0:00:03.688,0:00:04.767
Good evening!

0:00:04.767,0:00:05.695
We are in one of the most important

0:00:05.695,0:00:10.530
archaeological sites of the world:

0:00:10.530,0:00:11.593
Pompeii.

0:00:11.593,0:00:12.508
We're in one of

0:00:12.508,0:00:15.853
the most important sites of Pompeii:

0:00:15.853,0:00:16.879
the big theater.

0:00:17.459,0:00:18.607
2000 years ago, you had

0:00:18.607,0:00:20.705
a thousand people watching

0:00:20.705,0:00:22.334
anyone on the stage.

0:00:22.334,0:00:25.014
But do we really know Pompeii?

0:00:26.006,0:00:26.976
Well, yes.

0:00:26.976,0:00:29.053
We've seen so many movies,

0:00:29.053,0:00:31.016
read so many novels

0:00:31.016,0:00:33.213
telling us about the big volcano,

0:00:33.213,0:00:35.916
telling us about the lava,

0:00:35.936,0:00:37.577
the lava flows and everything.

0:00:37.577,0:00:40.688
Well, in fact, there are many myths

0:00:40.688,0:00:41.987
to be cleared up.

0:00:42.637,0:00:43.535
First of all,

0:00:43.535,0:00:47.514
we didn't have any volcano visible at all.

0:00:47.514,0:00:49.314
And that is something that

0:00:49.324,0:00:52.527
can be shocking, but if you speak to

0:00:52.537,0:00:54.359
and have a lunch

0:00:54.359,0:00:57.337
maybe with a vulcanologist,

0:00:57.337,0:00:59.056
or an anthropologist,

0:00:59.056,0:01:00.496
or an archaeologist,

0:01:00.496,0:01:01.723
he will tell you

0:01:01.723,0:01:04.674
so many truths about Pompeii

0:01:04.674,0:01:06.955
that you will really be surprised to know.

0:01:06.955,0:01:07.735
First of all,

0:01:07.735,0:01:09.534
so we're talking about volcanoes.

0:01:09.534,0:01:12.011
Today it's a towering volcano.

0:01:12.011,0:01:13.793
But at the time of Pompeii,

0:01:13.793,0:01:14.802
it didn't exist,

0:01:14.802,0:01:17.270
for the simple reason that it started

0:01:17.270,0:01:20.454
to exist that day of the eruption.

0:01:20.454,0:01:22.507
From that day, it started to grow

0:01:22.507,0:01:24.577
and become what we see today.

0:01:24.577,0:01:26.832
So, what could the Pompeiians see?

0:01:26.832,0:01:27.682
Very simple.

0:01:27.692,0:01:31.166
There was a small mound with a crest.

0:01:31.166,0:01:33.590
And you can still see it today.

0:01:33.590,0:01:35.548
It's exactly where the big volcano

0:01:35.548,0:01:37.217
is sitting today.

0:01:37.217,0:01:40.727
And, if you could see it at that time,

0:01:40.727,0:01:42.692
you could have seen so many woods

0:01:42.692,0:01:46.958
You could have seen, I don't know, deer

0:01:46.958,0:01:48.772
Pompeiians would probably go there

0:01:48.772,0:01:51.305
to collect wood, pick up mushrooms,

0:01:51.305,0:01:52.259
make love.

0:01:52.259,0:01:54.538
It was a friend that betrayed them.

0:01:54.538,0:01:56.981
So, that's the first thing: no volcano,

0:01:56.991,0:01:58.654
the first myth to clear up.

0:01:58.654,0:02:00.938
And then, another thing is the lava.

0:02:00.948,0:02:02.771
You didn't have a single drop of lava

0:02:02.771,0:02:05.161
getting to Pompeii. Not a single one.

0:02:05.161,0:02:09.977
But, gases, ashes, lapilli, and so on.

0:02:09.977,0:02:11.267
So, that's another myth.

0:02:11.267,0:02:13.273
And we will see what happened exactly.

0:02:13.273,0:02:14.469
The third myth is about

0:02:14.469,0:02:17.712
the date of the eruption.

