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Good evening!

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We are in one of the most important[br]archaeological sites of the world:

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Pompeii.

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We're in one of the most important[br]sites of Pompeii:

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the big theater.

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2000 years ago, you had[br]a thousand people watching

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anyone on the stage.

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But do we really know Pompeii?

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Well, yes.

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We've seen so many movies,[br]read so many novels

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telling us about the big volcano,

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telling us about the lava,

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the lava flows and everything.

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Well, in fact, there are many myths

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to be cleared up.

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First of all,

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we didn't have any volcano visible at all.

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And that is something that

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can be shocking, but if you speak to

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and have a lunch

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maybe with a vulcanologist,

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or an anthropologist,

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or an archaeologist,

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he will tell you

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so many truths about Pompeii

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that you will really be surprised to know.

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First of all,

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so we're talking about volcanoes.

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Today it's a towering volcano.

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But at the time of Pompeii,[br]it didn't exist,

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for the simple reason[br]that it started to exist

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that day of the eruption.

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From that day, it started to grow

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and become what we see today.

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So, what could the Pompeiians see?

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Very simple.

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There was a small mound with a crest.

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And you can still see it today.

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It's exactly where the big volcano

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is sitting today.

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And, if you could see it at that time,

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you could have seen so many woods

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You could have seen, I don't know, deer

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Pompeiians would probably go there

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to collect wood, pick up mushrooms,

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make love.

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It was a friend that betrayed them.

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So, that's the first thing: no volcano,

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the first myth to clear up.

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And then, another thing is the lava.

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You didn't have a single drop of lava

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getting to Pompeii. Not a single one.

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But, gases, ashes, lapilli, and so on.

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So, that's another myth.

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And we will see what happened exactly.

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The third myth is about

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the date of the eruption.

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We know that everything happened

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the 24th twenty-fourth of August,

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in 79 A.D.

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But how do we know that?

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But, we know that because

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Pliny the Younger wrote that in a letter.

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He was a witness.

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Actually, if you try to see,

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there are at least seven witnesses,

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seven survivors of the eruption.

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Today, I would also like

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to spend some time to answer[br]one question, that is:

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"Would we have survived the eruption

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had we been here

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almost 2000 years ago?"

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So, Pliny the Younger said

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that everything happened

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on the 24th of August.

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But how do we know that?

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I told you there was a letter.

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This letter, though, is not here anymore.

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It vanished in time.

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But, in the Middle Ages, the monks started

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to write some copies of that letter.

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And so we have three families

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of that old letter made by monks

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who were writing copies

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and another one would copy the copy,

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and so forth.

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But, of course, they would make mistakes.

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So, is the date right or not?

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Well, if you see the different letters,

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you will see that they are different dates

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One says "Nine days before

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the Calends of September,"

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which is the 24th of August.

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Another one says, "Nine days before

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the Calends of November,"

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which is the 24th of October.

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Where is the answer?

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Well, the answer is buried here,

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in the strata of Pompeii.

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In fact, archaeologists have been finding

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nuts, have been finding chestnuts,

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dates, dried figs,

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which are not really summer fruits,

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but rather you find them in the fall.

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And they've been finding[br]so many little clues

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about not-warm weather.

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For instance, people were dressed up

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with very warm clothes,

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with scarves, for instance.

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So, that means that, probably,

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it was a very cold climate,

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which makes more sense

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if it is around November.

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The one interesting clue, though,

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is about wine.

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In the diggings,

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in the decades in the past,

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archaeologists found some big jars

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containing wine.

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So, what the Romans would do

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is that they would have grape harvests,

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and they would collect grape juice,

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put that in those big, gigantic jars

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called dolia.

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And they would wait ten days[br]for it to boil, to ferment,

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and then twenty days,[br]just to check that everything was okay.

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And then they would cover[br]and seal everything.

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And that's exactly[br]what the archaeologists found.

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So, as a matter of fact,

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grape harvest was over[br]at least from a month.

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And that would probably tell you

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that the date of the eruption

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was around the end of October.

