Secrets of the Dead (2000–…): Season 20, Episode 2 - Last Days of Pompeii - full transcript

[ Explosion ]

-Pompeii -- a place

whose very name
conjures images of disaster.

Buried by a catastrophic
volcanic eruption

almost 2,000 years ago,

this ancient Roman city

is seared into
our collective memory --

a symbol of the fragility
of life itself.

Plaster casts famously preserve
the final moments

of countless victims.

But what was life like in
the streets of ancient Pompeii



before the eruption?

Past excavations focused

on plucking valuable artifacts
from the site,

rather than uncovering
the stories

of citizens and the enslaved.

It's been decades since the last
comprehensive excavation,

and a new generation of
archeologists is digging in,

laser-focused on capturing
a clear picture

of how people lived in Pompeii's
final days and hours,

and finding household objects
that remind us

how much we have in common
with the residents of Pompeii.

-It's a pair of tweezers.
-They're the same as ours.

-Yes, but much larger.

-The excavations have already
revealed dazzling works of art



unseen by human eyes
for millennia.

-Our main interest
is not ancient art

but the lifeworld
of these people.

-They have uncovered a
strikingly modern city,

complete with fast food

and a vehicle
that some have called

"the Lamborghini
of the ancient world."

"Secrets of the Dead"
was made possible in part by

contributions to your PBS
station from viewers like you.

-Italian archaeologists
are undertaking

the first major excavations
in Pompeii since the 1950s,

and the first to use
modern scientific techniques.

♪♪

When the excavation began
in 2018,

Massimo Ossana was the director

of the Pompeii
Archaeological Park,

and is now the director general
of all Italian state museums.

-What fascinates me
about archeology is

that it can lead us
to rewrite history.

-In the initial excavations,
the team unearthed

not just rooms and houses

but an entire street
and a city square.

Laser scans documented
their progress

and created accurate 3-D imagery
of the neighborhood.

They found evidence
of construction work --

a common sight
in 1st-century Pompeii,

which had been heavily damaged
by a series of earthquakes

in the years
before the eruption.

-People were working,
repairing water pipes,

renovating houses,
rebuilding streets.

All of that helps us erase
the image of a perfect city

where everything was intact
at the time of the eruption.

-In those early excavations,
archaeologists even uncovered

evidence about the date
of the disaster,

which has long been recorded
in the history books

as August 24th
of the year 79 A.D.

Scrawled in charcoal
on the wall of a house,

they found a date that had
apparently just been written

there in the days
before the eruption.

Surprisingly,
it corresponds to October

on the Roman calendar --

two months after the
long-accepted August date.

-We must consider
that the date of August 24th,

which I've always considered
accurate until today,

is no longer valid.

-If the disaster did not happen
in the heat of summer,

but rather the cool autumn
of that same year,

new excavations might turn up
further evidence.

Intrigued by this
and the other discoveries

made in the initial phase
of the project,

the new site director
hopes to fill in

even more of the picture
of life in Pompeii's final days.

-This is a project
that is possible

only thanks to a broad range of
professional collaborators,

not only archeologists
but also restorators,

architects,

engineers.

That's really
where it gets interesting,

because it brings us
a bit closer to a vision

of how life was here
2,000 years ago.

-Along a newly excavated street,

the horrific final hours
of Pompeii

are thrown into sharp relief.

Undisturbed
since it was deposited,

nearly 2,000 years ago,

a clear stratigraphy
of layered volcanic material

measures up to 16 feet thick.

If the eruption
of Mount Vesuvius

was a disaster in two acts,
this layer captures the first.

It began with a relentless rain
of lightweight stone,

known as pumice or lapilli,
ejected from the volcano.

-In Pompeii, it was
about 15 centimeters per hour.

That means, one hour later,
there were 15, then 30,

and after 4 hours,
60 centimeters, and so on.

-Imagine standing
in these streets

as volcanic rock
fell from the sky

at a rate of
15 centimeters per hour.

A relentless hailstorm of pumice
that began at 1:00 p.m.

and continued until 6:00 a.m.
the next morning.

When the pumice
finally stopped falling,

doors were blocked,
and the streets were filled

to the height of
second-story windows.

Many roofs had collapsed
from the weight of the stones.

[ Stones clattering ]

It may have seemed
the worst was over.

But Vesuvius
had another horror in store.

By the time
the shower of stone ended,

the eruption column
may have towered

20 miles above the crater.

The ash cloud became so dense

that it began to
collapse in on itself.