0:02:17.712,0:02:19.440
We know that everything happened

0:02:19.440,0:02:21.047
the 24th twenty-fourth of August,

0:02:21.047,0:02:22.630
in 79 A.D.

0:02:22.630,0:02:24.142
But how do we know that?

0:02:24.142,0:02:25.880
But, we know that because

0:02:25.880,0:02:29.261
Pliny the Younger wrote that in a letter.

0:02:29.261,0:02:30.212
He was a witness.

0:02:30.212,0:02:32.896
Actually, if you try to see,

0:02:32.896,0:02:35.343
there are at least seven witnesses,

0:02:35.343,0:02:39.116
seven survivors of the eruption.

0:02:39.116,0:02:41.099
Today, I would also like

0:02:41.099,0:02:42.256
to spend some time

0:02:42.256,0:02:44.164
to answer one question, that is:

0:02:44.164,0:02:46.845
"Would we have survived the eruption,

0:02:46.845,0:02:49.161
had we been there

0:02:49.161,0:02:50.563
almost 2000 years ago?"

0:02:50.563,0:02:51.960
So, Pliny the Younger said

0:02:51.960,0:02:53.172
that everything happened

0:02:53.172,0:02:55.921
on the 24th of August.

0:02:55.921,0:02:57.584
But how do we know that?

0:02:57.584,0:03:00.037
I told you there was a letter.

0:03:00.047,0:03:02.847
This letter, though, is not here anymore.

0:03:02.847,0:03:04.224
It vanished in time.

0:03:04.224,0:03:07.528
But, in the Middle Ages, the monks started

0:03:07.528,0:03:09.926
to write some copies of that letter.

0:03:09.926,0:03:12.018
And so we have three families

0:03:12.018,0:03:14.271
of that old letter made by monks

0:03:14.271,0:03:16.077
who were writing copies

0:03:16.077,0:03:18.193
and another one would copy the copy

0:03:18.193,0:03:19.045
and so forth.

0:03:19.045,0:03:21.161
But, of course, they would make mistakes.

0:03:21.161,0:03:23.803
So, is the date right or not?

0:03:23.803,0:03:25.741
Well, if you see the different letters,

0:03:25.741,0:03:27.906
you will see that they are different dates

0:03:27.906,0:03:31.526
One says "Nine days before

0:03:31.526,0:03:33.659
the Calends of September,"

0:03:33.659,0:03:35.463
which is the 24th of August.

0:03:35.463,0:03:38.072
Another one says, "Nine days before

0:03:38.072,0:03:39.921
the Calends of November,"

0:03:39.921,0:03:42.050
which is the 24th of October.

0:03:42.050,0:03:43.421
Where is the answer?

0:03:43.421,0:03:45.743
Well, the answer is buried here,

0:03:45.743,0:03:47.216
in the strata of Pompeii.

0:03:47.216,0:03:50.095
In fact, archaeologists have been finding

0:03:50.095,0:03:53.065
nuts, have been finding chestnuts,

0:03:53.075,0:03:55.926
dates, dried figs,

0:03:55.926,0:03:59.946
which are not really summer fruits,

0:03:59.946,0:04:02.953
but rather you find them in the fall.

0:04:02.953,0:04:04.751
And they've been finding

0:04:04.751,0:04:07.024
so many little clues

0:04:07.024,0:04:09.401
about the warm weather.

0:04:09.401,0:04:11.359
For instance, people were dressed up

0:04:11.359,0:04:13.827
with very warm clothes,

0:04:13.827,0:04:15.490
with scarves, for instance.

0:04:15.490,0:04:17.514
So, that means that, probably,

0:04:17.514,0:04:19.997
it was a very cold climate,

0:04:19.997,0:04:21.964
which makes more sense

0:04:21.964,0:04:23.612
if it is around November.

0:04:23.612,0:04:25.933
The one interesting clue, though,

0:04:25.933,0:04:27.435
is about wine.

0:04:27.435,0:04:29.454
In the diggings,

0:04:29.454,0:04:32.162
in the decades in the past,

0:04:32.162,0:04:36.135
archaeologists found some big jars

0:04:36.135,0:04:37.824
containing wine.

