lots

and lots of carbonized wood.

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

Narrator: In the 18th century, carbonized wood

had no monetary value, so it was largely ignored.

But for modern archaeologists, this carbonized wood

is the most valuable thing one can find in Herculaneum.

After more than 1 1/2 millennia buried beneath the ash,

the cities destroyed by Vesuvius gradually began to re-emerge.

Over the next 200 years, great temples,

theatres, and villas were rediscovered.

In the 19th century, archaeologists finally replaced

the treasure hunters.

And in 1910,

they began to link all the excavated areas across Pompeii.

An army of diggers made their way

systematically from one end to the other.

It was excavation on almost industrial scale,

and it soon became clear that this was a mighty thoroughfare

running from one side of Pompeii

straight through the middle to the other.

Narrator: Under a protective layer of ash,

the city of Pompeii was preserved for centuries.

Today, 2/3 of it has been unearthed.

Now it's an ongoing battle

to save what's already been uncovered.

Walls are collapsing.

The frescoes are fading.

And new excavations are uncommon,

especially on previously untouched ground.

Today, an incredibly rare excavation is underway,

uncovering a new area of the city.

Archaeologist Raksha Dave

has been given exclusive access to visit.

Hello professore.

Pompeii's director, Massimo Osanna,

is showing Raksha inside one of the houses located on a street

that has just been cleared of volcanic debris.

I've got goose bumps on my arms

because we're, like, one of the first people

since 79 A.D. To walk on this street, aren't we?

Oh!

So they're just hiding in there?

So this was like their safe room,

and they kind of just barricaded the door

to stop everything else from coming in.

Absolutely stunning.

I really love coming into the houses of Pompeii

because everything is so vivid and bright.

Lady of the house.

I 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.

♪♪

Narrator: Just outside of Pompeii,

discoveries are also being made.

About 1/2 a mile outside the walls of ancient Pompeii,

police identified a network of tunnels

in a previously unexcavated ancient villa.

Thieves had been stealing important Roman artifacts

through this underground system.

And historian Dan snow is visiting the crime scene.

Inside this building, there is a tunnel,

a clandestine tunnel that leads down under the volcanic debris

and into the archaeology here around Pompeii.

And the person who lives in this house

is currently being prosecuted

for the crime of stealing antiquities.

♪♪

♪♪

Narrator: Nearly 1/2 a mile outside the walls

of ancient Pompeii, police have learned that treasure hunters

have been digging a network of tunnels

through a previously unexcavated villa,

looting it for ancient Roman artifacts.

The tunnels extend almost 330 feet,

and the outhouse containing the secret entrance

has been seized by the police.

[ Dog barks ]

Ciao. Buongiorno.

Ciao. Hi. I'm Dan.

Historian Dan snow has been given permission

to go into the tunnels

by investigating officer Salvatore Sorrentino.

[ Speaking Italian ]

Narrator: But going deep underground is dangerous.

To ensure their safety,

the fire department's cave and mountain rescue team,

the s.A.F., arrives to the scene.

[ Speaking Italian ]

A ladder and harness system

is set up to get Dan safely into the tunnels.

Snow: There we go.

[ Grunting ]

Narrator: Just like the explorers before them,

the 21st century thieves got into the tunnels

by following the internal walls of the buried villa.

Various other tunnels off to right and left.

Narrator: Police believe this tunnel system

was under construction for more than 10 years.

Snow: There's volcanic debris under my knees and hands,

but the walls are covered in concrete.

They sprayed it to provide some stability

because it's pretty dangerous business when you're

mining illegally through layers of pyroclastic surge.

Narrator: This tunnel system was a massive undertaking,

so the thieves must have discovered large quantities

of valuable treasures to make it worthwhile.

Snow: It's all this area. Wow.

Oh, my goodness.

Look at this.

Narrator: The vaulted corridors often found in Roman villas

are called cryptoporticus.

The one Dan is exploring

was possibly this villa's service entrance.

Snow: This is huge. It stretches for miles down there.

Heading down here along the top of this arched corridor...

Where I can see the Roman brickwork, Roman masonry.

It stretches miles off down there.

The end of it's filled up with volcanic debris,

but there's a side passage here.

Narrator: At the bottom of this passage,

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

[ Grunts ]

A lot of volcanic debris just collapsing in on me.

Oh! [ Grunts ]

Oh, look at this.

Look at this.

These are some Roman frescoes.

You can just make out the red color there.

They've only been seen by the robbers, a police officer,

and me in nearly 2,000 years.

Narrator: The thieves appear to have removed

every fresco they found until the government intervened.

♪♪

As the team heads out,

Dan makes another unbelievable discovery.

Snow: I found something here on the floor.

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

Check this out.

This could well be the vertebra 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.

Great, there's light at the end of the tunnel.

[ Grunts ]

Daylight, and 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,

and they've made some extraordinary discoveries.

Narrator: The excavation is across the road from the house

containing the tunnel entrance.

And the archaeologists have just unearthed the villa's stables

with horse remains still inside.

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

Snow: Horses frozen just as they were at the exact moment

they were hit by that pyroclastic surge.

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 places through the plaster

where the bone 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 metal work here.

They'd been tacked up. They were wearing their 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.

Narrator: These discoveries are the very latest chapter

in the tragic story of what happened here in Pompeii.

The destructive eruptions of Vesuvius 2,000 years ago

left a unique archaeological legacy.

But that legacy has been tarnished over the years.

People have stolen and destroyed

far too much of the history here.

And it continues today,

as these treacherous, clandestine tunnels show.

But when that legacy is treated with the respect

and the expertise and the honor it deserves,

we can get an unprecedented view

of what life was like in the Roman world

and how it ended for so many in the great city of Pompeii.