A pyroclastic flow of
gases, rock, and ash

rushed down toward the city.

[ Rumbling ]

These superheated landslides

can travel
at more than 60 miles per hour.

The first to hit Pompeii
did minimal damage.

But recent studies suggest
a second wave reached the city,

bringing temperatures in excess
of 200 degrees Fahrenheit,

engulfing Pompeii
in 15 minutes of hell on earth.

Buildings were inundated
by hot ash and volcanic glass.

Many residents who had failed
to evacuate suffocated,

their lungs filled with the
equivalent of hot, thick cement.

The dead were encased
in a deep layer of ash,

which later hardened
around them.

As each body naturally decayed,
what was left was

a skeleton surrounded by
a cavity in the hardened ash --

a near-perfect mold of
the 2,000-year-old body itself.

The archeologists at Pompeii

are able to fill these molds
with plaster

to create three-dimensional
casts of the victims,

just as they looked

when they succumbed
to the fury of Mount Vesuvius.

-Here we can see the power
of the pyroclastic flow.

Like a wave or a river,

it found openings
and entered this house.

At one point,
the pyroclastic flow

broke the walls of
the Room of the Skeletons,

in which we are now.

-Almost 2,000 years later,

the dead are still emerging
from the ash.

-But look at this.
This is interesting.

-There are lapilli.
-Yes, so it was probably

the collapse of the roof
that crushed them.

-Everything is possible.

-To get a full picture of life

across the ancient
social spectrum,

the team has been drawn to
a partially-excavated complex

in a suburb
700 yards north of Pompeii.

In 2014, the Italian national
police, the carabinieri,

discovered that looters
had been tunneling

into this restricted area
to steal precious artifacts.

In 2017,
the ongoing police investigation

led archaeologists to a room
in a once-grand villa.

-[ Speaking Italian ]

-They've worked very hard
the last few years,

using tunnels to get
to our excavation site.

And we can clearly see
all of those tunnels.

-The tunnels,
some as long as 200 feet,

led from
inside present-day homes

built atop the buried ruins.

At night,
using lanterns and lamps,

the looters broke through walls,

looking for valuable objects
to sell on the black market.

-The police had inspected
all the tunnels

and found damaged frescoes,

as well as fragments of objects
in the tunnels.

There's no doubt
that there was looting here.

They tried to remove
wall paintings.

-Working closely with police
and local prosecutors,

archeologists began

the careful process of
excavating the site.

In December 2018,

after nearly a year
of painstaking work,

they revealed
a startling discovery.

-This room was
the stable of a large villa.

-Using the technique developed
more than 150 years ago

by Pompeii's then-director of
excavations, Giuseppe Fiorelli,

the team filled a void
in the ash layer with plaster,

and made a perfect cast
of a horse.

-We were able to create a mold
of the first horse.

Fortunately, this horse
remained intact,

but the other one was probably
broken up by these tunnels.

-The team was still able
to make a partial cast

of the second horse,
and uncovered evidence

that the horses were
bridled and saddled.

-At the height of the eruption,
it seems they may have been

saddled up for flight
and unable to leave.

Under the other horse,
it looks like a bag

for whatever
the animal was carrying,

or maybe it had been loaded
in preparation for escaping.

However, they couldn't escape,

because the pyroclastic flow
was much quicker.

[ Horse neighs ]

-Over the next two years,

the team continued
to excavate the stable.

The villa where
the horses were found

is located in what was once

Pompeii's prime
agricultural land.

Large vineyards
and farm complexes

served as second homes
for the city's elite.

And many had wine cellars
and presses on site.

It was a city flowing with wine.

One of the best preserved
of these homes

is the Villa of the Mysteries,

with its replica wine press

and its signature frescoes.

To modern archeologists,
these large villas --

owned by the rich,
worked by the poor --

are potential
treasure troves of information

about life in Pompeii.

December 2020 --

at the villa
where the horses were found,

the team excavates an area
just outside the stable door.

After making plaster casts
of collapsed roof beams,

they dig down further,
reaching a depth of 20 feet.

A large object
begins to emerge from the ash.

♪♪

Archeologists can tell
it's a significant artifact.

But what exactly
have they found?

Scientists study laser scans

that capture the outline
of the metal object.

♪♪

Eventually, a theory emerges.

-Some elements
are being uncovered

that lead us to believe
this is a two-wheeled chariot.

-The term "chariot"
immediately calls to mind

the two-wheeled carts
used in both battle

and the heart-pounding races
that thrilled the Roman world.