0:04:37.824,0:04:40.549
So, what the Romans would do

0:04:40.549,0:04:43.189
is that they would have grape harvests,

0:04:43.189,0:04:45.421
and they would collect grape juice,

0:04:45.421,0:04:48.776
put that in those big, gigantic jars

0:04:48.776,0:04:50.018
called dolia.

0:04:50.018,0:04:51.853
And they would wait ten days

0:04:51.853,0:04:53.494
for it to boil, to ferment,

0:04:53.494,0:04:54.822
and then, twenty days

0:04:54.822,0:04:56.681
just to check that everything was okay.

0:04:56.681,0:04:57.895
And then they would cover

0:04:57.895,0:04:58.984
and seal everything.

0:04:58.984,0:04:59.985
And that's exactly

0:04:59.985,0:05:01.913
what the archaeologists found.

0:05:01.913,0:05:03.231
So, as a matter of fact,

0:05:03.231,0:05:05.933
grape harvest was over

0:05:05.933,0:05:07.692
at least from a month.

0:05:07.692,0:05:10.516
And that would probably tell you

0:05:10.516,0:05:12.192
that the date of the eruption

0:05:12.192,0:05:15.997
was around the end of October.

0:05:15.997,0:05:19.206
So, 24th of October makes sense.

0:05:19.206,0:05:22.413
So, that, of course, is no definite proof,

0:05:22.413,0:05:24.071
but that's interesting to see that

0:05:24.071,0:05:26.642
such a known site like Pompeii

0:05:26.642,0:05:28.631
really is still an open site

0:05:28.631,0:05:30.983
with many discoveries to be done.

0:05:30.983,0:05:32.931
Another myth to be cleared up is that

0:05:32.931,0:05:35.244
Pompeii, we always see that in the movies,

0:05:35.244,0:05:39.568
was a city with wealthy people,

0:05:39.568,0:05:42.194
with banquets, gladiators, and so on.

0:05:42.194,0:05:43.921
Well, that's not the truth.

0:05:43.921,0:05:45.464
In the day of the eruption,

0:05:45.464,0:05:48.318
it was a city full in crisis.

0:05:48.318,0:05:50.968
There was no running water,

0:05:50.968,0:05:51.954
no running water,

0:05:51.954,0:05:54.050
So, no bathhouses, the thermae.

0:05:54.050,0:05:56.528
You didn't see anyone having fun

0:05:56.528,0:05:57.770
in the thermae, because

0:05:57.770,0:05:59.256
you didn't have water.

0:05:59.256,0:06:01.243
There was one therma working

0:06:01.243,0:06:05.020
which had its own reservoir of water.

0:06:05.020,0:06:06.661
So, maybe people would go there.

0:06:06.661,0:06:08.323
But, there was a big crisis.

0:06:08.323,0:06:10.661
And another thing is that, well,

0:06:10.661,0:06:12.148
you didn't have a lot of people

0:06:12.148,0:06:13.693
like in the old times in Pompeii

0:06:13.693,0:06:17.142
because you had a lot of earthquakes.

0:06:17.142,0:06:18.780
Earthquakes were a signal

0:06:18.780,0:06:23.188
of the eruption coming, getting close

0:06:23.188,0:06:25.224
like the magma was pushing

0:06:25.224,0:06:30.276
and provoking those earthquakes.

0:06:30.276,0:06:32.553
So, many people, especially aristocracy,

0:06:32.553,0:06:33.339
had gone away.

0:06:33.339,0:06:35.960
You had new people, new rich,

0:06:35.960,0:06:38.827
former slaves, the liberti, so called,

0:06:38.827,0:06:41.248
who would buy fancy houses

0:06:41.248,0:06:42.784
and they would live there.

0:06:42.784,0:06:44.929
But, you didn't have

0:06:44.929,0:06:47.004
the old society of Pompeii.

0:06:47.014,0:06:49.039
You didn't have running water.

0:06:49.039,0:06:50.752
Running water was not there,

0:06:50.762,0:06:52.724
because probably the aqueduct

0:06:52.724,0:06:54.271
was broken in some places,

0:06:54.271,0:06:55.544
maybe due to earthquakes,

0:06:55.574,0:06:58.982
maybe due to the swelling of the soil,

0:06:58.982,0:06:59.717
of the earth.