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So, 24th of October makes sense.

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So, that, of course, is no definite proof,

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but that's interesting to see that

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such a known site like Pompeii

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really is still an open site

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with many discoveries to be done.

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Another myth to be cleared up is that

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Pompeii, we always see that in the movies,

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was a city with wealthy people,

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with banquets, gladiators, and so on.

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Well, that's not the truth.

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In the day of the eruption,

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it was a city full in crisis.

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There was no running water -

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no running water,

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So, no bathhouses, the thermae.

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You didn't see anyone having fun

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in the thermae, because

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you didn't have water.

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There was one therma working

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which had its own reservoir of water.

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So, maybe people would go there.

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But, there was a big crisis.

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And another thing is that, well,

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you didn't have a lot of people[br]like in the old times in Pompeii

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because you had a lot of earthquakes.

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Earthquakes were a signal

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of the eruption coming, getting close

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like the magma was pushing

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and provoking those earthquakes.

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So, many people, especially aristocracy,

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had gone away.

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You had new people, new rich,

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former slaves, the liberti, so called,

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who would buy fancy houses

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and they would live there.

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But, you didn't have

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the old society of Pompeii.

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You didn't have running water.

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Running water was not there,

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because probably the aqueduct

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was broken in some places,

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maybe due to earthquakes,

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maybe due to the swelling[br]of the soil, of the earth.

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We don't know exactly.

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So, as you can see, there are[br]many myths to be cleared up.

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So, let's go to the day of the eruption.

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What happened exactly?

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And let's try to answer the question,

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"Would I have survived?"

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Well, first of all, let's go to that day.

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If it was the 24th of October,

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it was a Friday. Clear sky.

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We know that because one of the witnesses,

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who was living 30 kilometers[br]away from here,

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saw everything.

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So imagine that it was probably -[br]we don't know, of course -

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the end of October,

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crisp, clear sky, maybe,

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you know, a very cold morning,

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and then what happened?

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Well, we know from the letter[br]of Pliny the Younger

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that everything started[br]more or less at noon, lunchtime.

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Well, vulcanologists found some clues

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that everything happened slightly before.

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Well, Pliny didn't see that;[br]he was 30 kilometers away.

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But, probably, the volcano started

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to open, crack open in that morning.

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Because, you see, that small,

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well, long mound,

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similar to the back of a whale,

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that betrayed the Romans,

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was not a mound.

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It was a volcano, a very old volcano,

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silent volcano, that had not erupted

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for the last centuries.

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So, no one knew it was a volcano.

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But that morning, it woke up.

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And it started to crack open

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and exactly, let's say,

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the first hours of the morning

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were terrible.

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People, let's say, started to gather

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in the Forum, which is, you know,

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it was the central place,

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central square of Pompeii.

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Everyone would gather there[br]in the morning, usually,

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just to get information, to meet friends.

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It was just like a TV set of that time.

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And they started to gather.[br]And they saw something weird.

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That very low mound was covered

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with a kind of fog, let's say,

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with ashes that had covered

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one of the sides.

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It looked like it had snowed.

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And they started to speak,[br]one with the other,

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"What happened?"

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Well, some people probably came[br]from the countryside,

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telling strange things,

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telling people, "Well, you know, there,[br]we hear noises like thunder.

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There is a strange smell of sulfur

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just from that mountain."

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But, then something happened.

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The whole thing started to explode.

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The mouth got opened and you had

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a gigantic column of ashes, vapors,

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going up in the sky.

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It would reach more than

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32 kilometers of height

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in the hour, which is three times

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what, actually, a jetliner can reach.

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So, just imagine people seeing

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that column going high in the sky,

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just staring at something.

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They didn't even know what a volcano was.

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Well, this is just the beginning

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of the tragedy.

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If you think about that column

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going up and expanding in the air,

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that's what Pliny the Younger tells us,

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you can imagine like a big stain of ink

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getting bigger and bigger,

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covering the sun.

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And then, people started[br]to hear something.

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It was just a noise of grail,

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a noise of something falling.

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Actually, you had the lapilli.

