WEBVTT

00:00:03.688 --> 00:00:04.767
Good evening!

00:00:04.767 --> 00:00:05.695
We are in one of the most important

00:00:05.695 --> 00:00:10.530
archaeological sites of the world:

00:00:10.530 --> 00:00:11.593
Pompeii.

00:00:11.593 --> 00:00:12.508
We're in one of

00:00:12.508 --> 00:00:15.853
the most important sites of Pompeii:

00:00:15.853 --> 00:00:16.879
the big theater.

00:00:17.459 --> 00:00:18.607
2000 years ago, you had

00:00:18.607 --> 00:00:20.705
a thousand people watching

00:00:20.705 --> 00:00:22.334
anyone on the stage.

00:00:22.334 --> 00:00:25.014
But do we really know Pompeii?

00:00:26.006 --> 00:00:26.976
Well, yes.

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

00:00:29.053 --> 00:00:31.016
read so many novels

00:00:31.016 --> 00:00:33.213
telling us about the big volcano,

00:00:33.213 --> 00:00:35.916
telling us about the lava,

00:00:35.936 --> 00:00:37.577
the lava flows and everything.

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

00:00:40.688 --> 00:00:41.987
to be cleared up.

00:00:42.637 --> 00:00:43.535
First of all,

00:00:43.535 --> 00:00:47.514
we didn't have any volcano visible at all.

00:00:47.514 --> 00:00:49.314
And that is something that

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

00:00:52.537 --> 00:00:54.359
and have a lunch

00:00:54.359 --> 00:00:57.337
maybe with a vulcanologist,

00:00:57.337 --> 00:00:59.056
or an anthropologist,

00:00:59.056 --> 00:01:00.496
or an archaeologist,

00:01:00.496 --> 00:01:01.723
he will tell you

00:01:01.723 --> 00:01:04.674
so many truths about Pompeii

00:01:04.674 --> 00:01:06.955
that you will really be surprised to know.

00:01:06.955 --> 00:01:07.735
First of all,

00:01:07.735 --> 00:01:09.534
so we're talking about volcanoes.

00:01:09.534 --> 00:01:12.011
Today it's a towering volcano.

00:01:12.011 --> 00:01:13.793
But at the time of Pompeii,

00:01:13.793 --> 00:01:14.802
it didn't exist,

00:01:14.802 --> 00:01:17.270
for the simple reason that it started

00:01:17.270 --> 00:01:20.454
to exist that day of the eruption.

00:01:20.454 --> 00:01:22.507
From that day, it started to grow

00:01:22.507 --> 00:01:24.577
and become what we see today.

00:01:24.577 --> 00:01:26.832
So, what could the Pompeiians see?

00:01:26.832 --> 00:01:27.682
Very simple.

00:01:27.692 --> 00:01:31.166
There was a small mound with a crest.

00:01:31.166 --> 00:01:33.590
And you can still see it today.

00:01:33.590 --> 00:01:35.548
It's exactly where the big volcano

00:01:35.548 --> 00:01:37.217
is sitting today.

00:01:37.217 --> 00:01:40.727
And, if you could see it at that time,

00:01:40.727 --> 00:01:42.692
you could have seen so many woods

00:01:42.692 --> 00:01:46.958
You could have seen, I don't know, deer

00:01:46.958 --> 00:01:48.772
Pompeiians would probably go there

00:01:48.772 --> 00:01:51.305
to collect wood, pick up mushrooms,

00:01:51.305 --> 00:01:52.259
make love.

00:01:52.259 --> 00:01:54.538
It was a friend that betrayed them.

00:01:54.538 --> 00:01:56.981
So, that's the first thing: no volcano,

00:01:56.991 --> 00:01:58.654
the first myth to clear up.

00:01:58.654 --> 00:02:00.938
And then, another thing is the lava.

00:02:00.948 --> 00:02:02.771
You didn't have a single drop of lava

00:02:02.771 --> 00:02:05.161
getting to Pompeii. Not a single one.

00:02:05.161 --> 00:02:09.977
But, gases, ashes, lapilli, and so on.

00:02:09.977 --> 00:02:11.267
So, that's another myth.

00:02:11.267 --> 00:02:13.273
And we will see what happened exactly.

00:02:13.273 --> 00:02:14.469
The third myth is about

00:02:14.469 --> 00:02:17.712
the date of the eruption.

00:02:17.712 --> 00:02:19.440
We know that everything happened

00:02:19.440 --> 00:02:21.047
the 24th twenty-fourth of August,

00:02:21.047 --> 00:02:22.630
in 79 A.D.

00:02:22.630 --> 00:02:24.142
But how do we know that?