0:06:59.717,0:07:01.263
We don't know exactly.

0:07:01.263,0:07:02.656
So, as you can see, there are

0:07:02.656,0:07:04.181
many myths to be cleared up.

0:07:04.181,0:07:07.181
So, let's go to the day of the eruption.

0:07:07.181,0:07:08.713
What happened exactly?

0:07:08.713,0:07:10.578
And let's try to answer the question,

0:07:10.578,0:07:12.353
"Would I have survived?"

0:07:12.353,0:07:16.134
Well, first of all, let's go to that day.

0:07:16.134,0:07:18.181
If it was the 24th of October,

0:07:18.181,0:07:20.632
it was a Friday. Clear sky.

0:07:20.632,0:07:21.826
We know that because

0:07:21.826,0:07:22.830
one of the witnesses,

0:07:22.830,0:07:24.777
who was living 30 kilometers

0:07:24.777,0:07:27.268
away from here, saw everything.

0:07:27.268,0:07:29.481
So, imagine that it was probably,

0:07:29.481,0:07:30.495
we don't know, of course,

0:07:30.495,0:07:31.915
the end of October,

0:07:31.915,0:07:33.725
clear sky, maybe,

0:07:33.725,0:07:37.000
you know, a very cold morning,

0:07:37.000,0:07:38.166
and then, what happened?

0:07:38.166,0:07:39.818
Well, we know from the letter

0:07:39.818,0:07:41.329
of Pliny the Younger

0:07:41.329,0:07:43.060
that everything started,

0:07:43.060,0:07:45.379
more or less, at noon, lunchtime.

0:07:45.379,0:07:49.242
Well, vulcanologists found some clues

0:07:49.242,0:07:51.565
that everything happened slightly before.

0:07:51.565,0:07:52.921
Well, Pliny didn't see that;

0:07:52.921,0:07:54.181
he was 30 kilometers away.

0:07:54.181,0:07:56.491
But, probably, the volcano started

0:07:56.491,0:07:59.248
to open, crack open in that morning.

0:07:59.248,0:08:02.321
Because, you see, that small,

0:08:02.321,0:08:04.779
well, long mound,

0:08:04.779,0:08:08.192
similar to the back of a whale,

0:08:08.192,0:08:10.471
that betrayed the Romans,

0:08:10.471,0:08:11.901
was not a mound.

0:08:11.901,0:08:14.943
It was a volcano, a very old volcano,

0:08:14.943,0:08:17.305
silent volcano, that had not erupted

0:08:17.305,0:08:19.993
for the last centuries.

0:08:19.993,0:08:22.713
So, no one knew it was a volcano.

0:08:22.713,0:08:25.534
But that morning, it woke up.

0:08:25.534,0:08:27.738
And it started to crack open

0:08:27.738,0:08:29.954
and exactly, let's say,

0:08:29.954,0:08:31.839
the first hours of the morning

0:08:31.839,0:08:33.037
were terrible.

0:08:33.037,0:08:35.658
People, let's say, started to gather

0:08:35.658,0:08:38.232
in the Forum, which is, you know,

0:08:38.232,0:08:40.154
it was the central place,

0:08:40.154,0:08:42.439
central square of Pompeii.

0:08:42.439,0:08:43.723
Everyone would gather there

0:08:43.723,0:08:44.876
in the morning, usually,

0:08:44.876,0:08:46.056
just to get information,

0:08:46.056,0:08:47.000
to meet friends.

0:08:47.000,0:08:49.750
It was just like a tv set of that time.

0:08:49.750,0:08:51.047
And they started to gather.

0:08:51.047,0:08:52.713
And they saw something weird.

0:08:52.713,0:08:57.111
That very low mound was covered

0:08:57.111,0:08:59.876
with a kind of fog, let's say,

0:08:59.876,0:09:01.941
with ashes that had covered

0:09:01.941,0:09:03.474
one of the sides.

0:09:03.474,0:09:05.421
It looked like it had snowed.

0:09:05.421,0:09:08.281
And they started to speak,

0:09:08.281,0:09:09.322
one with the other,

0:09:09.322,0:09:10.090
"What happened?"

