Like the nearby city of Pompeii, Herculaneum is famous as one of the few ancient cities to be preserved nearly intact, as the solidified material from the volcano that blanketed the town protected it against looting and the elements. Although less known than Pompeii today, it was the first and, for a long time, the only discovered Vesuvian city (in 1709). Pompeii was revealed in 1748 and identified in 1763.[1] Unlike Pompeii, the mainly pyroclastic material that covered Herculaneum carbonized and preserved more wooden objects such as roofs, beds, and doors, as well as other organic-based materials such as food and papyrus.
According to the traditional tale, the city was rediscovered by chance in 1709, during the drilling of a well. Remnants of the city, however, were already found during earlier earthworks.[2] In the years following the site's uncovering, treasure seekers excavated tunnels and took artifacts. Regular excavations commenced in 1738 and have continued irregularly since. Today, only a fraction of the ancient site has been excavated. The focus has shifted to preserving the already-excavated portions of the city rather than exposing more.
Smaller than Pompeii with a population of circa 5,000,[3] Herculaneum was a wealthier town.[4] It was a seaside retreat for the Roman elite, as reflected by the extraordinary density of luxurious houses featuring lavish use of coloured marble cladding. Buildings of the ancient city include the Villa of the Papyri and the so-called "boat houses", where the skeletal remains of at least 300 people were found.
History of Herculaneum
Herculaneum plan showing the ancient site below the modern (1908) town and the 1631 "lava" flow
Dionysius of Halicarnassus states that the Greek hero Heracles (Hercules in Latin) founded the city.[5] However, according to Strabo, the Oscans founded the first settlement.[6] The Etruscans took control of the area, and were later overthrown by the Greeks. The Greeks named the town Heraklion and used it as a trading post because of its proximity to the Gulf of Naples. In the 4th century BC, Herculaneum came under the domination of the Samnites.
In the 2nd century BC the city walls were built (between 2 and 3 metres thick), constructed primarily of large pebbles, with the exception of the coastal section made of opus reticulatum. It participated in the Social War (91–88 BC) on the side of the "Allies" against Rome and was defeated by Titus Didius, a legate of Sulla. Following the war the walls lost their protective purpose and were integrated into houses and adjacent structures, such as the House of the Inn.
The eruption of Mount Vesuvius in AD 79 buried Herculaneum under approximately 20m (66ft) of ash. It lay hidden and largely intact until discoveries from wells and tunnels became gradually more widely known, notably following the Prince d'Elbeuf's explorations in the early 18th century.[7] Excavations continued sporadically up to the present and today many streets and buildings are visible, although over 75% of the town remains buried. Today, the Italian towns of Ercolano and Portici lie above Herculaneum. Ercolano was called Resina until 1969 when the modern name was adopted in honour of the old city.
Eruption of 79 AD
Herculaneum and other cities affected by the eruption of Mount Vesuvius. The black cloud represents the general distribution of ash and cinder. Modern coast lines are shown.
The course and timeline of the eruption can be reconstructed based on archaeological excavations and two letters from Pliny the Younger to the Roman historian Tacitus.[8]
At around 1 pm on the first day of eruption, Mount Vesuvius began spewing volcanic material thousands of metres into the sky. After the plume had reached a height of 27–33km (17–21mi),[9] the top of the column flattened, prompting Pliny to describe it to Tacitus as a stone pine tree. The prevailing winds at the time blew toward the southeast, causing the volcanic material to fall primarily on the city of Pompeii and the surrounding area. Since Herculaneum lay west of Vesuvius, it was only mildly affected by the first phase of the eruption. While roofs in Pompeii collapsed under the weight of falling debris, only a few centimetres of ash fell on Herculaneum, causing little damage; nevertheless, the ash prompted most inhabitants to flee.