00:02:24.142 --> 00:02:25.880
But, we know that because

00:02:25.880 --> 00:02:29.261
Pliny the Younger wrote that in a letter.

00:02:29.261 --> 00:02:30.212
He was a witness.

00:02:30.212 --> 00:02:32.896
Actually, if you try to see,

00:02:32.896 --> 00:02:35.343
there are at least seven witnesses,

00:02:35.343 --> 00:02:39.116
seven survivors of the eruption.

00:02:39.116 --> 00:02:41.099
Today, I would also like

00:02:41.099 --> 00:02:42.256
to spend some time

00:02:42.256 --> 00:02:44.164
to answer one question, that is:

00:02:44.164 --> 00:02:46.845
"Would we have survived the eruption,

00:02:46.845 --> 00:02:49.161
had we been there

00:02:49.161 --> 00:02:50.563
almost 2000 years ago?"

00:02:50.563 --> 00:02:51.960
So, Pliny the Younger said

00:02:51.960 --> 00:02:53.172
that everything happened

00:02:53.172 --> 00:02:55.921
on the 24th of August.

00:02:55.921 --> 00:02:57.584
But how do we know that?

00:02:57.584 --> 00:03:00.037
I told you there was a letter.

00:03:00.047 --> 00:03:02.847
This letter, though, is not here anymore.

00:03:02.847 --> 00:03:04.224
It vanished in time.

00:03:04.224 --> 00:03:07.528
But, in the Middle Ages, the monks started

00:03:07.528 --> 00:03:09.926
to write some copies of that letter.

00:03:09.926 --> 00:03:12.018
And so we have three families

00:03:12.018 --> 00:03:14.271
of that old letter made by monks

00:03:14.271 --> 00:03:16.077
who were writing copies

00:03:16.077 --> 00:03:18.193
and another one would copy the copy

00:03:18.193 --> 00:03:19.045
and so forth.

00:03:19.045 --> 00:03:21.161
But, of course, they would make mistakes.

00:03:21.161 --> 00:03:23.803
So, is the date right or not?

00:03:23.803 --> 00:03:25.741
Well, if you see the different letters,

00:03:25.741 --> 00:03:27.906
you will see that they are different dates

00:03:27.906 --> 00:03:31.526
One says "Nine days before

00:03:31.526 --> 00:03:33.659
the Calends of September,"

00:03:33.659 --> 00:03:35.463
which is the 24th of August.

00:03:35.463 --> 00:03:38.072
Another one says, "Nine days before

00:03:38.072 --> 00:03:39.921
the Calends of November,"

00:03:39.921 --> 00:03:42.050
which is the 24th of October.

00:03:42.050 --> 00:03:43.421
Where is the answer?

00:03:43.421 --> 00:03:45.743
Well, the answer is buried here,

00:03:45.743 --> 00:03:47.216
in the strata of Pompeii.

00:03:47.216 --> 00:03:50.095
In fact, archaeologists have been finding

00:03:50.095 --> 00:03:53.065
nuts, have been finding chestnuts,

00:03:53.075 --> 00:03:55.926
dates, dried figs,

00:03:55.926 --> 00:03:59.946
which are not really summer fruits,

00:03:59.946 --> 00:04:02.953
but rather you find them in the fall.

00:04:02.953 --> 00:04:04.751
And they've been finding

00:04:04.751 --> 00:04:07.024
so many little clues

00:04:07.024 --> 00:04:09.401
about the warm weather.

00:04:09.401 --> 00:04:11.359
For instance, people were dressed up

00:04:11.359 --> 00:04:13.827
with very warm clothes,

00:04:13.827 --> 00:04:15.490
with scarves, for instance.

00:04:15.490 --> 00:04:17.514
So, that means that, probably,

00:04:17.514 --> 00:04:19.997
it was a very cold climate,

00:04:19.997 --> 00:04:21.964
which makes more sense

00:04:21.964 --> 00:04:23.612
if it is around November.

00:04:23.612 --> 00:04:25.933
The one interesting clue, though,

00:04:25.933 --> 00:04:27.435
is about wine.

00:04:27.435 --> 00:04:29.454
In the diggings,

00:04:29.454 --> 00:04:32.162
in the decades in the past,

00:04:32.162 --> 00:04:36.135
archaeologists found some big jars

00:04:36.135 --> 00:04:37.824
containing wine.

00:04:37.824 --> 00:04:40.549
So, what the Romans would do

00:04:40.549 --> 00:04:43.189
is that they would have grape harvests,

00:04:43.189 --> 00:04:45.421
and they would collect grape juice,

00:04:45.421 --> 00:04:48.776
put that in those big, gigantic jars

00:04:48.776 --> 00:04:50.018
called dolia.