0:09:10.090,0:09:12.195
Well, some people probably came

0:09:12.195,0:09:13.193
from the countryside,

0:09:13.193,0:09:14.865
telling strange things,

0:09:14.865,0:09:16.817
telling people, "Well, you know, there,

0:09:16.817,0:09:20.022
we hear noises like thunder.

0:09:20.022,0:09:22.228
There is a strange smell of sulfur

0:09:22.228,0:09:23.772
just from that mountain."

0:09:23.772,0:09:26.421
But, then something happened.

0:09:26.421,0:09:29.725
The whole thing started to explode.

0:09:29.725,0:09:31.996
The mouth got opened and you had

0:09:31.996,0:09:35.714
a gigantic column of ashes, vapors,

0:09:35.714,0:09:36.901
going up in the sky.

0:09:36.901,0:09:38.085
It would reach more than

0:09:38.085,0:09:39.830
32 kilometers of height

0:09:39.830,0:09:42.047
in the hour, which is three times

0:09:42.047,0:09:46.371
what, actually, a jetliner can reach.

0:09:46.371,0:09:48.960
So, just imagine people seeing

0:09:48.960,0:09:51.015
that column going high in the sky,

0:09:51.015,0:09:53.216
just staring at something.

0:09:53.216,0:09:55.367
They didn't even know what a volcano was.

0:09:55.367,0:09:59.117
Well, this is just the beginning

0:09:59.117,0:10:00.421
of the tragedy.

0:10:00.421,0:10:02.081
If you think about that column

0:10:02.081,0:10:05.323
going up and expanding in the air,

0:10:05.323,0:10:07.195
that's what Pliny the Younger tells us,

0:10:07.195,0:10:11.099
you can imagine like a big stain of ink

0:10:11.099,0:10:13.176
getting bigger and bigger,

0:10:13.176,0:10:14.856
covering the sun.

0:10:14.856,0:10:16.278
And then, people started

0:10:16.278,0:10:17.194
to hear something.

0:10:17.194,0:10:20.472
It was just a noise of grail,

0:10:20.472,0:10:22.453
a noise of something falling.

0:10:22.453,0:10:24.663
Actually, you had the lapilli.

0:10:24.663,0:10:26.459
You can see them all around us.

0:10:26.459,0:10:28.605
Lapilli? What is a lapilli?

0:10:28.605,0:10:32.036
It is a very, very small rock,

0:10:32.036,0:10:32.853
but very light.

0:10:32.853,0:10:34.164
It floats in the water.

0:10:34.164,0:10:35.933
It's just like a piece of cork.

0:10:35.933,0:10:37.311
It doesn't really kill you.

0:10:37.311,0:10:40.587
But, it is something falling from the sky.

0:10:40.587,0:10:41.349
What is it?

0:10:41.349,0:10:42.690
Well, just imagine

0:10:42.690,0:10:43.876
a bottle of champagne.

0:10:43.876,0:10:45.781
You open it, you have foam coming up.

0:10:45.781,0:10:49.541
But if you see in the lower part

0:10:49.541,0:10:52.050
of the bottle, the wine is still watery.

0:10:52.050,0:10:53.155
I mean, you still have wine.

0:10:53.155,0:10:54.867
But as the wine goes up in the neck,

0:10:54.867,0:10:57.785
it transforms itself into foam.

0:10:57.785,0:11:00.746
And that's exactly what that volcano did.

0:11:00.746,0:11:03.259
The magma in the magmatic chamber

0:11:03.259,0:11:05.195
was magma, but as it came up,

0:11:05.195,0:11:06.995
it was just like a foam,

0:11:06.995,0:11:09.692
solidified foam, that turned out

0:11:09.692,0:11:11.849
to be those lapilli falling.

0:11:11.849,0:11:14.362
So people started just to see,

0:11:14.362,0:11:17.044
to hear that, those pieces of rock,

0:11:17.044,0:11:19.214
very small and very light,

0:11:19.214,0:11:20.494
hitting the tiles.

0:11:20.494,0:11:22.061
But they were not the killers.

0:11:22.061,0:11:23.236
So, I asked myself,

0:11:23.236,0:11:24.828
"Why didn't the people go away?"