These wheeled platforms

were usually pulled
by teams of four horses.

Or perhaps what archeologists
have uncovered

is just
a humble transport wagon,

like several others found
in Pompeii over the years.

-We're really fortunate
to have this reconstruction

of a two-wheeled cart

found in the stable
of the House of Menander.

You could imagine leaving
the bed open like this

and carrying
large amounts of foodstuffs --

of grain, of produce --
from the countryside,

or these large containers
of wine, these amphorae.

We should also, perhaps, even
imagine this leaving the city.

Instead of full of food,
we should think of it

full of the waste of the city,
the ash from the baths,

the human and animal waste
that collects in the city,

and all manner of broken things
that need to get out.

♪♪

-There are two metal elements --
iron elements.

♪♪

-This room is adjacent
to a large stable

where the remains of
three horses were found in 2018.

♪♪

So, this place
was most likely used

to park, so to say, a chariot.

And we can identify a portico

which opened up
onto an unroofed courtyard.

-Bridled horses,
a chariot parked in a portico.

Are these the elements
of an ancient attempt

to escape
the unfolding disaster?

Whatever type of vehicle
this turns out to be,

it was part of what was
a vibrant and bustling

urban center
before the eruption.

It would have been among
an estimated 10,000 carts

and wagons
rolling around the city.

-In the streets of Pompeii,

carts were moving constantly
up and down the streets,

filling them with
the activity of daily life.

-The paved streets still bear

the scars of
all those ancient wheels.

Professor Eric Poehler
is an expert

at understanding the patterns
left behind

by this relentless flow
of traffic.

He's discovered
that ancient Pompeii had

a very modern solution

to preventing traffic jams
on its narrow streets.

-We actually have the evidence
for telling us

that there's a one-way system
of traffic

here in the ancient city.

At this intersection,
we can stop and look

at how the ruts
here on one side,

which you can see --

how the carts were coming along,
making this rut,

but also hitting
the stepping stone here

and carving down into it,
showing us that there's

a strong interaction
between the carts and the road.

But look here.

This evidence shows us
that we can actually see

which direction
the cart was moving.

Imagine a giant wheel
hitting this stone.

And as it hits the stone,

slides across it,
cutting into it,

making a smooth area
along the top

and a less-smooth area
along the bottom,

until finally it leaves contact
with the stone

and turns to the right.

This can only happen when carts
are coming from behind me.

-With so many
animal-drawn vehicles,

many buildings in Pompeii
had their own stables,

similar to the one where
the new chariot has been found.

-We can see how this leads
into a corridor

that takes the cart all the way
here into the stable,

where the cart would have been
detached from its animals,

and the animals led back
into the parts of the rear,

where they could probably
be given shade and water.

-Ancient Pompeii was alive
with the sound of wagon wheels,

but what details will
the newly discovered chariot add

to our picture of life
in this ancient city?

♪♪

Inch-by-inch,
the work continues.

♪♪

January 2021 --

the then-director of
the Pompeii Archeological Park

arrives to inspect the progress.

-[ Speaking Italian ]

♪♪

-This is not
a two-wheel chariot anymore.

-No. Digging deeper,

we have brought to light
two more wheels.

-Where is the other wheel?
-Here.

-And this is the second one?
-Yes, it would seem so.

♪♪

-Also on this side.

And all four wheels
have the same diameter,

so it's a four-wheel chariot
with a decorated back.

Well, they're beautiful.

♪♪

So, are there traces
of mineralized wood?

Okay, those are the spokes!

-Any wheeled vehicle
would be a major find,

but a four-wheeled carriage,
heavy with decoration,

promises to tell a previously
untold part of Pompeii's story.

-Spectacular.

This looks like
an abduction scene.

♪♪

-The prosecutor in charge of
the looting investigation

arrives to survey
the historic discovery.

-Marvelous! Marvelous!

♪♪

We've been lucky it has not been
intercepted by tomb raiders.

We can see their tunnel here.

-After a 60-meter-long tunnel,

they got here
and brushed against it.

-The tunnel bends here, so
it does not touch the chariot.

They just brushed against it and
went along to the other side.

Maybe they wanted
to reach the stable

as they thought that was
the richest part of the house,

where they might find
hidden treasures.

♪♪

As far as I know, this is
unprecedented here in Pompeii.

There hasn't ever been
anything similar before.

This chariot
is really sumptuous.

♪♪

What's more, it matches
the harnessed horses

we uncovered next door
very well.