The volcano continued spewing up a high-altitude column from which ash and pumice began to fall, blanketing the area. At 1 am the next day, the eruptive column collapsed onto Vesuvius and its flanks. The first pyroclastic surge, formed by a mixture of ash and hot gases, flowed down the mountain and through the mostly-evacuated town of Herculaneum at 160km/h (100mph). A succession of six flows and surges buried the city's buildings to approximately 20m (66ft) depth, causing little damage in some areas and preserving structures, objects and victims almost intact. However, other areas were damaged significantly, knocking down walls, tearing away columns and other large objects;[10] a marble statue of Marcus Nonius Balbus near the baths was blown 15m (49ft) away and a carbonised skeleton was found lifted 2.5m (8ft 2in) above ground level in the garden of the House of the Relief of Telephus.[11][12]
The date of the eruption has been shown to be on or after 17 October.[13] Support for an October/November eruption has long been known in several respects: buried people in the ash were wearing heavier clothing than the light summer clothes typical of August; fresh fruit and vegetables in the shops are typical of October – and conversely the summer fruit typical of August was already being sold in dried, or conserved form. Wine fermenting jars had been sealed, which would have happened around the end of October; coins found in the purse of a woman buried in the ash include one with a 15th imperatorial acclamation among the emperor's titles and could not have been minted before the second week of September.[14]
Multidisciplinary research on the lethal effects of the pyroclastic surges in the Vesuvius area has shown that, in the vicinity of Pompeii and Herculaneum, intense heat was the main cause of the death of people who had previously been thought to have died by ash suffocation. Exposure to ≥250°C (480°F) had likely killed residents within 10km, including those sheltering in buildings.[15]
Archaeology
Small Herculaneum Woman (Dresden)
Prince d'Elbeuf began constructing a villa in neighbouring Granatello, and to furnish it, he grew intrigued in local tales of wells containing antique sculptures and artworks.[16] In 1709, he acquired the site of a recently-dug well and tunnelled out from its bottom in search of sculptures. The tunnel reached what would be later identified as a theatre, where remarkable sculptures were uncovered. Among the earliest sculptures discovered were two exquisitely carved Herculaneum women,[17] currently housed in the Skulpturensammlung in Dresden.[18] The excavation ceased in 1711 out of concern about the stability of the structures above.
Major excavations resumed in 1738 under the patronage of Charles III of Spain, who had recently begun building his nearby palace in Portici. He appointed the Italian military engineer Giovanni Antonio Medrano and Roque Joaquin de Alcubierre to supervise the extensive new project. The publication of "Le Antichità di Ercolano" ("The Antiquities of Herculaneum") had a striking influence on nascent European Neoclassicism; by the end of the 18th century, motifs from Herculaneum began to appear on fashionable furnishings, including decorative wall-paintings, tripod tables, perfume burners, and teacups. Nonetheless, excavation ceased once again in 1762 as a result of Winckelmann's harsh criticism of the treasure-hunting techniques. The discovery of neighbouring Pompeii, substantially simpler to excavate due to a smaller layer of material covering the site (4m as compared to 20m at Herculaneum), diverted attention and effort.
King Francis I ordered land acquisitions and promoted renewed excavations between 1828 and 1837. Acquisitions continued under the newly formed Kingdom of Italy, extending excavations eastwards till 1875.[19]
From 1927 until 1942, Amedeo Maiuri conducted a new campaign, sponsored by Mussolini's regime, which unearthed approximately four hectares which today are part of the archaeological park.
Hundreds of skeletons were found in the so-called "boat houses", by the ancient shoreline, between 1980 and 1981.
The Villa of the Papyri, the northwest baths,[20] the House of the Dionysian Reliefs[21] and a large collapsed monument were brought to light between 1996 and 1999. However, the area was left in a chaotic state until major conservation interventions from 2000 through 2007.
Many public and private buildings, including the forum complex, are yet to be excavated.
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The classical street layout separates the city into blocks (insulae), defined by the intersection of the east–west (cardi) and north–south (decumani) streets. Hence Insula II to Insula VII run counterclockwise from Insula II. To the east are two additional blocks: Orientalis I (oI) and Orientalis II (oII). To the south of Orientalis I (oI) lies one additional group of buildings known as the "Suburban District" (SD). Individual buildings have their own entrance number. For example, the House of the Deer is labelled (Ins IV, 3).
The Forum, temples, theatre, numerous houses and necropoles are still buried.
Due to bradyseism, which affects the entire Vesuvius region, portions of the historic city of Herculaneum today lie as much as 4 metres below sea level.[22]
A single main drain collected water from the Forum and from house impluviums, latrines and kitchens along Cardo III.[citation needed] Other drains emptied directly into the street, except latrines equipped with a cesspit. For water supply, the city was directly connected to the Serino aqueduct, built in the Augustan age, which brought water to buildings through a series of lead pipes under the roads, regulated by valves; wells had been used previously.