0:11:24.828,0:11:26.591
Well, if you go and see

0:11:26.591,0:11:28.192
the strata of the lapilli,

0:11:28.192,0:11:30.846
you will see, you find rocks that big,

0:11:30.846,0:11:33.167
gigantic, big rocks

0:11:33.167,0:11:34.914
coming from the volcano,

0:11:34.914,0:11:36.476
coming from kilometers,

0:11:36.476,0:11:39.860
really, killers, like meteors,

0:11:39.860,0:11:41.528
falling from the sky.

0:11:41.528,0:11:43.960
Actually, in Ercolano,

0:11:43.960,0:11:45.854
which is not too far away from here,

0:11:45.854,0:11:48.036
in the past a skeleton of a man

0:11:48.036,0:11:50.661
without legs was found,

0:11:50.661,0:11:51.653
and close to him

0:11:51.653,0:11:53.556
there was a big, gigantic rock

0:11:53.556,0:11:55.153
fallen from that volcano.

0:11:55.153,0:11:56.978
And then, so people, just imagine,

0:11:56.978,0:11:59.047
started to see those rocks coming down,

0:11:59.047,0:12:02.026
smoking rocks, hitting the roofs,

0:12:02.026,0:12:03.486
making holes in the roofs.

0:12:03.486,0:12:05.401
So people started to go away.

0:12:05.401,0:12:07.028
They started to do

0:12:07.028,0:12:08.562
what you and me would have done,

0:12:08.562,0:12:09.941
that is, going back home,

0:12:09.941,0:12:11.681
looking for the people we love.

0:12:11.681,0:12:14.623
And just, it was panic everywhere.

0:12:14.623,0:12:16.663
As a matter of fact,

0:12:16.663,0:12:18.833
that was a time when

0:12:18.833,0:12:21.181
you would have your life saved.

0:12:21.181,0:12:23.594
If you had fled,

0:12:23.594,0:12:25.398
if you had gone away from Pompeii,

0:12:25.398,0:12:26.898
you could have survived.

0:12:26.898,0:12:29.436
Why? Because the lapilli

0:12:29.436,0:12:31.726
started to accumulate in the soil

0:12:31.726,0:12:34.349
for hours. But after two or three hours,

0:12:34.349,0:12:37.574
it was that straight up lapilli,

0:12:37.574,0:12:38.558
more or less.

0:12:38.558,0:12:41.061
After that time, you couldn't

0:12:41.061,0:12:42.901
see anything outside Pompeii.

0:12:42.901,0:12:44.254
You couldn't see the roads,

0:12:44.254,0:12:46.315
just like when you have a heavy snow.

0:12:46.315,0:12:47.570
You couldn't see anything.

0:12:47.570,0:12:48.976
So, where could you go?

0:12:48.976,0:12:50.663
And another thing is that you had

0:12:50.663,0:12:52.021
like a fog coming down.

0:12:52.021,0:12:53.545
It was actually like a,

0:12:53.545,0:12:55.594
imagine a desert storm.

0:12:55.594,0:12:58.260
You had like ashes coming down.

0:12:58.260,0:12:59.472
You couldn't see

0:12:59.472,0:13:01.214
more than one or two meters.

0:13:01.214,0:13:03.610
And these ashes were containing

0:13:03.610,0:13:05.253
pieces of glass, actually,

0:13:05.253,0:13:06.534
that were actually

0:13:06.534,0:13:08.941
hurting your windpipe.

0:13:08.941,0:13:10.636
So you had to breathe with a cloth

0:13:10.636,0:13:12.516
dipped in water.

0:13:12.516,0:13:14.391
It was really a nightmare.

0:13:14.391,0:13:15.559
So it is normal to think

0:13:15.559,0:13:17.955
that people just hid in their houses.

0:13:17.955,0:13:19.975
What happened then?

0:13:19.975,0:13:22.206
Well, the lapilli started to accumulate.

0:13:22.206,0:13:25.367
Once they reached something like a meter,

0:13:25.367,0:13:27.858
a cubic meter, there would be

0:13:27.858,0:13:31.374
an equivalent of six men as weight.

0:13:31.374,0:13:33.346
So you had the roof starting to collapse.

