Excavation of Pompeii and Herculaneum
Excavación de Pompeya y Herculano
- Date
- 1748 · confidence high
- Place
- Pompeii, Campania, Italy
- Credited to
- Roque Joaquín de Alcubierre (for Charles III of Bourbon); Giuseppe Fiorelli (modern method, 1860s)
- People
- 👤 Roque Joaquín de Alcubierre1702–1780
- Field
- Cosmos & Earth
What was discovered
Under Charles of Bourbon, Herculaneum (1738) and Pompeii (1748) were excavated, cities buried by Vesuvius in 79 CE and preserved intact. They gave an unprecedented view of everyday Roman life and gave rise to archaeology as a discipline.
Coordinates of the Pompeii site. Its approximate location was known from classical sources (Pliny the Younger); the first excavations were art plunder.
What it led to
- Birth of classical archaeology
- Neoclassicism in art and architecture
- Fiorelli's stratigraphic method and plaster casts of the victims
- Grand Tour cultural tourism
Built on
- First eyewitness account of an explosive eruption (Pliny the Younger and Vesuvius)79 (cartas de c. 106)
- Chance discovery of Herculaneum via a well (1709)
- Renaissance antiquarianism
Made possible
- Fiorelli's casting technique
- Site conservation