Someone might have come here

to try and harness the horses
to escape.

Two of them
were harnessed and ready.

Or it might be that one of
the horses was trying to escape

through one of the openings
but didn't manage,

and collapsed just there,
in front of the entrance.

-Due to the size and complexity
of the chariot,

archaeologists use
every tool at their disposal.

Plaster casts capture

the impressions left in the ash
by decayed wooden elements,

allowing the entire shape and
structure to be preserved.

When the site director returns
in February,

the chariot is
almost fully excavated.

♪♪

-It's getting
more and more difficult.

Ooh! Ooh, that's great!

♪♪

So, now it's clear enough
how it works, isn't it?

This is the boundary
of the chariot,

and here it's open.

-The archaeologists
have finished uncovering

a series of bronze and tin
medallions

decorating the sides
and rear of the chariot.

The decorative elements
are now visible.

They show ancient gods of love

and figures
engaged in erotic scenes.

-She seems to be lying down,

so this might be
another erotic scene.

This chariot might have been
a marriage chariot,

rather than a war carriage.

-Nothing like this has ever
been found in Pompeii.

It appears to be
a ceremonial chariot,

or pilentum -- a carriage used
by women and in sacred rites.

And this one
could have been used

for community festivals
or marriage rituals.

-Maybe it was ready to be used.
This gives me the creeps.

It's as if everything was ready
for a ritual

that never happened.
We need to carry on.

There must be
more surprises to come.

-Buried for almost 2,000 years,

it will now be preserved
for the ages,

adding intricate detail
to the understanding

of what life was like
for people who lived in Pompeii.

[ Beeping ]

-Even though carts have to have
been really prevalent

in the ancient world,
there must have been

thousands and thousands of them.

We actually have very few of
them recovered from archeology.

And that's because
of a simple reason --

they're completely recyclable.
Everything about a cart,

from the iron wheels that can be
pounded into other things,

to the wood
that the cart is made out of

that can be burned.
That's one of the things

that makes even
a utilitarian cart very special.

But the new chariot,
the new carriage --

it is even more special

because it's meant
to draw your attention.

It's the Lamborghini
of this ancient world.

So, for example,
the front wheels pivot

and make it so turning around
sharp corners is easier.

They also have the body
of the cart narrow in,

so the wheels can turn further
underneath of it

without hitting the cart itself.

And finally,
and really interestingly,

we see that the cart itself
is well-prepared

for the comfort of
the people riding in it.

-The chariot might have weighed
2,000 pounds when fully loaded.

To make its way
through the city,

it would have had to negotiate

the narrow, obstacle-filled
streets

atop giant iron wheels.

-We should imagine a cart
coming into the city,

rolling up the hill,
and sliding its axle

just high enough
over this stone,

and sliding its two wheels
on either side.

This is going to compress the
traffic into this one location,

and it's going to make
more and more of the ruts

that famously mark
the streets here in Pompeii.

-As it rolled down the street,

past Pompeii's
bustling shops and squares,

this ornate chariot would have
undoubtedly turned heads.

-We know from ancient literature
that very often

these ancient carts,

and particularly these kinds
that are so elaborate,

so ornate,
were meant to draw attention.

Some people
would be just jealous.

Some people
would be dumbfounded.

"I've never seen
anything like that before."

And still others, undoubtedly

would judge
the person driving it

as being a bit amoral,
of being too much of a showoff.

And you might just appreciate

what an interesting vehicle
that is

as it rolls past
and then down the street

and around the corner.

-"This is the moment!

The moment.
It's
the 

moment!"

-In Pompeii's urban core,
the team has discovered

a remarkably preserved
roadside tavern --

evidence of a thriving
street-food scene.

♪♪

This was a fast-food restaurant
of its time,

with jars of wine,
known as amphorae,

leaning against the counter

as if they've just arrived
by cart

from the vineyards of the villas
beyond the city walls.

♪♪

This type of restaurant,

which served hot and cold food,
as well as drinks,

is known as a thermopolium.

It's not the first of its kind
to be unearthed in Pompeii.

Incredibly, the city had
more than 160 of these eateries

at the time of the eruption.

But this is the first one that
will be excavated and studied

using all the scientific tools

available to
21st-century scientists.

Professor Steven Ellis,
an expert

on restaurants and retail shops
of the Roman world,

is excited to see

what the Italian archaeologists
will discover.

-Along with shops that are
selling food and drink,

we have shops for shoes,
shops for clothes,

shops for jewelry.