The House of Aristides (Ins II, 1)
Cupids playing with a kithara. Roman fresco from Herculaneum
The first building in insula II is the House of Aristides. The entrance opens directly onto the atrium, but the ruins are not well preserved due to damage caused by previous excavations. The lower floor was probably used for storage.
The House of Argus (Ins II, 2)
The second house in insula II takes its name from a lost fresco of Argus and Io that once adorned a reception room off the large peristyle. This structure was likely one of Herculaneum's finest villas. It was the first time that a second story had been unearthed in such detail when the house was discovered in the late 1820s. The excavation uncovered a balcony on the second level overlooking Cardo III, as well as wooden shelving and cupboards now lost.
The House of the Genius (Ins II, 3)
North of the House of Argus lies the House of the Genius. Although it has only been partially uncovered, it appears to have been a vast structure. Its name derives from a statue of a Cupid, once part of a candlestick. In the centre of the peristyle are the remains of a rectangular basin.
The House of the Alcove (Ins IV)
The house consists of two adjoined structures with a mix of plain, simple spaces and finely-decorated rooms.
The atrium is covered and lacks the usual impluvium. It retains its original flooring of opus tesselatum and opus sectile. A highly adorned biclinium (a dining-couch for two persons[23]) with frescoes in the fourth style and a spacious triclinium originally marble-floored are found off the atrium. Several further rooms, including the apsedalcove after which the house is named, are accessible via a corridor receiving daylight from a small courtyard.
College of the Augustales
A marble tablet from Herculaneum showing women playing knucklebones, depicting Phoebe, Leto, Niobe, Hilearia, and Agle, painted and signed by an artist named "Alexander of Athens", now in the Museo Archeologico Nazionale (Naples)
The Central baths (thermae) were built around the 1st century AD. There were separate bathing areas for men and women. The thermae also served as a prominent cultural hub.
The famous Villa of the Papyri, was built on the seashore on four terraces. It is thought to have belonged to consul Lucius Calpurnius Piso Caesoninus, Julius Caesar's father-in-law, who was a patron of poets and philosophers and built there the only ancient library that has survived virtually intact.
Between 1752 and 1754, a number of blackened, unreadable papyrus scrolls were recovered from the Villa of the Papyri by workmen. These scrolls became known as the Herculaneum papyri or scrolls, the majority of which are today stored at the National Library, Naples. Although badly carbonized, a number of scrolls have been unrolled with varying degrees of success. Computer-enhanced multi-spectral infrared imaging helped make the ink legible. There is now a real prospect that it will be possible to read the unopened rolls using X-rays.[24] The same techniques could be applied to the rolls waiting to be discovered in the as-yet unexcavated part of the villa, eliminating the risk of potential damage from unrolling. Later CT scan revealed the scrolls' fibres structure, sand, and other debris trapped in the scrolls. These findings help a safer unrolling. However, the text remains illegible.[25]
Two of the rolls stored at the French National Academy in Paris have been extensively examined by X-ray in summer 2009. However, the text imaging failed because Roman writers likely used carbon-based inks, essentially invisible to the X-ray scans.[26] Similar later attempts all failed.[27]
In 2015, a team of scientists managed to increase the contrast between the carbon ink and the carbon-based papyrus using X-ray Phase Contrast Tomography, and read Greek words along the outer papyrus, marking "a revolution for papyrologists". While researchers can identify certain words on the scrolls, the stories on the scrolls cannot yet be unlocked.[28]
In 2024 the winners of a contest called the Vesuvius Challenge, with the help of AI, managed to reveal hundreds of words across 15 columns of text, corresponding to around 5% of a scroll. [29]
Boathouses and the Shore
"Boat houses" where skeletons were foundThe skeleton called the "Ring Lady" unearthed in Herculaneum.