00:04:50.018 --> 00:04:51.853
And they would wait ten days

00:04:51.853 --> 00:04:53.494
for it to boil, to ferment,

00:04:53.494 --> 00:04:54.822
and then, twenty days

00:04:54.822 --> 00:04:56.681
just to check that everything was okay.

00:04:56.681 --> 00:04:57.895
And then they would cover

00:04:57.895 --> 00:04:58.984
and seal everything.

00:04:58.984 --> 00:04:59.985
And that's exactly

00:04:59.985 --> 00:05:01.913
what the archaeologists found.

00:05:01.913 --> 00:05:03.231
So, as a matter of fact,

00:05:03.231 --> 00:05:05.933
grape harvest was over

00:05:05.933 --> 00:05:07.692
at least from a month.

00:05:07.692 --> 00:05:10.516
And that would probably tell you

00:05:10.516 --> 00:05:12.192
that the date of the eruption

00:05:12.192 --> 00:05:15.997
was around the end of October.

00:05:15.997 --> 00:05:19.206
So, 24th of October makes sense.

00:05:19.206 --> 00:05:22.413
So, that, of course, is no definite proof,

00:05:22.413 --> 00:05:24.071
but that's interesting to see that

00:05:24.071 --> 00:05:26.642
such a known site like Pompeii

00:05:26.642 --> 00:05:28.631
really is still an open site

00:05:28.631 --> 00:05:30.983
with many discoveries to be done.

00:05:30.983 --> 00:05:32.931
Another myth to be cleared up is that

00:05:32.931 --> 00:05:35.244
Pompeii, we always see that in the movies,

00:05:35.244 --> 00:05:39.568
was a city with wealthy people,

00:05:39.568 --> 00:05:42.194
with banquets, gladiators, and so on.

00:05:42.194 --> 00:05:43.921
Well, that's not the truth.

00:05:43.921 --> 00:05:45.464
In the day of the eruption,

00:05:45.464 --> 00:05:48.318
it was a city full in crisis.

00:05:48.318 --> 00:05:50.968
There was no running water,

00:05:50.968 --> 00:05:51.954
no running water,

00:05:51.954 --> 00:05:54.050
So, no bathhouses, the thermae.

00:05:54.050 --> 00:05:56.528
You didn't see anyone having fun

00:05:56.528 --> 00:05:57.770
in the thermae, because

00:05:57.770 --> 00:05:59.256
you didn't have water.

00:05:59.256 --> 00:06:01.243
There was one therma working

00:06:01.243 --> 00:06:05.020
which had its own reservoir of water.

00:06:05.020 --> 00:06:06.661
So, maybe people would go there.

00:06:06.661 --> 00:06:08.323
But, there was a big crisis.

00:06:08.323 --> 00:06:10.661
And another thing is that, well,

00:06:10.661 --> 00:06:12.148
you didn't have a lot of people

00:06:12.148 --> 00:06:13.693
like in the old times in Pompeii

00:06:13.693 --> 00:06:17.142
because you had a lot of earthquakes.

00:06:17.142 --> 00:06:18.780
Earthquakes were a signal

00:06:18.780 --> 00:06:23.188
of the eruption coming, getting close

00:06:23.188 --> 00:06:25.224
like the magma was pushing

00:06:25.224 --> 00:06:30.276
and provoking those earthquakes.

00:06:30.276 --> 00:06:32.553
So, many people, especially aristocracy,

00:06:32.553 --> 00:06:33.339
had gone away.

00:06:33.339 --> 00:06:35.960
You had new people, new rich,

00:06:35.960 --> 00:06:38.827
former slaves, the liberti, so called,

00:06:38.827 --> 00:06:41.248
who would buy fancy houses

00:06:41.248 --> 00:06:42.784
and they would live there.

00:06:42.784 --> 00:06:44.929
But, you didn't have

00:06:44.929 --> 00:06:47.004
the old society of Pompeii.

00:06:47.014 --> 00:06:49.039
You didn't have running water.

00:06:49.039 --> 00:06:50.752
Running water was not there,

00:06:50.762 --> 00:06:52.724
because probably the aqueduct

00:06:52.724 --> 00:06:54.271
was broken in some places,

00:06:54.271 --> 00:06:55.544
maybe due to earthquakes,

00:06:55.574 --> 00:06:58.982
maybe due to the swelling of the soil,

00:06:58.982 --> 00:06:59.717
of the earth.

00:06:59.717 --> 00:07:01.263
We don't know exactly.

00:07:01.263 --> 00:07:02.656
So, as you can see, there are

00:07:02.656 --> 00:07:04.181
many myths to be cleared up.