These kinds of spaces
really give us a chance

to get in at the heart
of urban life

and at the heart of
the urban economy, as well.

-As in modern times,

for a café like this,
location is everything.

-One of the great things
about a thermopolium like this

is it's positioned right here
in the heart of the city,

right at the intersection

of two of the busiest streets
in all of Pompeii.

What that gives them
an opportunity to do is

to set up their bar counter here
at this corner,

facing out onto
all of that traffic

and really attracting
all that attention

of all the people going
in every different direction.

-The abundance of these
streetside taverns suggests

that people in Pompeii
loved to dine out,

and is emblematic
of a larger trend

that was changing the cityscape
of the Roman world

in the 1st century.

It's an era Ellis hails as
the golden age of Roman retail.

-So, as you walk through
the city of Pompeii in 79 A.D.,

what we'll find ourselves
surrounded by

is all these shops
and all these thermopolia.

But it wasn't always like this.

These are the products of
a great big economic boom

that's sweeping through Pompeii
and, indeed, other towns

at the time and
transforming their landscape.

So, where once there are
a lot of workshops around us,

the sights and sounds and
tinkering of making of objects,

now, from the 1st century A.D.,
we start to see

that being replaced
with shops and bars

and the sights and sounds

of people consuming
food and drink.

-The newly uncovered
thermopolium has

one of the most intricately
painted counters

archaeologists have ever seen.

Having an attractive
bar or counter

was key to the success of any
Pompeiian roadside eatery.

-So, here we are at the front

of one of Pompeii's
many thermopolia.

It has its counter
at the front here,

on this main street
running through Pompeii.

And it practically kind of
invites you to come on inside.

Originally, it would have been
made of wood,

but these ones, by now,
in the 1st century A.D.,

there's such a confidence and
such a commitment to retailing

that they're now making them

not only out of masonry
but out of marble --

all these big, beautiful
pieces of marble

that have been cut and lined
on the top of the surface here.

Sunk into the counter
are these vessels --

these earthenware pots

that were used for holding
all sorts of things --

all the kinds of foods that
they're trying to sell here,

but also the day's takings.

One of these had contained in it
over a thousand coins

from the use
of the shop in here.

So these thermopolia are
a real kind of central part

to the world of the street.

These are the lifeblood of
Pompeiian street life.

So there's
all this moving traffic

going both ways,
up and down the street here,

and they're stopping in
not only at these bars,

to be able to grab something to
eat and something to drink,

but they're also
stopping in here

to catch up with their friends
and their associates.

-December 2020 --
The Italian archeologists

have been working
on the thermopolium site

for more than a year.

It has turned out to be
one of the most beautiful

and perfectly preserved shops
in all of Pompeii,

offering new insights into
daily life in the doomed city.

-We have found this bottle,

and on the bottom,
there was a roof tile.

And under the roof tile,
there was a lump.

The analysis proved it was
fragments of fava beans.

Ground fava beans might have
served as a whitener for wine,

which was common at that time.

♪♪

-But more was still to come.

After opening
one of the jars of the bar,

we smelt a very strong
smell of wine.

It's really extraordinary.

We might call it
olfactory archeology.

♪♪

-That distinctive smell
coming from the dolium

during the excavation works,

it was a unique experience
for us.

And it's weird, considering that
the dolium had been sealed

for over 2,000 years.

♪♪

-We're now analyzing the
contents of these containers,

which were sealed by
the cinders of the eruption.

Bones of animals are emerging

which were apparently used
for food preparation.

Analyzing the whole contents,
we'll finally learn

what people used to eat
in Pompeii,

in exceptional detail --
much greater than before.

♪♪

-We have a series of fragments
which were probably

part of preparations
contained in the jars

when the volcano erupted.

They used to mix
different animals,

what we probably
wouldn't normally do today --

goat or sheep meat --
it's not clear which one --

fish, a land snail, and,

as a representative of poultry,
a fragment of a duck bone.

-A lot of the houses
around here,

particularly the smaller ones
and the smaller apartments

and the smaller rooms
that people are renting out

above the nicer houses
on the ground floor,

they don't have
cooking facilities,

they don't have
cooking provisions.

So if you want to get
that cooked meal,

you've got to come down
to a place like this.

♪♪

-What's interesting is, the bar
of this particular thermopolium

shows incredible paintings
for the first time.

On one side, there is a Nereid,
a character in marine mythology,

riding a seahorse.

This was probably a homage

to the area where the
thermopolium was installed,

which was a little square
with a fountain.