0:13:33.346,0:13:35.794
Actually, one-third of the people

0:13:35.794,0:13:37.394
found dead in Pompeii

0:13:37.394,0:13:41.037
died due to the collapsing of the roofs

0:13:41.037,0:13:41.906
or the floors.

0:13:41.906,0:13:43.933
Probably you had also earthquakes

0:13:43.933,0:13:45.096
in that process.

0:13:45.096,0:13:48.045
So people were in the houses, screaming

0:13:48.045,0:13:49.206
asking for help.

0:13:49.206,0:13:50.620
No one could see anything.

0:13:50.620,0:13:52.718
It was like the end of the world for them.

0:13:52.718,0:13:55.368
And that, for twelve hours.

0:13:55.368,0:13:57.175
Twelve hours later

0:13:57.175,0:13:59.162
say, at one o'clock in the morning,

0:13:59.162,0:14:02.209
let's move and go to Ercolano.

0:14:02.209,0:14:03.641
Ercolano is another town,

0:14:03.641,0:14:05.772
very close to the sea,

0:14:05.772,0:14:07.407
between the sea and the volcano,

0:14:07.407,0:14:08.880
which is about six kilometers

0:14:08.880,0:14:09.976
away from the volcano;

0:14:09.976,0:14:12.489
Pompeii is about eight kilometers away.

0:14:12.489,0:14:14.452
So when archaeologists started to dig

0:14:14.452,0:14:17.661
through the strata in Ercolano,

0:14:17.661,0:14:19.986
they couldn't find dead people.

0:14:19.986,0:14:21.757
All you see are scattered skeletons.

0:14:21.757,0:14:23.192
So everyone thought that

0:14:23.192,0:14:27.556
the inhabitants of Ercolano had escaped,

0:14:27.556,0:14:28.673
escaped somewhere.

0:14:28.673,0:14:30.795
They had actually managed to survive.

0:14:30.795,0:14:32.842
But once the archaeologists

0:14:32.842,0:14:34.249
reached the beach

0:14:34.249,0:14:37.152
and got to the arches, the arcade

0:14:37.152,0:14:39.181
where, usually, the fishing boats

0:14:39.181,0:14:41.426
were parked, just like [in] a garage,

0:14:41.426,0:14:43.733
they found three hundred skeletons.

0:14:43.733,0:14:45.681
They all died in a single moment.

0:14:45.681,0:14:47.661
When you see those skeletons,

0:14:47.661,0:14:49.800
you realize something: they all died

0:14:49.800,0:14:52.669
without defending themselves.

0:14:52.669,0:14:53.963
It's just as if something

0:14:53.963,0:14:56.748
had unplugged life from their bodies.

0:14:56.748,0:14:58.079
Just, boom!

0:14:58.079,0:14:59.831
And what happened,

0:14:59.831,0:15:02.181
and the vulcanologists will tell you that,

0:15:02.181,0:15:05.051
is that the gigantic column

0:15:05.051,0:15:06.804
going up in the sky,

0:15:06.804,0:15:09.537
at a certain time, couldn't stand,

0:15:09.537,0:15:11.789
and it sat on itself,

0:15:11.789,0:15:13.181
it just went down

0:15:13.181,0:15:15.483
and transformed itself

0:15:15.483,0:15:17.350
into deadly avalanches

0:15:17.350,0:15:20.145
made of gas and ashes,

0:15:20.145,0:15:22.901
coming down at a speed of

0:15:22.901,0:15:24.716
one hundred kilometers per hour,

0:15:24.716,0:15:28.065
with a, let's say, a heat of between

0:15:28.065,0:15:30.551
five and six hundred degrees Celsius.

0:15:30.551,0:15:33.280
So, that killed the people instantly.

0:15:33.280,0:15:35.342
If you want to think what happened,

0:15:35.342,0:15:38.571
just imagine being on the shore

0:15:38.571,0:15:40.176
and watching in the night

0:15:40.176,0:15:42.161
the volcano, the red part,

0:15:42.161,0:15:45.161
let's say, of the eruption,

0:15:45.161,0:15:47.494
was instantly being covered by

0:15:47.494,0:15:49.278
that avalanche that's coming down.

0:15:49.278,0:15:50.722
You couldn't see anything.