00:07:04.181 --> 00:07:07.181
So, let's go to the day of the eruption.

00:07:07.181 --> 00:07:08.713
What happened exactly?

00:07:08.713 --> 00:07:10.578
And let's try to answer the question,

00:07:10.578 --> 00:07:12.353
"Would I have survived?"

00:07:12.353 --> 00:07:16.134
Well, first of all, let's go to that day.

00:07:16.134 --> 00:07:18.181
If it was the 24th of October,

00:07:18.181 --> 00:07:20.632
it was a Friday. Clear sky.

00:07:20.632 --> 00:07:21.826
We know that because

00:07:21.826 --> 00:07:22.830
one of the witnesses,

00:07:22.830 --> 00:07:24.777
who was living 30 kilometers

00:07:24.777 --> 00:07:27.268
away from here, saw everything.

00:07:27.268 --> 00:07:29.481
So, imagine that it was probably,

00:07:29.481 --> 00:07:30.495
we don't know, of course,

00:07:30.495 --> 00:07:31.915
the end of October,

00:07:31.915 --> 00:07:33.725
clear sky, maybe,

00:07:33.725 --> 00:07:37.000
you know, a very cold morning,

00:07:37.000 --> 00:07:38.166
and then, what happened?

00:07:38.166 --> 00:07:39.818
Well, we know from the letter

00:07:39.818 --> 00:07:41.329
of Pliny the Younger

00:07:41.329 --> 00:07:43.060
that everything started,

00:07:43.060 --> 00:07:45.379
more or less, at noon, lunchtime.

00:07:45.379 --> 00:07:49.242
Well, vulcanologists found some clues

00:07:49.242 --> 00:07:51.565
that everything happened slightly before.

00:07:51.565 --> 00:07:52.921
Well, Pliny didn't see that;

00:07:52.921 --> 00:07:54.181
he was 30 kilometers away.

00:07:54.181 --> 00:07:56.491
But, probably, the volcano started

00:07:56.491 --> 00:07:59.248
to open, crack open in that morning.

00:07:59.248 --> 00:08:02.321
Because, you see, that small,

00:08:02.321 --> 00:08:04.779
well, long mound,

00:08:04.779 --> 00:08:08.192
similar to the back of a whale,

00:08:08.192 --> 00:08:10.471
that betrayed the Romans,

00:08:10.471 --> 00:08:11.901
was not a mound.

00:08:11.901 --> 00:08:14.943
It was a volcano, a very old volcano,

00:08:14.943 --> 00:08:17.305
silent volcano, that had not erupted

00:08:17.305 --> 00:08:19.993
for the last centuries.

00:08:19.993 --> 00:08:22.713
So, no one knew it was a volcano.

00:08:22.713 --> 00:08:25.534
But that morning, it woke up.

00:08:25.534 --> 00:08:27.738
And it started to crack open

00:08:27.738 --> 00:08:29.954
and exactly, let's say,

00:08:29.954 --> 00:08:31.839
the first hours of the morning

00:08:31.839 --> 00:08:33.037
were terrible.

00:08:33.037 --> 00:08:35.658
People, let's say, started to gather

00:08:35.658 --> 00:08:38.232
in the Forum, which is, you know,

00:08:38.232 --> 00:08:40.154
it was the central place,

00:08:40.154 --> 00:08:42.439
central square of Pompeii.

00:08:42.439 --> 00:08:43.723
Everyone would gather there

00:08:43.723 --> 00:08:44.876
in the morning, usually,

00:08:44.876 --> 00:08:46.056
just to get information,

00:08:46.056 --> 00:08:47.000
to meet friends.

00:08:47.000 --> 00:08:49.750
It was just like a tv set of that time.

00:08:49.750 --> 00:08:51.047
And they started to gather.

00:08:51.047 --> 00:08:52.713
And they saw something weird.

00:08:52.713 --> 00:08:57.111
That very low mound was covered

00:08:57.111 --> 00:08:59.876
with a kind of fog, let's say,

00:08:59.876 --> 00:09:01.941
with ashes that had covered

00:09:01.941 --> 00:09:03.474
one of the sides.

00:09:03.474 --> 00:09:05.421
It looked like it had snowed.

00:09:05.421 --> 00:09:08.281
And they started to speak,

00:09:08.281 --> 00:09:09.322
one with the other,

00:09:09.322 --> 00:09:10.090
"What happened?"

00:09:10.090 --> 00:09:12.195
Well, some people probably came

00:09:12.195 --> 00:09:13.193
from the countryside,

00:09:13.193 --> 00:09:14.865
telling strange things,

00:09:14.865 --> 00:09:16.817
telling people, "Well, you know, there,

00:09:16.817 --> 00:09:20.022
we hear noises like thunder.