♪♪

-The decorating panels on
the fronts of this thermopolium

are particularly intriguing.

In this panel,
the bar itself is represented,

with the same bend
it actually has.

♪♪

Then, there is
this row of amphorae

which we've actually found here

during the first stages
of our excavation works --

just here,
standing in front of the bar.

So, this panel was meant
to communicate something

so that passers-by would know
immediately where they were

and what they might expect
to find here,

with a very realistic
representation.

-Not all the animals
pictured on the counter

were actually on the menu.

This image calls to mind one of
Pompeii's most famous mosaics,

which warns "Beware of dog"
in Latin.

-There is a dog on a chain --

a new, very interesting
"Cave Canem,"

similar to the more famous one,
which was probably

here somewhere
as part of the shop,

to guard against
unwanted visitors.

A close inspection
of the painting

reveals a lighter side of life
in ancient Pompeii.

Like modern bathroom walls,
these counters attracted

the musings of graffiti artists.

-In the upper frame
of this picture,

there's a graffiti that reads,
"Nicia cinaede cacator."

Nicia is a person's name
of Greek origin.

"Cacator"
literally means "defecator,"

so someone who defecates.

So, the sentence means,

"Defecating Nicia,
you are a pervert."

It was undoubtedly graffitied
here after the bar was painted,

not by laborers,
but rather by someone

whose intent was
to insult someone

who worked here or

maybe even the owner
of this thermopolium.

♪♪

-Behind
the thermopolium counter,

the team has made a somber
discovery of human bones.

♪♪

-I'm now clearing the remains

that have been found
behind the bar.

Presumably, they are
the remains of human beings

who were inside the room
when the volcano erupted.

♪♪

In this other spot,

we didn't find dispersed bones,
but consecutive bones,

which means they are exactly
where the person died

that morning in 79 A.D.

What you see here
is the niche of a bed,

and here are traces of some
organic, iron material,

which was probably the bed.

It appears to be a male,
45 to 50 years old.

♪♪

-As the excavation
nears completion,

the artifacts
are preserved and catalogued.

All this bone and clay
has added flesh and blood

to the story of
Pompeii's final days --

days in which
brightly painted signage

lured rich and poor alike
to the busy roadside

for a drink of local wine,

or perhaps a taste
of snail-and-fish stew.

-You really see how this worked

as a space where
images, people, and actions

were part of one whole complex

that we are trying
to reconstruct.

That's really the idea.

Our main interest is not,
you know,

ancient art or ancient skeletons
as a single element,

but the lifeworld
of these people.

[ Indistinct shouting ]

[ Bell clanging ]

-The lives cut short
by the terror of Vesuvius

were centered around the daily
activities of urban existence.

This was the Roman world

of gladiator games
and raucous street festivals.

[ Indistinct shouting ]

♪♪

-Really fantastic.
-Fantastic.

♪♪

-This monument,
right at the doorstep

of the Pompeii Archeological
Park headquarters,

commemorates one such festival

thrown for the city
by one of its richest men.

One can easily imagine the
recently excavated carriage

rolling down the paved streets
in a ceremonial procession --

perhaps what it was doing

in the days or hours
before the sky turned dark

and the vehicle disappeared
into the ash

that would conceal it
for two millennia.

-When the eruption started,

the chariot was there,
ready to be used,

or it had just been used.

Then, it started raining
the pumice stones,

but the chariot
was in a portico,

so it was not immediately
covered by this material.

It eventually accumulated
on the roofs.

In some cases, we know

that the roofs
started to collapse.

The arrival of
pyroclastic shock waves

with ashes
entered into the portico

and covered the chariot and
eventually become

the reason why the chariot
is so well-conserved,

almost as it was
in the moment of the eruption.

-Freed from the ash,
the chariot can now be analyzed

with such accuracy that
digital artists

have been able to re-create
what it might have looked like

on the day of the eruption.

-Looks, it's beautiful.

You can clearly see the break.

-It is a bit
like what I have here.

-Mm. Yes.

Pompeii findings are usually
tools, objects of everyday life,

from ceramics to metal,

but it's the first time
we've found a chariot

in this state of preservation,
which is complete.

[ Conversation in Italian ]

-Right now, I'm just removing
the excess chalk and ashes

from these metal sheets.

This is to slow down corrosion

that would otherwise
attack much faster

by retaining moisture
on the surface.

Nonetheless, I'm trying to
remove as many ashes as possible

in order to prevent humidity

from pursuing
the corrosion process.