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You can see them all around us.

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Lapilli? What is a lapilli?

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It is a very, very small rock,[br]but very light.

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It floats in the water.

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It's just like a piece of cork.

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It doesn't really kill you.

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But, it is something falling from the sky.

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What is it?

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Well, just imagine a bottle of champagne.

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You open it, you have foam coming up.

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But if you see in the lower part

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of the bottle, the wine is still watery.

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I mean, you still have wine.

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But as the wine goes up in the neck,[br]it transforms itself into foam.

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And that's exactly what that volcano did.

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The magma in the magmatic chamber

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was magma, but as it came up,

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it was just like a foam,

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solidified foam, that turned out

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to be those lapilli falling.

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So people started just to see,

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to hear that, those pieces of rock,

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very small and very light,

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hitting the tiles.

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But they were not the killers.

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So, I asked myself,

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"Why didn't the people go away?"

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Well, if you go and see

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the strata of the lapilli,

0:11:28.192,0:11:30.822
you will see, you find rocks that big,

0:11:30.846,0:11:33.143
gigantic, big rocks

0:11:33.167,0:11:34.890
coming from the volcano,

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coming from kilometers,

0:11:36.476,0:11:39.836
really, killers, like meteors,

0:11:39.860,0:11:41.504
falling from the sky.

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Actually, in Ercolano,

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which is not too far away from here,

0:11:46.778,0:11:50.637
in the past, a skeleton of a man[br]without legs was found,

0:11:50.661,0:11:53.532
and close to him[br]there was a big, gigantic rock

0:11:53.556,0:11:55.129
fallen from that volcano.

0:11:55.153,0:11:56.954
And then, so people, just imagine,

0:11:56.978,0:11:59.023
started to see those rocks coming down,

0:11:59.047,0:12:02.002
smoking rocks, hitting the roofs,

0:12:02.026,0:12:03.462
making holes in the roofs.

0:12:03.486,0:12:05.377
So people started to go away.

0:12:05.401,0:12:09.123
They started to do[br]what you and me would have done,

0:12:09.147,0:12:12.254
that is, going back home,[br]looking for the people we love.

0:12:12.842,0:12:14.599
And just, it was panic everywhere.

0:12:14.623,0:12:16.639
As a matter of fact,

0:12:16.663,0:12:18.809
that was a time when

0:12:18.833,0:12:21.157
you would have your life saved.

0:12:21.181,0:12:23.570
If you had fled,

0:12:23.594,0:12:25.374
if you had gone away from Pompeii,

0:12:25.398,0:12:26.874
you could have survived.

0:12:26.898,0:12:29.412
Why? Because the lapilli

0:12:29.436,0:12:31.702
started to accumulate in the soil

0:12:31.726,0:12:35.128
for hours. But after two or three hours,

0:12:35.152,0:12:38.800
it was that straight up lapilli,[br]more or less.

0:12:39.570,0:12:42.877
After that time, you couldn't[br]see anything outside Pompeii.

0:12:42.901,0:12:44.230
You couldn't see the roads,

0:12:44.254,0:12:46.291
just like when you have a heavy snow.

0:12:46.315,0:12:49.286
You couldn't see anything.[br]So where could you go?

0:12:49.310,0:12:51.997
And another thing is that you had[br]like a fog coming down.

0:12:52.462,0:12:53.955
It was actually like a -

0:12:53.979,0:12:55.927
imagine a desert storm.

0:12:55.951,0:12:58.236
You had like ashes coming down.

0:12:58.260,0:12:59.448
You couldn't see

0:12:59.472,0:13:01.190
more than one or two meters.

0:13:01.214,0:13:03.586
And these ashes were containing

0:13:03.610,0:13:05.229
pieces of glass, actually,

0:13:05.253,0:13:06.510
that were actually

0:13:06.534,0:13:08.917
hurting your windpipe.

0:13:08.941,0:13:10.612
So you had to breathe with a cloth

0:13:10.636,0:13:12.492
dipped in water.

0:13:12.516,0:13:14.367
It was really a nightmare.