00:09:20.022 --> 00:09:22.228
There is a strange smell of sulfur

00:09:22.228 --> 00:09:23.772
just from that mountain."

00:09:23.772 --> 00:09:26.421
But, then something happened.

00:09:26.421 --> 00:09:29.725
The whole thing started to explode.

00:09:29.725 --> 00:09:31.996
The mouth got opened and you had

00:09:31.996 --> 00:09:35.714
a gigantic column of ashes, vapors,

00:09:35.714 --> 00:09:36.901
going up in the sky.

00:09:36.901 --> 00:09:38.085
It would reach more than

00:09:38.085 --> 00:09:39.830
32 kilometers of height

00:09:39.830 --> 00:09:42.047
in the hour, which is three times

00:09:42.047 --> 00:09:46.371
what, actually, a jetliner can reach.

00:09:46.371 --> 00:09:48.960
So, just imagine people seeing

00:09:48.960 --> 00:09:51.015
that column going high in the sky,

00:09:51.015 --> 00:09:53.216
just staring at something.

00:09:53.216 --> 00:09:55.367
They didn't even know what a volcano was.

00:09:55.367 --> 00:09:59.117
Well, this is just the beginning

00:09:59.117 --> 00:10:00.421
of the tragedy.

00:10:00.421 --> 00:10:02.081
If you think about that column

00:10:02.081 --> 00:10:05.323
going up and expanding in the air,

00:10:05.323 --> 00:10:07.195
that's what Pliny the Younger tells us,

00:10:07.195 --> 00:10:11.099
you can imagine like a big stain of ink

00:10:11.099 --> 00:10:13.176
getting bigger and bigger,

00:10:13.176 --> 00:10:14.856
covering the sun.

00:10:14.856 --> 00:10:16.278
And then, people started

00:10:16.278 --> 00:10:17.194
to hear something.

00:10:17.194 --> 00:10:20.472
It was just a noise of grail,

00:10:20.472 --> 00:10:22.453
a noise of something falling.

00:10:22.453 --> 00:10:24.663
Actually, you had the lapilli.

00:10:24.663 --> 00:10:26.459
You can see them all around us.

00:10:26.459 --> 00:10:28.605
Lapilli? What is a lapilli?

00:10:28.605 --> 00:10:32.036
It is a very, very small rock,

00:10:32.036 --> 00:10:32.853
but very light.

00:10:32.853 --> 00:10:34.164
It floats in the water.

00:10:34.164 --> 00:10:35.933
It's just like a piece of cork.

00:10:35.933 --> 00:10:37.311
It doesn't really kill you.

00:10:37.311 --> 00:10:40.587
But, it is something falling from the sky.

00:10:40.587 --> 00:10:41.349
What is it?

00:10:41.349 --> 00:10:42.690
Well, just imagine

00:10:42.690 --> 00:10:43.876
a bottle of champagne.

00:10:43.876 --> 00:10:45.781
You open it, you have foam coming up.

00:10:45.781 --> 00:10:49.541
But if you see in the lower part

00:10:49.541 --> 00:10:52.050
of the bottle, the wine is still watery.

00:10:52.050 --> 00:10:53.155
I mean, you still have wine.

00:10:53.155 --> 00:10:54.867
But as the wine goes up in the neck,

00:10:54.867 --> 00:10:57.785
it transforms itself into foam.

00:10:57.785 --> 00:11:00.746
And that's exactly what that volcano did.

00:11:00.746 --> 00:11:03.259
The magma in the magmatic chamber

00:11:03.259 --> 00:11:05.195
was magma, but as it came up,

00:11:05.195 --> 00:11:06.995
it was just like a foam,

00:11:06.995 --> 00:11:09.692
solidified foam, that turned out

00:11:09.692 --> 00:11:11.849
to be those lapilli falling.

00:11:11.849 --> 00:11:14.362
So people started just to see,

00:11:14.362 --> 00:11:17.044
to hear that, those pieces of rock,

00:11:17.044 --> 00:11:19.214
very small and very light,

00:11:19.214 --> 00:11:20.494
hitting the tiles.

00:11:20.494 --> 00:11:22.061
But they were not the killers.

00:11:22.061 --> 00:11:23.236
So, I asked myself,

00:11:23.236 --> 00:11:24.828
"Why didn't the people go away?"