-Anything we find
here in Pompeii

is covered with these ashes.

All the exhibits on this table

come from the same side
of the chariot,

which is the backboard.

These are the medallions that we
can see in this composition.

-The light alloy medallions

are also in a fairly stable
condition

during the excavation phase.

We only secured them
with this sort of Band-Aid

where it was
absolutely necessary

to avoid fragments
from falling off.

♪♪

Look. There was silver here.

Look, it's beautiful!

-We are discovering this live.

-You're witnessing a discovery!

[ Chuckles ]

-The restoration of the chariot
adds vivid detail

to the understanding
of the city elite's lifestyle.

But further excavations
are shedding new light

on how the other half lived.

Adjacent to the stable
where the horses were found,

and just off the portico
where the chariot rested,

the team has uncovered
a tiny room.

Only 170 square feet,
it has three wooden beds,

one of which appears
to have been for a child.

Archaeologists speculate
this is the bedroom

of the villa's servants,
possibly enslaved.

Perhaps a small family.

It seems to have also doubled
as a storage room,

with clay pots
crammed into the corners.

-What little we know is
through the official sources,

which are always,
or almost always,

from the point of view
of the wealthy elite.

And here, instead, we see the
life of the slaves and servants,

the people of
a lower economic status.

-And leaning against
one of the beds,

evidence suggesting that whoever
occupied this small room

was also responsible
for the maintenance

of the magnificent vehicle
just steps away.

-Here is the steering mechanism.

Ultimately, it was used
to connect the chariot

to the horses that were found
just a few steps away from us.

So, really this room served both
as a resting place

and the storage room

where recently used objects
were placed.

Let's also remember

that we found wheat kernels
on the chariot,

meaning it was either
ready to be used

or had just been used.

And for this reason,

a steering mechanism
had been set down nearby.

Indeed, the part has been
exceptionally preserved,

because, on this side,
we can view

this whole set of twines
that was so exciting to us

to see
emerging from the earth

while digging it out,
day by day.

Along with it, there's a whole
system of ropes and planks

that are held together
by this iron ring

of which we can see
only a trace.

Therefore,
such a steering mechanism

is precisely
the element we needed

to figure out how this vibrant
and one-of-a-kind

ceremonial chariot, found in the
portico next to us, works.

♪♪

-Down a nearby hallway,

the building is hiding
one final secret.

This corridor beneath the villa

had steps connecting it
to the upper floor.

♪♪

In a room off to the side,

archeologists have found
a void in the ash layer.

[ Conversation in Italian ]

Further investigation reveals
the skeletal remains of two men.

-We have spotted two victims

in a villa
in the outskirts of Pompeii.

The hollows left in the ashes
by the decomposed bodies

were intact.

♪♪

-We haven't found something
like this for years.

We are now finally able
not only to take the mold

but also to gather
a complete set of data

which allow us to look deeper,
compared with usual discoveries.

Once these data are collected
and a laser scan analysis made,

we have poured plaster
into the body hollows.

In this case we have poured as
much as 95 liters of plaster,

and we have been very lucky,
as we initially thought

the hollows
were not so well-preserved.

-The casts capture
the ancient impressions

of clothes that have
long since disintegrated,

including the folds
of woolen cloaks.

This is a significant find.

It suggests the victims
were dressed for cool weather.

Just like the date found on the
wall in the initial excavations,

it points to the disaster
having happened in the fall,

not, as long believe,
the heat of August.

-Indeed, we got
the entire body shapes.

Look, you can see
the full footprint!

And not only the drapery, the
fibers themselves are visible.

They have been preserved
so well!

-Buried in ash
at least 6 1/2 feet thick,

the two men were likely
trying to escape

when they were overwhelmed
by a pyroclastic surge,

their hands and feet clenched

in a manner typical of death
by thermal shock.

-This is a high-definition
surveying laser scanner.

The main feature of this model

is that it performs
a real-scale scan,

and when I click
on each cluster,

I can see any dimension
I need at all times.

♪♪

How useful is it?

First of all,
we can make a historical record

of the various stages
of the excavation works.

We can document all the levels
descending down to this one,

where we found the corpses.

3-D scanning represents
a considerable added value

as the archeologists
of the future

will have
more accurate information

about what we are doing today.

♪♪

-We have worked with a
cross-disciplinary approach.

We'll perform further analyses.

This means
that many sets of data

that risked getting lost
in the past

have now been recorded
since the start,

and they tell us
how the victims were dressed,

as well as providing
some crucial information

about the eruption.