0:13:14.391,0:13:17.931
So it is normal to think[br]that people just hid in their houses.

0:13:19.144,0:13:20.358
What happened then?

0:13:20.382,0:13:22.736
Well, the lapilli started to accumulate.

0:13:22.760,0:13:25.343
Once they reached something like a meter,

0:13:25.367,0:13:27.834
a cubic meter, there would be

0:13:27.858,0:13:31.707
an equivalent of six men as weight.

0:13:31.731,0:13:34.191
So you had the roof starting to collapse.

0:13:34.215,0:13:39.101
Actually, one-third of the people[br]found dead in Pompeii died

0:13:39.125,0:13:42.542
due to the collapsing[br]of the roofs or the floors.

0:13:42.566,0:13:45.256
Probably you also had[br]earthquakes in that process.

0:13:45.859,0:13:49.734
So people were in the houses,[br]screaming, asking for help.

0:13:49.758,0:13:53.723
No one could see anything; it[br]was like the end of the world for them.

0:13:53.747,0:13:55.344
And that, for twelve hours.

0:13:55.368,0:13:59.138
Twelve hours later, say,[br]at one o'clock in the morning,

0:13:59.162,0:14:02.185
let's move and go to Ercolano.

0:14:02.209,0:14:03.617
Ercolano is another town,

0:14:03.641,0:14:05.748
very close to the sea,

0:14:05.772,0:14:07.383
between the sea and the volcano,

0:14:07.407,0:14:09.952
which is about six kilometers[br]away from the volcano;

0:14:09.976,0:14:12.465
Pompeii is about eight kilometers away.

0:14:12.489,0:14:14.428
So when archaeologists started to dig

0:14:14.452,0:14:17.637
through the strata in Ercolano,

0:14:17.661,0:14:19.962
they couldn't find dead people,

0:14:19.986,0:14:21.733
only a few scattered skeletons.

0:14:21.757,0:14:26.564
So everyone thought[br]that the inhabitants of Ercolano

0:14:26.588,0:14:28.649
had escaped somewhere.

0:14:28.673,0:14:30.771
They had actually managed to survive.

0:14:30.795,0:14:32.818
But once the archaeologists

0:14:32.842,0:14:34.225
reached the beach

0:14:34.249,0:14:37.128
and got to the arches, the arcade

0:14:37.152,0:14:39.157
where, usually, the fishing boats

0:14:39.181,0:14:41.402
were parked, just like [in] a garage,

0:14:41.426,0:14:43.709
they found three hundred skeletons.

0:14:43.733,0:14:45.657
They all died in a single moment.

0:14:45.681,0:14:47.637
When you see those skeletons,

0:14:47.661,0:14:49.776
you realize something: they all died

0:14:49.800,0:14:52.645
without defending themselves.

0:14:52.669,0:14:53.939
It's just as if something

0:14:53.963,0:14:56.724
had unplugged life from their bodies.

0:14:56.748,0:14:58.055
Just, boom!

0:14:58.079,0:14:59.807
And what happened,

0:14:59.831,0:15:02.157
and the vulcanologists will tell you that,

0:15:02.181,0:15:05.027
is that the gigantic column

0:15:05.051,0:15:06.780
going up in the sky,

0:15:06.804,0:15:09.513
at a certain time, couldn't stand,

0:15:09.537,0:15:11.765
and it sat on itself,

0:15:11.789,0:15:13.157
it just went down

0:15:13.181,0:15:15.459
and transformed itself

0:15:15.483,0:15:17.326
into deadly avalanches

0:15:17.350,0:15:20.121
made of gas and ashes,

0:15:20.145,0:15:22.877
coming down at a speed of

0:15:22.901,0:15:24.692
one hundred kilometers per hour,

0:15:24.716,0:15:28.041
with a, let's say, a heat of between

0:15:28.065,0:15:30.527
five and six hundred degrees Celsius.

0:15:30.551,0:15:33.256
So, that killed the people instantly.

