The other Pompeii: The incredible archaeological finds of Herculaneum

Herculaneum existed as a coastal Roman town in Campania, and it sat at the base of Mount Vesuvius at the Bay of Naples.

Founded by the Oscans and later controlled by the Samnites, the town had come under Roman influence in the 4th century BC and had become fully Roman by the end of the 1st century BC, after which it became a popular retreat for aristocrats, wealthy merchants, and imperial officials.

They constructed luxurious seaside villas that featured columned courtyards, detailed frescoes, and private bath suites. 

Builders arranged the town around the steep coastal slope, where they built terraced streets that descended toward the sea and they placed key public buildings along the main streets.

Surveys estimate about 5,000 residents lived there, with urban infrastructure that included heated bathhouses, a palaestra, a decumanus with covered walkways, and shrines to Roman deities, all of which demonstrate the standard features of Roman civic design combined with local wealth and luxury. 

Evidence recovered from wall paintings, graffiti, and inscriptions confirms that Herculaneum’s citizens participated actively in civic and religious life.

Commercial activity flourished around the forum and waterfront warehouses, which housed goods such as wine, oil, and salted fish.

Local government operated through elected magistrates, as shown by electoral inscriptions on the walls of houses and shops, including slogans such as "Vote for Lucius Popidius." 

Vesuvius destroyed Herculaneum with a violent series of pyroclastic surges that moved faster and reached higher temperatures than the ash fall that covered Pompeii.

The first surge struck the town shortly after midnight, likely on 24 October 79 AD.

The surge brought a blast of toxic gas and fine ash heated to over 400°C. Scientific studies suggest that temperatures in some areas exceeded 500°C.

That surge killed every person still in the town through extreme thermal shock, with exposed organic matter that rapidly carbonised in the intense heat, and the heavier flows that followed buried the entire area beneath 20 metres of volcanic material in six successive waves. 

Because the flows lacked the pumice fall that collapsed buildings in Pompeii, Herculaneum’s upper storeys, wooden beams, furniture, and even fabrics remained largely intact.

The absence of oxygen beneath the dense pyroclastic material prevented decomposition, which allowed wooden shutters, shelves, stairs, and beds to char rather than rot.

This rapid heating preserved organic material, even in very small details. Many rooms retained their original furnishings, and the preservation of painted ceilings, timber roof trusses, and floor mosaics has offered archaeologists a rare opportunity to study Roman interior decoration in situ. 

The intense heat even carbonised foodstuffs, papyri, textiles, and human bodies in a process that preserved their structure and texture.

At the Villa of the Papyri, over 1,800 scrolls had lain carbonised in tightly packed shelves, and their content remained protected inside layers of fragile ash.

Scholars believe many of the texts were probably authored by Philodemus of Gadara, who was an Epicurean philosopher.

Technological advances, including multispectral imaging, X-ray phase-contrast tomography, and machine learning models trained on ancient Greek handwriting developed during the 2023 Vesuvius Challenge, have recently allowed scholars to begin reading them without physical unrolling.

These methods have begun to uncover lost works of Hellenistic philosophy and have raised hopes that Latin texts may still lie buried in unexplored parts of the villa. 

The rediscovery of Herculaneum occurred in 1709, when a well-digger accidentally struck ancient marble as he bored for water beneath the modern town of Resina, later renamed Ercolano.

Workmen had unknowingly hit the orchestra of the ancient theatre, which lay more than 20 metres below ground.

Once word had spread of the find, Bourbon officials began royal-sponsored excavations that used vertical shafts and tunnels and that often looked for sculptures and valuables rather than architectural understanding. 

In 1738, Swiss engineer Karl Weber began recording the finds in a more organised way, and he created detailed plans of rooms, passageways, and artworks recovered from the villa complexes.

His drawings and notes were one of the earliest examples of modern archaeological records, although most of the artefacts were still removed and transported to the Royal Museum in Naples without regard for context.

The Villa of the Papyri, excavated in these early years, yielded bronze statues, marble busts, and the famous collection of carbonised scrolls that continues to be the only known Roman library with surviving scrolls. 

Full-scale open-air excavations did not begin until the 20th century, when Amedeo Maiuri began new excavations in October 1927 to expose the ancient streets and structures.

He continued this work until 1958, by which time Maiuri had introduced modern stratigraphic methods that aimed to understand the site's layers rather than extracting isolated treasures.

He uncovered the ancient shoreline, shops, houses, and public buildings, and he removed thousands of tonnes of hardened volcanic rock.

Later archaeologists adopted more conservative approaches, and they focused on stratigraphic preservation combined with careful water drainage measures and structural stabilisation, particularly as many parts of the modern town still sit directly above the ancient site. 

In 1982, excavations along the ancient seafront uncovered a discovery that changed public understanding of the town’s final hours: over 300 skeletons lay inside arched boat houses, which had once stood just above the beach.

These victims, including women, children, and elderly people, had apparently taken shelter in stone chambers as they hoped to escape by sea.

Analysis of their skeletons showed horrifying details. Many had suffered instantaneous death from thermal shock, and some held tools, jewellery, or sacks of valuables, which suggests they had prepared to flee.

One individual, known as Skeleton 26, was found with gold jewellery fused to the skull by extreme heat. 

Elsewhere in the town, excavators found rooms with beds still intact, tables that bore bowls of figs, amphorae filled with wine, and loaves of bread charred in their baking ovens.

Charred wooden shelves stood upright against walls, which still held household items such as combs, jewellery boxes, and oil lamps.

In one shop, a bronze cashbox lay on a counter, and in another, a set of surgical instruments suggested the presence of a physician.

Temples and domestic shrines, known as lararia, preserved statuettes and painted offerings that documented household religious practices. 

The Villa of the Papyri is now believe the villa belonged to Lucius Calpurnius Piso Caesoninus, the father-in-law of Julius Caesar, based on literary and archaeological clues.

The bronze statues recovered from the site include philosophers, gods, and athletes, which indicate literary interests and support for art in elite Roman households.

Among the statues were works of Greek origin, fragments of decorated furniture, and bronze busts of historical figures. 

Archaeological evidence from Herculaneum has significantly expanded modern understanding of daily life in the Roman world. 🗺️

The exceptional preservation of wood, food, and human tissue provides information that surpasses what is available at most Roman sites.

Housing layouts, furnishing arrangements, and tool usage patterns show how people moved through and interacted with their domestic spaces.

Kitchens, latrines, and storerooms remain accessible in many homes, which show practical features of sanitation and food preparation that written sources often ignore. 

What is more, the analysis of skeletons has produced new knowledge about diet and disease, and it has illuminated differences in social status among individuals.

Isotopic studies demonstrate a population that consumed large quantities of seafood, and dental examinations suggest low levels of decay due to reduced sugar intake.

Some skeletons displayed muscular development and healed injuries, which indicate a life of labour and physical hardship for many residents.

Female skeletons found with infants suggest demographic patterns and maternal care that support evidence drawn from Roman legal texts and funerary inscriptions. 

The contents of shops, warehouses, and taverns point to active trade and social exchange.

Graffiti scratched onto walls includes greetings, insults, shop signs, and political slogans, all of which show literacy levels and local concerns.

One humorous inscription found in a latrine reads: "Apollinaris, doctor to the emperor Titus, had a good crap here."

Domestic religious artefacts show how Roman families integrated worship into their routines, while art and decoration preferences hint at the values and beliefs that informed domestic life and the aspirations individuals expressed through decoration.