In 1980–82, excavations initially turned up more than 55 skeletons on the ancient beach (just in front of the city walls) and in the first six so-called "boat sheds".[30] Long before this finding, it was believed that the majority of the town's inhabitants had managed to flee, as only a few skeletons had been unearthed during the excavations. However, this discovery led to a shift in perspective. The last inhabitants waiting for rescue from the sea were probably killed instantly by the intense heat of the pyroclastic flow, despite being sheltered from direct impact. A study of victims' postures and the effects on their skeletons seemed to indicate that the first surge caused instant death as a result of fulminant shock due to a temperature of about 500°C (930°F). Extreme heat caused hands and feet to contract and perhaps fractured bones and teeth.[31]
After a period of finds being mismanaged and deterioration of skeletons,[32] further excavations in the 1990s uncovered 296 skeletons on the beach or huddled in 9 of the 12 stone vaults facing the sea. While the town was almost completely evacuated, these people found themselves trapped. The "Ring Lady" (see image), named for the rings on her fingers, was discovered there in 1982.
Eventually, 340 bodies were identified in this area.[33] Analyses of the skeletons suggest it was mainly men who died on the beach, while women and children sheltered and died in the boat houses.
A scientific study, published in 2021, showed that chemical analysis of the remains was able to provide further insights into the health and nutrition of Herculaneum's population. Stable isotope analysis of bone samples from 17 individuals (11 men and 6 women) revealed the men ate 1.6 times more fish than the women, who consumed more meat, eggs, and dairy; this fits into the wider dietary trend from Herculaneum and Roman Italy.[34]
Casts of skeletons were also produced to replace the original bones after taphonomic study, scientific documentation and excavation. In contrast to Pompeii, where casts resembling the body features of the victims were produced by filling hollowed spaces of the body imprints in the ash deposit with plaster, the shape of corpses at Herculaneum could not be preserved due to the rapid vaporisation and replacement of the flesh of the victims by the hot ash (ca. 500°C). A cast of the skeletons unearthed in chamber 10 is on display at the Museum of Anthropology in Naples.[35]
Of exceptional interest is the analysis, published in 2021, of one of the skeletons (n. 26) discovered in 1982 on the beach next to a boat (on display in the boat pavilion). The remains belong to a military officer (with an elaborate dagger and belt), who was perhaps involved in a rescue mission.[36]
The volcanic ash and debris covering Herculaneum, along with the extreme heat, left it in a remarkable state of preservation for over 1,600 years. However, once excavations began, exposure to the elements began the slow process of deterioration. This was exacerbated by earlier excavation practices, which generally focused on valuable artifacts rather than preserving the archaeological value of the site. Preservation of the skeletal remains became a top priority only in the early 1980s, under the direction of Sara C. Bisel.
Intensive tourism, vandalism, substandard management, and political ineptitude contributed to the deterioration of numerous sites and buildings. Numerous building foundations have been weakened by water damage caused by modern Ercolano.[citation needed] Reconstruction initiatives have often proved counterproductive. However, recent conservation efforts have had greater success. Today excavations have been temporarily discontinued to direct all funding to conservation programs.
After years of mismanagement, Herculaneum fell into a dire state. However, in 2001, the Packard Humanities Institute began the Herculaneum Conservation Project, a private–public partnership initially set to provide financial aid to local authorities addressing critical issues. The program eventually shifted to include providing skilled expert support and formulating a long-term plan for the site. Since 2001, the Herculaneum Conservation Project has been involved in pilot conservation projects and has partnered with the British School at Rome for training students to maintain the site.[37]
One of the pilot projects started by the Conservation Project was on the tablinum that had been conserved by Maiuri's team in 1938. Over time water had seeped into the wall causing the paint to attach to the previously applied wax and curl away from the wall, stripping it of its colour. However, after working in tandem with the Getty Museum, conservators have created a technique where solvents are used to remove some of the wax and lessen the buildup on the walls so that the paint no longer chips off.[38]
Photos
House Number 22 is noted for this outstanding summer triclinium with a nymphaeum decorated with coloured mosaics.
Herculaneum, Neptune and Salacia, wall mosaic in House Number 22
Street paving stones in Herculaneum
Residential water pipe made of lead in Herculaneum
Most likely a posthumous painted portrait of Cleopatra VII of Ptolemaic Egypt with red hair and her distinct facial features, wearing a royal diadem and pearl-studded hairpins, from Roman Herculaneum, mid-1st century AD[39][40]
A 1987 National Geographic special, In the Shadow of Vesuvius, explored the sites of Pompeii and Herculaneum, interviewed archaeologists, and examined the events leading up to the eruption of Vesuvius.