0:15:33.280,0:15:35.318
If you want to think what happened,

0:15:35.342,0:15:38.547
just imagine being on the shore

0:15:38.571,0:15:40.152
and watching in the night

0:15:40.176,0:15:42.137
the volcano, the red part,

0:15:42.161,0:15:45.137
let's say, of the eruption,

0:15:45.161,0:15:47.470
was instantly being covered by

0:15:47.494,0:15:49.254
that avalanche that's coming down.

0:15:49.278,0:15:51.296
You couldn't see anything.

0:15:51.320,0:15:54.372
But, you know, vulcanologists[br]would tell you,

0:15:54.396,0:15:57.773
well, maybe you could see some flare,

0:15:57.797,0:16:04.361
something like a flock[br]of red-hot bats coming toward you.

0:16:04.859,0:16:07.001
And people were instantly killed.

0:16:07.025,0:16:08.578
The fact that you have the bone

0:16:08.602,0:16:11.169
in contact with the ash layers

0:16:11.193,0:16:15.859
means that skin, organs, muscles

0:16:15.883,0:16:20.668
got vaporized in a matter[br]of a few seconds.

0:16:20.692,0:16:22.300
So people died violently.

0:16:22.324,0:16:23.976
Let's go back to Pompeii.

0:16:24.000,0:16:25.201
It's morning.

0:16:25.225,0:16:27.632
People hear that things are changing.

0:16:27.656,0:16:31.175
Probably you don't have[br]the rain of lapilli anymore.

0:16:31.199,0:16:35.416
So they want to go away,[br]but you have so many lapilli,

0:16:35.440,0:16:37.135
it's impossible to open the door.

0:16:37.159,0:16:39.491
So, actually, people[br]go outside from the roofs,

0:16:39.515,0:16:41.296
and they start to run away.

0:16:41.320,0:16:42.759
But at that time,

0:16:42.783,0:16:45.529
the volcano does the same thing again,

0:16:45.553,0:16:48.545
sits on himself and transforms his column

0:16:48.569,0:16:51.394
on those deadly avalanches of gas.

0:16:51.418,0:16:54.990
The first one stops[br]right at the suburbia of Pompeii.

0:16:55.014,0:16:57.437
The second one kills anyone on the street.

0:16:57.461,0:17:02.996
And that's what you see, those people,[br]in those glass frameworks.

0:17:03.020,0:17:05.304
These are the people[br]killed in that moment.

0:17:05.328,0:17:07.361
And the third one would come again

0:17:07.385,0:17:09.190
and break down walls,

0:17:09.214,0:17:12.292
open the roof and kill people inside.

0:17:12.316,0:17:13.769
And then there is another one,

0:17:13.793,0:17:16.205
the last one, that is so powerful,

0:17:16.229,0:17:17.568
it goes all the way,

0:17:17.592,0:17:20.181
even at thirty kilometers away

0:17:20.205,0:17:22.046
and Pliny the Younger,

0:17:22.070,0:17:23.996
the one that wrote that letter,

0:17:24.020,0:17:26.823
was almost afraid to die.

0:17:26.847,0:17:29.958
He was staying at thirty kilometers away.

0:17:29.982,0:17:32.805
So this is what happened,[br]exactly, in Pompeii.

0:17:33.694,0:17:35.745
So what you see today

0:17:35.769,0:17:39.310
is a place that probably[br]doesn't tell you much

0:17:39.334,0:17:43.844
about these problems,[br]this atmosphere that happened.

0:17:43.868,0:17:47.510
But when you find yourself[br]in front of one of those bodies

0:17:47.534,0:17:50.074
inside the glass frame,

0:17:50.098,0:17:52.325
just remember that these are not statues.

0:17:52.349,0:17:55.430
These are not petrified people.

0:17:55.454,0:17:58.346
These are people in the process of dying,

0:17:58.370,0:18:01.001
in that intimate moment of their life.

0:18:01.025,0:18:03.989
And we, I guess, should pay respect[br]to them every time.

0:18:04.013,0:18:05.192
Thank you.

0:18:05.216,0:18:09.695
(Applause)