0:15:50.722,0:15:53.421
But, you know, vulcanologists

0:15:53.421,0:15:55.110
would tell you, maybe you could see

0:15:55.110,0:15:58.401
some flare, something like

0:15:58.401,0:16:02.681
a flock of red, hot bats

0:16:02.681,0:16:03.895
coming toward you.

0:16:03.895,0:16:07.025
And people were instantly killed.

0:16:07.025,0:16:08.602
The fact that you have the bone

0:16:08.602,0:16:11.193
in contact with the ash layers

0:16:11.193,0:16:15.883
means that skin, organs, muscles

0:16:15.883,0:16:19.401
got vaporized in a matter of a second,

0:16:19.401,0:16:20.339
a few seconds.

0:16:20.339,0:16:22.324
So people died violently.

0:16:22.324,0:16:24.000
Let's go back to Pompeii.

0:16:24.000,0:16:25.225
It's morning.

0:16:25.225,0:16:27.656
People hear that things are changing.

0:16:27.656,0:16:28.750
Probably you don't have

0:16:28.750,0:16:30.949
the rain of lapilli anymore.

0:16:30.949,0:16:32.901
So they wouldn't go away.

0:16:32.901,0:16:35.062
But you have so many lapillis,

0:16:35.062,0:16:36.769
it's impossible to open the door.

0:16:36.769,0:16:38.325
So, actually, people go outside

0:16:38.325,0:16:39.087
from the roofs

0:16:39.087,0:16:41.320
and they start to run away.

0:16:41.320,0:16:42.783
But at that time,

0:16:42.783,0:16:45.553
the volcano does the same thing again,

0:16:45.553,0:16:48.569
sits on himself and transforms his column

0:16:48.569,0:16:51.019
on those deadly avalanches of gas.

0:16:51.019,0:16:52.201
The first one stopped

0:16:52.201,0:16:55.014
right at the suburbia of Pompeii.

0:16:55.014,0:16:56.068
The second one kills

0:16:56.068,0:16:57.116
anyone on the street.

0:16:57.116,0:16:58.743
And that's what you see

0:16:58.743,0:17:00.104
are those people, you see

0:17:00.104,0:17:02.512
in those glass frameworks.

0:17:02.512,0:17:03.814
These are the people

0:17:03.814,0:17:04.905
killed in that moment.

0:17:04.905,0:17:07.385
And the third one would come again

0:17:07.385,0:17:09.214
and break down walls,

0:17:09.214,0:17:12.316
open the roof and kill people inside.

0:17:12.316,0:17:13.793
And then there is another one,

0:17:13.793,0:17:16.229
the last one, that is so powerful,

0:17:16.229,0:17:17.592
it goes all the way,

0:17:17.592,0:17:20.205
even at thirty kilometers away

0:17:20.205,0:17:22.070
and Pliny the Younger,

0:17:22.070,0:17:24.020
the one that wrote that letter,

0:17:24.020,0:17:26.847
was almost afraid to die.

0:17:26.847,0:17:29.540
He was staying at thirty kilometers away.

0:17:29.540,0:17:31.331
So this is what happened

0:17:31.331,0:17:32.500
exactly in Pompeii.

0:17:32.500,0:17:35.238
So what you see today

0:17:35.238,0:17:37.809
is a place that probably

0:17:37.809,0:17:38.991
don't tell you much

0:17:38.991,0:17:42.777
about these problems, this atmosphere

0:17:42.777,0:17:43.695
that happened.

0:17:43.695,0:17:45.259
But when you find yourself

0:17:45.259,0:17:47.534
in front of one of those bodies

0:17:47.534,0:17:49.725
inside the glass frame,

0:17:49.725,0:17:51.357
just remember that

0:17:51.357,0:17:52.349
these are not statues.

0:17:52.349,0:17:54.841
These are not petrified people.

0:17:54.841,0:17:58.370
These are people in the process of dying

0:17:58.370,0:18:00.518
in that intimate moment of their life.

0:18:00.518,0:18:01.849
And we, I guess,

0:18:01.849,0:18:03.849
should pay respect to them every time.

0:18:03.849,0:18:04.898
Thank you.

0:18:04.898,0:18:09.797
(applause)