The 2002 documentary "Herculaneum. An unlucky escape" [41] is based on research of Pier Paolo Petrone, Giuseppe Mastrolorenzo and Mario Pagano. Co-production of DocLab Rome, Discovery Channel USA, France 3 – Taxi Brousse, Spiegel TV, Mediatred, 52'.
A 2004 documentary "Pompeii and the 79 AD eruption". TBS Channel Tokyo Broadcasting System, 120'.
An hour-long drama produced for the BBC entitled Pompeii: The Last Day portrays several characters (with historically attested names but fictional stories) living in Pompeii, Herculaneum and around the Bay of Naples, and their last hours, including a fuller and his wife, two gladiators, and Pliny the Elder. It also portrays the facts of the eruption.
Pompeii Live, Channel 5, 28 June 2006, 8pm, live archaeological dig at Pompeii and Herculaneum.
Marcellino de Baggis' 2007 documentary "Herculaneum: Diaries of Darkness and Light", Onionskin productions.[42]
The 2007 documentary "Troja ist überall: Auferstehung am Vesuv", Spiegel TV, 43'29.[43]
"Secrets of the Dead: Herculaneum Uncovered"[44] is a PBS show covering the archaeological discoveries at Herculaneum.
"Out of the Ashes: Recovering the Lost Library of Herculaneum"[45] is a KBYU-TV documentary that traces the history of the Herculaneum papyri from the time of the eruption to their discovery in 1752 to modern developments that impact their study.
"Pompeii: The Mystery of the People Frozen in Time"[47] is a 2013 BBC One drama documentary presented by Margaret Mountford.
"Pompeii: The New Revelations" was broadcast on UK TV channel 5 in 2021.
"Unearthed: Vesuvius' Secret Victim." Documents the city of Herculaneum and the lives of its people. It revealed that over 1,000 people of Herculaneum's 5,000 citizens had survived the eruption and were resettled in Naples and Cumae.
Mount Vesuvius is a somma–stratovolcano located on the Gulf of Naples in Campania, Italy, about 9 km (5.6 mi) east of Naples and a short distance from the shore. It is one of several volcanoes forming the Campanian volcanic arc. Vesuvius consists of a large cone partially encircled by the steep rim of a summit caldera, resulting from the collapse of an earlier, much higher structure.
Torre del Greco is a comune in the Metropolitan City of Naples in Italy, with a population of c. 85,000 as of 2016. The locals are sometimes called Corallini because of the once plentiful coral in the nearby sea, and because the city has been a major producer of coral jewellery and cameo brooches since the seventeenth century.
The Villa of the Papyri was an ancient Roman villa in Herculaneum, in what is now Ercolano, southern Italy. It is named after its unique library of papyri scrolls, discovered in 1750. The Villa was considered to be one of the most luxurious houses in all of Herculaneum and in the Roman world. Its luxury is shown by its exquisite architecture and by the large number of outstanding works of art discovered, including frescoes, bronzes and marble sculpture which constitute the largest collection of Greek and Roman sculptures ever discovered in a single context.
Pompeii: The Last Day is a 2003 dramatized documentary that tells of the eruption of Mount Vesuvius towards the end of August 79 CE. This eruption covered the ancient Roman cities of Pompeii and Herculaneum in ash and pumice, killing a large number of people trapped between the volcano and the sea. The documentary, which portrays the different phases of the eruption, was directed by Peter Nicholson and written by Edward Canfor-Dumas.
Amedeo Maiuri was an Italian archaeologist, famous for his archaeological investigations of the Roman city of Pompeii which was destroyed in the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in August of AD 79. He was the first to conduct systematic scientific excavations, analysis and publication at Pompeii and other sites around Vesuvius.
Andrew Frederic Wallace-Hadrill, is a British ancient historian, classical archaeologist, and academic. He is Professor of Roman Studies and Director of Research in the Faculty of Classics at the University of Cambridge. He was Director of the British School at Rome between 1995 and 2009, and Master of Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge from August 2009 to July 2013.