The latest discoveries suggest,
for example,

that it happened in October
and not in August,

and these molds prove it
with relative certainty.

One of the victims wore
a very thick woolen cloak,

as the warp and weft
of the collar suggest.

So we have
a huge amount of information

which is useful to have an idea
of how the city was made up.

-The intricate clothing
worn by one of the victims

indicates he was
a man of high status.

The other man's clothes
are simpler,

and his compressed vertebrae
suggest a life of manual labor.

-Two really impressive bodies,

which made us
feel very emotional

and caused deep sympathy
in the entire team.

We've determined that one was
a young man in his 20s,

150 to 155 centimeters tall,
probably a slave,

as his bones show
marks and traces of heavy work.

Next to him is an older man,
in his 40s,

probably his master, or dominus.

We're not sure,

but he was certainly of
a different social status.

To see the past re-emerging
from the ashes

in this intense
and sometimes intact way

completely overwhelms me.

-One can speculate
about who these men were.

The owner of the villa,

accompanied by
one of his servants?

Perhaps they were attempting
to get to the horses

when disaster struck.

-From what we can see,

at least 10 centimeters of ashes
are below the molds.

So these people died during
the second pyroclastic surge,

which was certainly
the most violent one.

-And caused the death of those
who were hoping to escape

when it was quiet between
the first and second surge.

♪♪

-Here, we are dealing
with faces, expressions --

desperate facial expressions.

Knowing that we
could do something

to cast light onto something

that had lived in oblivion
for almost 2,000 years

has really inspired me
to extract these bodies

and bring them back
into history.

In this way, they're
going to live forever.

♪♪

-The recent discoveries

only reinforce
the connection we feel

with these people
of the ancient past.

The new plaster casts
demonstrate

that life in Pompeii
was not so different from today.

The stunning, new finds
at Pompeii

have given us a clearer picture

of urban life
in the 1st century,

possibly rewritten history
about the date of the eruption,

and allowed us
to reimagine the final hours

of a vibrant and surprisingly
modern street scene.

It was just around noon.
[ Seagull calling ]

As usual, the city center
was crowded

with carts navigating
narrow one-way streets.

Workers were still
rebuilding houses

and repairing roads
from earlier earthquakes.

Along the roadside,
café proprietors

competed for customers,
with the promise of hot food,

and wine freshly delivered from
the surrounding countryside.

Perhaps a ceremonial carriage

had just returned to the stables
of a suburban villa,

where a family of servants
waited to service the vehicle,

and their wealthy masters
retired upstairs.

-On the day of the eruption
life in the street

would have been carrying on
as it had for years before.

But at that moment,
we should imagine

that life stopped,

not necessarily in terror
immediately,

but first
just in confusion --

what was happening
on the mountain?

-The sky is darkening, and
what's really happening for them

is something that is beyond
any kind of comprehension.

-We would have seen the
pedestrians beginning to run

and probably the mule drivers
running with their mules.

The crowd probably
actually then stopped

most of the vehicles
from going anywhere

because they would have thronged
the streets.

-So the household here,
who's running a bar like this,

they have a choice to make.

They're either going to flee
with lots of others

who are trying to flee
out of the city,

or as we see
with other kinds of places,

they're also trying to take
refuge in buildings like this,

maybe holed out in one of
the back rooms behind here.

-Ultimately, the vast majority
of Pompeii's inhabitants

chose to flee.

But 2,000 people stayed behind,

only to die in the streets
and inside buildings.

The haunting question is "Why?"

Why did so many
choose to remain,

when so many others escaped?

-Here in modern Pompeii,
people walking around,

if the eruption went off,
would grab their cellphones

and they'd call their family
to find help,

to find each other,

and to think of
a way to escape together.

But in the ancient world,
obviously this wasn't possible.

So, what would people do?

They'd think,
"My husband's in the forum.

My children are
with their grandmother.

I've got to
bring them all together.

I'm at home.
I hope they'll come here."

If they didn't come,
would you leave?

Would you try to find them?
Or would you try to escape?

So many people probably died
in ancient Pompeii

simply because they couldn't
find the people they loved,

and they wouldn't
abandon them to their fate.

-And so it is
with the archeologists

tasked with preserving Pompeii.

Rather than abandon the city
to its fate,

they continue
the work of generations.

With tools never dreamed of
by those who came before them,

they carry on in solemn pursuit

of all the stories
still buried in the ash.

O0 C1

Next time, the collapse
of the Roman Empire.