Herculaneum

Herculaneum, was an ancient city of 4,000-5,000 inhabitants in Campania, Italy.

It was located 5 miles (8 km) southeast of Naples, at the western base of Mount Vesuvius, and was destroyed – along with Pompeii, Torre Annunziata, and Stabiae – by the eruption of Vesuvius in AD 79. The city of Herculaneum now sits on part of the site. The excavations of Herculaneum and Pompeii in the mid-18th century precipitated the modern science of archaeology. Collectively, the ruins of Pompeii, Herculaneum, and Torre Annunziata were declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1997.

Ancient tradition linked Herculaneum with the name of the Greek hero Heracles, an indication that the city was of Greek origin. There is, however, historical evidence that towards the end of the 6th century BC an early nucleus of Oscan-speaking inhabitants found itself under Greek hegemony there and that in the 4th century BC Herculaneum came under the rule of the Samnites.

The city became a Roman municipium in 89 BC, when, having participated in the Social War (“the war of the allies” against Rome), it was defeated by Titus Didius, a legate of Lucius Cornelius Sulla. Herculaneum was severely shaken by an earthquake in 62 AD, and the serious damage suffered by its public and private buildings had not yet been repaired when it was buried by the eruption of Vesuvius on 24–25 August, 79 AD. Because few human remains were found during the first excavations, it was assumed that, unlike the population of Pompeii, most of the inhabitants managed to escape towards Naples, in the direction opposite to the falling lapilli and ash.

In the 1980s, however, excavations on the ancient shoreline of the Gulf of Naples (an area that is now inland) uncovered more than 120 human skeletons, suggesting that many more inhabitants had died while attempting to escape. The Nuées Ardentes (a type of pyroclastic flow) was the most likely cause of death.

The unique circumstances of the burial at Herculaneum, unlike those at Pompeii, resulted in the formation of a compact mass of tuff material over the city, approximately 15 to 18 metres (50 to 60 ft) deep. Although this layer made excavation very difficult, it preserved Herculaneum and prevented tampering and looting. The special conditions of soil moisture have preserved wooden structures of houses, wooden furniture, the hull of a sizable boat, pieces of cloth, and food (charred loaves of bread left in ovens).

Thus, Herculaneum offers a detailed impression of private life that is only with difficulty achieved in other centers of the ancient world. Excavations began in the 18th century, when all memory of the existence of Herculaneum had been lost for centuries and the only accounts available were those that had come down from the authors of antiquity, without any information on the exact location of the ancient city. Quite by chance, in 1709, during the digging of a well, a wall was discovered that was later found to be part of the stage of the theater of Herculaneum.

Tunnels were soon dug into the site by treasure hunters and many of the artifacts from the theater area were removed. Regular excavations were begun in 1738 under the patronage of the King of Naples, and from 1750 to 1764 the military engineer Karl Weber was director of the excavations. Under Weber, diagrams and plans of the ruins were produced and numerous finds were discovered and documented.

Magnificent paintings and a group of portrait statues were recovered from a building thought to be the ancient basilica of Herculaneum, and a large number of bronze and marble works of art were recovered from a suburban villa, called the Villa of the Papyri because it contributed an entire library of ancient Greek papyri. These papyri, on philosophical themes of Epicurean inspiration, are preserved in the National Library of Naples.

Excavations were resumed in 1823 with the intention of interrupting the previous tunneling and working instead from the ground, a method used successfully at Pompeii; until 1835 the work proved invaluable, bringing to light the first houses of Herculaneum, including the peristyle of the House of Argos.

Abandoned and resumed in 1869, after the unification of Italy, the excavations continued until 1875, when, due to the poor results obtained and the presence of the inhabited dwellings of Resina (now Ercolano), they were abandoned again.

After the efforts of the English archaeologist Charles Waldstein to internationalize the excavations of Ercolano (1904) by collecting contributions for this purpose from various nations in Europe and America, the work was finally resumed in May 1927 with Italian state funds and with the aim of conducting the excavations with the same continuity as those of Pompeii. The results of this work, interrupted only by the Second World War, have allowed us to have a clear image of the ancient city.

The larger decumanus (“main street”) forms one side of the ancient forum quarter with its public buildings. The insulae (“blocks”) south of the decumanus are arranged in a strictly geometric pattern facing the cardinae (“crossroads”). Many of the noble houses offered their patrons a view of the bay. Within the residential quarter, houses of rich republican and aristocratic construction alternate with middle-class homes, also finely decorated, or with commercial houses and workshops.

Public monuments discovered include the palaestra (sports field), with a large portico surrounding a large central piscina (pool), and thermae (baths), one of which adjoins the former seafront. This bath is in a remarkable state of preservation, having been largely protected from the pyroclastic flows of the eruption.

Excavation continues, from the demolition of part of Herculaneum, to the forum of the ancient city and the ancient coast.