Ercolano is a town and comune in the Metropolitan City of Naples, Campania of Southern Italy. It lies at the western foot of Mount Vesuvius, on the Bay of Naples, just southeast of the city of Naples. The medieval town of Resina was built on the volcanic material left by the eruption of Vesuvius that destroyed the ancient city of Herculaneum, from which the present name is derived. Ercolano is a resort and the starting point for excursions to the excavations of Herculaneum and for the ascent of Vesuvius by bus. The town also manufactures leather goods, buttons, glass, and Lacryma Christi wine.
The Villa Poppaea is an ancient luxurious Roman seaside villa located in Torre Annunziata between Naples and Sorrento, in Southern Italy. It is also called the Villa Oplontis or Oplontis Villa A as it was situated in the ancient Roman town of Oplontis.
The Villa of the Mysteries is a well-preserved suburban ancient Roman villa on the outskirts of Pompeii, southern Italy. It is famous for the series of exquisite frescos in Room 5, which are usually interpreted as showing the initiation of a bride into a Greco-Roman mystery cult. These are now among the best known of the relatively rare survivals of Ancient Roman painting from the 1st century BC.
Pollena Trocchia is a comune (municipality) in the Metropolitan City of Naples in the Italian region Campania, located about 11 km east of Naples.
Pompeii and Herculaneum were once thriving towns, 2,000 years ago, in the Bay of Naples. Both cities have rich histories influenced by Greeks, Oscans, Etruscans, Samnites and finally the Romans. They are most renowned for their destruction: both were buried in the AD 79 eruption of Mount Vesuvius. For over 1,500 years, these cities were left in remarkable states of preservation underneath volcanic ash, mud and rubble. The eruption obliterated the towns but in doing so, was the cause of their longevity and survival over the centuries.
The ancient Roman city of Pompeii has been frequently featured in literature and popular culture since its modern rediscovery. Pompeii was buried under 4 to 6 m of volcanic ash and pumice in the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in AD 79.
Pompeii was a city in what is now the municipality of Pompei, near Naples, in the Campania region of Italy. Along with Herculaneum, Stabiae, and many surrounding villas, the city was buried under 4 to 6 m of volcanic ash and pumice in the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 AD.
Oplontis is an ancient Roman archaeological site, located in the town of Torre Annunziata, south of Naples in the Campania region of southern Italy. The excavated site comprises two Roman villas, the best-known of which is Villa A, the so-called Villa Poppaea.
Stabiae was an ancient city situated near the modern town of Castellammare di Stabia and approximately 4.5 km southwest of Pompeii. Like Pompeii, and being only 16 km (9.9 mi) from Mount Vesuvius, it was largely buried by tephra ash in the 79 AD eruption of Mount Vesuvius, in this case at a shallower depth of up to 5 m.
Of the many eruptions of Mount Vesuvius, a major stratovolcano in Southern Italy, the best-known is its eruption in 79 AD, which was one of the deadliest in history.
The Herculaneum papyri are more than 1,800 papyrus scrolls discovered in the 18th century in the Villa of the Papyri in Herculaneum. They had been carbonized when the villa was engulfed by the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 AD.
The Herculaneum loaf is a stamped sourdough loaf of bread that was baked in the town of Herculaneum shortly before the Eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 AD. It has been partially preserved due to being carbonised in the eruption. It was discovered on the archaeological site in 1930.
Padre Antonio Piaggio was an Italian priest and scholar, who invented a machine to unroll carbonized scrolls from Herculaneum in the 1750s, and spent the years 1779-1795 recording the activity of Vesuvius in a diary, for Sir William Hamilton.
PHerc. Paris. 4 is a carbonized scroll of papyrus, dating to the 1st century BC to the 1st century AD. Part of a corpus known as the Herculaneum papyri, it was buried by hot-ash in the Roman city of Herculaneum during the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 AD. It was subsequently discovered in excavations of the Villa of the Papyri from 1752–1754. Held by the Institut de France in its rolled state, it is now known to be a cornerstone example of non-invasive reading, where in February 2024, an announcement was made that the scroll's contents can be unveiled with the use of non-invasive imaging and machine learning artificial intelligence, paving the way towards the decipherment and scanning of other Herculaneum papyri and otherwise heavily damaged texts.