00:11:24.828 --> 00:11:26.591
Well, if you go and see

00:11:26.591 --> 00:11:28.192
the strata of the lapilli,

00:11:28.192 --> 00:11:30.846
you will see, you find rocks that big,

00:11:30.846 --> 00:11:33.167
gigantic, big rocks

00:11:33.167 --> 00:11:34.914
coming from the volcano,

00:11:34.914 --> 00:11:36.476
coming from kilometers,

00:11:36.476 --> 00:11:39.860
really, killers, like meteors,

00:11:39.860 --> 00:11:41.528
falling from the sky.

00:11:41.528 --> 00:11:43.960
Actually, in Ercolano,

00:11:43.960 --> 00:11:45.854
which is not too far away from here,

00:11:45.854 --> 00:11:48.036
in the past a skeleton of a man

00:11:48.036 --> 00:11:50.661
without legs was found,

00:11:50.661 --> 00:11:51.653
and close to him

00:11:51.653 --> 00:11:53.556
there was a big, gigantic rock

00:11:53.556 --> 00:11:55.153
fallen from that volcano.

00:11:55.153 --> 00:11:56.978
And then, so people, just imagine,

00:11:56.978 --> 00:11:59.047
started to see those rocks coming down,

00:11:59.047 --> 00:12:02.026
smoking rocks, hitting the roofs,

00:12:02.026 --> 00:12:03.486
making holes in the roofs.

00:12:03.486 --> 00:12:05.401
So people started to go away.

00:12:05.401 --> 00:12:07.028
They started to do

00:12:07.028 --> 00:12:08.562
what you and me would have done,

00:12:08.562 --> 00:12:09.941
that is, going back home,

00:12:09.941 --> 00:12:11.681
looking for the people we love.

00:12:11.681 --> 00:12:14.623
And just, it was panic everywhere.

00:12:14.623 --> 00:12:16.663
As a matter of fact,

00:12:16.663 --> 00:12:18.833
that was a time when

00:12:18.833 --> 00:12:21.181
you would have your life saved.

00:12:21.181 --> 00:12:23.594
If you had fled,

00:12:23.594 --> 00:12:25.398
if you had gone away from Pompeii,

00:12:25.398 --> 00:12:26.898
you could have survived.

00:12:26.898 --> 00:12:29.436
Why? Because the lapilli

00:12:29.436 --> 00:12:31.726
started to accumulate in the soil

00:12:31.726 --> 00:12:34.349
for hours. But after two or three hours,

00:12:34.349 --> 00:12:37.574
it was that straight up lapilli,

00:12:37.574 --> 00:12:38.558
more or less.

00:12:38.558 --> 00:12:41.061
After that time, you couldn't

00:12:41.061 --> 00:12:42.901
see anything outside Pompeii.

00:12:42.901 --> 00:12:44.254
You couldn't see the roads,

00:12:44.254 --> 00:12:46.315
just like when you have a heavy snow.

00:12:46.315 --> 00:12:47.570
You couldn't see anything.

00:12:47.570 --> 00:12:48.976
So, where could you go?

00:12:48.976 --> 00:12:50.663
And another thing is that you had

00:12:50.663 --> 00:12:52.021
like a fog coming down.

00:12:52.021 --> 00:12:53.545
It was actually like a,

00:12:53.545 --> 00:12:55.594
imagine a desert storm.

00:12:55.594 --> 00:12:58.260
You had like ashes coming down.

00:12:58.260 --> 00:12:59.472
You couldn't see

00:12:59.472 --> 00:13:01.214
more than one or two meters.

00:13:01.214 --> 00:13:03.610
And these ashes were containing

00:13:03.610 --> 00:13:05.253
pieces of glass, actually,

00:13:05.253 --> 00:13:06.534
that were actually

00:13:06.534 --> 00:13:08.941
hurting your windpipe.

00:13:08.941 --> 00:13:10.636
So you had to breathe with a cloth

00:13:10.636 --> 00:13:12.516
dipped in water.

00:13:12.516 --> 00:13:14.391
It was really a nightmare.

00:13:14.391 --> 00:13:15.559
So it is normal to think

00:13:15.559 --> 00:13:17.955
that people just hid in their houses.

00:13:17.955 --> 00:13:19.975
What happened then?

00:13:19.975 --> 00:13:22.206
Well, the lapilli started to accumulate.

00:13:22.206 --> 00:13:25.367
Once they reached something like a meter,

00:13:25.367 --> 00:13:27.858
a cubic meter, there would be

00:13:27.858 --> 00:13:31.374
an equivalent of six men as weight.

00:13:31.374 --> 00:13:33.346
So you had the roof starting to collapse.