↑ De Ligt et al. (2012). "The Album of Herculaneum and a model of the town’s demography." Journal of Roman Archaeology, 25, 69–94. doi:10.1017/S1047759400001148
↑ Sigurdsson, Haraldur (2001), "Volcanology", in Meyers, Robert A. (ed.), Encyclopedia of Physical Science and Technology (Third ed.), Elsevier, pp.579–605
↑ Cinque, A. and Irollo, G. (2008) "Lapaleogeografia dell’antica Herculaneum e lefluttuazioni, di origine bradisismica, dellasua linea di costa". In P. G. Guzzo andM. P. Guidobaldi, eds., Nuove ricerche archeologiche nell’area Vesuviana (scavi 2003–2006): 425–38
↑ Wallace-Hadrill, Andrew (2011). Herculaneum: Past and Future. p. 126 ISBN978-0-7112-3142-9
↑ Martyn, R. et al. (2020). A re-evaluation of manner of death at Roman Herculaneum following the AD 79 eruption of Vesuvius. Antiquity, 94(373), 76-91. doi:10.15184/aqy.2019.215
↑ Fletcher, Joann (2008). Cleopatra the Great: The Woman Behind the Legend. New York: Harper. ISBN978-0-06-058558-7, image plates and captions between pp. 246-247.
National Geographic, Vol 162, No. 6. Buried Roman Town Give Up Its Dead, (December, 1982)
National Geographic, Vol 165, No 5. The Dead Do Tell Tales, (May, 1984)
Discover, magazine, Vol 5, No. 10. The Bone Lady (October, 1984)
The Mayo Alumnus, Vol 19, No. 2. An Archaeologist's Preliminary Report: Time Warp at Herculaneum, (April, 1983)
Carnegie Mellon Magazine, Vol 4, No. 2. Bone Lady Reconstructs People at Herculaneum, Winter, 1985
In the Shadow of Vesuvius National Geographic Special, (11 February 1987)
30 years of National Geographic Special, (25 January 1995)
Petrone P.P., Fedele F. (a cura di), 2002. Vesuvio 79 A.D. Vita e morte ad Ercolano, Fridericiana Editrice Universitaria, Napoli.
Antonio Virgili, Culti misterici ed orientali a Pompei, Gangemi, Roma, 2008.
National Geographic, Vol 212, No. 3. Vesuvius. Asleep for Now, (September, 2006)
Further reading
Brennan, B. 2018.Herculaneum A Roman Town Reborn. Sydney: Ancient History Seminars.
Brennan, B. 2012. Herculaneum A Sourcebook. Sydney: Ancient History Seminars.
Burlot, Delphine. (2011). The Disegni intagliati: A forgotten book illustrating the first discoveries at Herculaneum, Journal of the History of Collections. V. 23, (May):15–28.
Capasso, L. 2001. I fuggiaschi di Ercolano. Paleobiologia delle vittime dell' eruzione vesuviana del 79 d.C. Roma: L'Erma di Bretschneider
Daehner, J., ed. 2007. The Herculaneum Women: History, Context, Identities. Los Angeles: J. Paul Getty Museum.
De Carolis, E., and G. Patricelli. 2003. Vesuvius, A.D. 79: The Destruction of Pompeii and Herculaneum. Los Angeles: J. Paul Getty Museum.
Deiss, J. J. 1995. The Town of Hercules: A Buried Treasure Trove. Malibu, CA: J. Paul Getty Museum.
Lazer, E. 2009. Resurrecting Pompeii. London: Routledge.
Pace, S. 2000. Herculaneum and European Culture Between the Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries. Naples, Italy: Electa.
Pagano, M. 2000. Herculaneum: A Reasoned Archaeological Itinerary. Translated by A. Pesce. Naples, Italy: T&M.
Pagano, M., and A. Balasco. 2000. The Ancient Theatre of Herculaneum. Translated by C. Fordham. Naples, Italy: Electa.
Pirozzi, M. E. A. 2000. Herculaneum: The Excavations, Local History and Surroundings. Naples, Italy: Electa.
Scarth, A. 2009. Vesuvius: A Biography. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
Wallace-Hadrill, A. 2011. "The Monumental Centre of Herculaneum: In Search of the Identities of the Public Buildings." Journal of Roman Archaeology 24:121–160.
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