00:13:33.346 --> 00:13:35.794
Actually, one-third of the people

00:13:35.794 --> 00:13:37.394
found dead in Pompeii

00:13:37.394 --> 00:13:41.037
died due to the collapsing of the roofs

00:13:41.037 --> 00:13:41.906
or the floors.

00:13:41.906 --> 00:13:43.933
Probably you had also earthquakes

00:13:43.933 --> 00:13:45.096
in that process.

00:13:45.096 --> 00:13:48.045
So people were in the houses, screaming

00:13:48.045 --> 00:13:49.206
asking for help.

00:13:49.206 --> 00:13:50.620
No one could see anything.

00:13:50.620 --> 00:13:52.718
It was like the end of the world for them.

00:13:52.718 --> 00:13:55.368
And that, for twelve hours.

00:13:55.368 --> 00:13:57.175
Twelve hours later

00:13:57.175 --> 00:13:59.162
say, at one o'clock in the morning,

00:13:59.162 --> 00:14:02.209
let's move and go to Ercolano.

00:14:02.209 --> 00:14:03.641
Ercolano is another town,

00:14:03.641 --> 00:14:05.772
very close to the sea,

00:14:05.772 --> 00:14:07.407
between the sea and the volcano,

00:14:07.407 --> 00:14:08.880
which is about six kilometers

00:14:08.880 --> 00:14:09.976
away from the volcano;

00:14:09.976 --> 00:14:12.489
Pompeii is about eight kilometers away.

00:14:12.489 --> 00:14:14.452
So when archaeologists started to dig

00:14:14.452 --> 00:14:17.661
through the strata in Ercolano,

00:14:17.661 --> 00:14:19.986
they couldn't find dead people.

00:14:19.986 --> 00:14:21.757
All you see are scattered skeletons.

00:14:21.757 --> 00:14:23.192
So everyone thought that

00:14:23.192 --> 00:14:27.556
the inhabitants of Ercolano had escaped,

00:14:27.556 --> 00:14:28.673
escaped somewhere.

00:14:28.673 --> 00:14:30.795
They had actually managed to survive.

00:14:30.795 --> 00:14:32.842
But once the archaeologists

00:14:32.842 --> 00:14:34.249
reached the beach

00:14:34.249 --> 00:14:37.152
and got to the arches, the arcade

00:14:37.152 --> 00:14:39.181
where, usually, the fishing boats

00:14:39.181 --> 00:14:41.426
were parked, just like [in] a garage,

00:14:41.426 --> 00:14:43.733
they found three hundred skeletons.

00:14:43.733 --> 00:14:45.681
They all died in a single moment.

00:14:45.681 --> 00:14:47.661
When you see those skeletons,

00:14:47.661 --> 00:14:49.800
you realize something: they all died

00:14:49.800 --> 00:14:52.669
without defending themselves.

00:14:52.669 --> 00:14:53.963
It's just as if something

00:14:53.963 --> 00:14:56.748
had unplugged life from their bodies.

00:14:56.748 --> 00:14:58.079
Just, boom!

00:14:58.079 --> 00:14:59.831
And what happened,

00:14:59.831 --> 00:15:02.181
and the vulcanologists will tell you that,

00:15:02.181 --> 00:15:05.051
is that the gigantic column

00:15:05.051 --> 00:15:06.804
going up in the sky,

00:15:06.804 --> 00:15:09.537
at a certain time, couldn't stand,

00:15:09.537 --> 00:15:11.789
and it sat on itself,

00:15:11.789 --> 00:15:13.181
it just went down

00:15:13.181 --> 00:15:15.483
and transformed itself

00:15:15.483 --> 00:15:17.350
into deadly avalanches

00:15:17.350 --> 00:15:20.145
made of gas and ashes,

00:15:20.145 --> 00:15:22.901
coming down at a speed of

00:15:22.901 --> 00:15:24.716
one hundred kilometers per hour,

00:15:24.716 --> 00:15:28.065
with a, let's say, a heat of between

00:15:28.065 --> 00:15:30.551
five and six hundred degrees Celsius.

00:15:30.551 --> 00:15:33.280
So, that killed the people instantly.

00:15:33.280 --> 00:15:35.342
If you want to think what happened,

00:15:35.342 --> 00:15:38.571
just imagine being on the shore

00:15:38.571 --> 00:15:40.176
and watching in the night

00:15:40.176 --> 00:15:42.161
the volcano, the red part,

00:15:42.161 --> 00:15:45.161
let's say, of the eruption,

00:15:45.161 --> 00:15:47.494
was instantly being covered by

00:15:47.494 --> 00:15:49.278
that avalanche that's coming down.

00:15:49.278 --> 00:15:50.722
You couldn't see anything.

00:15:50.722 --> 00:15:53.421
But, you know, vulcanologists

00:15:53.421 --> 00:15:55.110
would tell you, maybe you could see

00:15:55.110 --> 00:15:58.401
some flare, something like

00:15:58.401 --> 00:16:02.681
a flock of red, hot bats

00:16:02.681 --> 00:16:03.895
coming toward you.

00:16:03.895 --> 00:16:07.025
And people were instantly killed.

00:16:07.025 --> 00:16:08.602
The fact that you have the bone

00:16:08.602 --> 00:16:11.193
in contact with the ash layers

00:16:11.193 --> 00:16:15.883
means that skin, organs, muscles

00:16:15.883 --> 00:16:19.401
got vaporized in a matter of a second,

00:16:19.401 --> 00:16:20.339
a few seconds.

00:16:20.339 --> 00:16:22.324
So people died violently.

00:16:22.324 --> 00:16:24.000
Let's go back to Pompeii.

00:16:24.000 --> 00:16:25.225
It's morning.

00:16:25.225 --> 00:16:27.656
People hear that things are changing.

00:16:27.656 --> 00:16:28.750
Probably you don't have

00:16:28.750 --> 00:16:30.949
the rain of lapilli anymore.

00:16:30.949 --> 00:16:32.901
So they wouldn't go away.

00:16:32.901 --> 00:16:35.062
But you have so many lapillis,

00:16:35.062 --> 00:16:36.769
it's impossible to open the door.

00:16:36.769 --> 00:16:38.325
So, actually, people go outside

00:16:38.325 --> 00:16:39.087
from the roofs

00:16:39.087 --> 00:16:41.320
and they start to run away.

00:16:41.320 --> 00:16:42.783
But at that time,

00:16:42.783 --> 00:16:45.553
the volcano does the same thing again,

00:16:45.553 --> 00:16:48.569
sits on himself and transforms his column

00:16:48.569 --> 00:16:51.019
on those deadly avalanches of gas.

00:16:51.019 --> 00:16:52.201
The first one stopped

00:16:52.201 --> 00:16:55.014
right at the suburbia of Pompeii.

00:16:55.014 --> 00:16:56.068
The second one kills

00:16:56.068 --> 00:16:57.116
anyone on the street.

00:16:57.116 --> 00:16:58.743
And that's what you see

00:16:58.743 --> 00:17:00.104
are those people, you see

00:17:00.104 --> 00:17:02.512
in those glass frameworks.

00:17:02.512 --> 00:17:03.814
These are the people

00:17:03.814 --> 00:17:04.905
killed in that moment.

00:17:04.905 --> 00:17:07.385
And the third one would come again

00:17:07.385 --> 00:17:09.214
and break down walls,

00:17:09.214 --> 00:17:12.316
open the roof and kill people inside.

00:17:12.316 --> 00:17:13.793
And then there is another one,

00:17:13.793 --> 00:17:16.229
the last one, that is so powerful,

00:17:16.229 --> 00:17:17.592
it goes all the way,

00:17:17.592 --> 00:17:20.205
even at thirty kilometers away

00:17:20.205 --> 00:17:22.070
and Pliny the Younger,

00:17:22.070 --> 00:17:24.020
the one that wrote that letter,

00:17:24.020 --> 00:17:26.847
was almost afraid to die.

00:17:26.847 --> 00:17:29.540
He was staying at thirty kilometers away.

00:17:29.540 --> 00:17:31.331
So this is what happened

00:17:31.331 --> 00:17:32.500
exactly in Pompeii.

00:17:32.500 --> 00:17:35.238
So what you see today

00:17:35.238 --> 00:17:37.809
is a place that probably

00:17:37.809 --> 00:17:38.991
don't tell you much

00:17:38.991 --> 00:17:42.777
about these problems, this atmosphere

00:17:42.777 --> 00:17:43.695
that happened.

00:17:43.695 --> 00:17:45.259
But when you find yourself

00:17:45.259 --> 00:17:47.534
in front of one of those bodies

00:17:47.534 --> 00:17:49.725
inside the glass frame,

00:17:49.725 --> 00:17:51.357
just remember that

00:17:51.357 --> 00:17:52.349
these are not statues.

00:17:52.349 --> 00:17:54.841
These are not petrified people.

00:17:54.841 --> 00:17:58.370
These are people in the process of dying

00:17:58.370 --> 00:18:00.518
in that intimate moment of their life.

00:18:00.518 --> 00:18:01.849
And we, I guess,

00:18:01.849 --> 00:18:03.849
should pay respect to them every time.

00:18:03.849 --> 00:18:04.898
Thank you.

00:18:04.898 --> 00:18:09.797
(applause)