The beach of Herculaneum in the ancient Roman city of Herculaneum, buried along with Pompeii by the eruption of Vesuvius on October 24, 79 AD, is to be excavated and restored. When the archaeologists finish, visitors will be able to stroll along Herculaneum Beach, as the elite Romans once did, before the lethal rise of nature wiped out the region.
Herculaneum Beach: created and destroyed by a volcano
Like today, but perhaps even more so in the ancient world, people were tied to their ancestral territories. For thousands of years, people had cultivated on the hyper-fertile slopes of Mount Vesuvius and no one in the Roman world predicted that their natural sustainer of life, Vesuvius, was also a destructive god who would recover everything.
In his 2013 BBC2 documentary The other Pompeii: life and death in Herculaneum , Wallace-Hadrill told the story of the 79 AD disaster and said we all make the “mistake” of seeing ancient Roman society as a two-part entity: rich people or poor people. However, the presenter said, “Herculaneum returns the average people to us, and they are extraordinary.”
Stunning paintings found in Herculaneum testify to his reputation for Roman luxury Roman retreat. ( milosk50 / Adobe Stock)
A poorly preserved place becomes a case of textbooks of excellence
Herculaneum was an ancient coastal settlement that today lies within the commune of Herculaneum, Campania, Italy. According to Strabo Geography the city had ancient Greek origins and was always associated with the hero Heracles (Hercules), who was revered not only as the spiritual founder of the city, but also as lord of Vesuvius.
Like the nearby city of Pompeii, Herculaneum was also destroyed and buried under thick black volcanic ash and pumice in the eruption of Vesuvius in 79 AD. And it was also well preserved under deep layers of ash.
In accordance with The New York Times in 2013, “Herculaneum has gone from one of the most poorly preserved UNESCO sites at risk of being included in the endangered list to becoming a successful textbook case for archaeological conservation” .
Now, it is about to start a new stage of planned archaeological excavations, with the aim of restoring Herculaneum beach in the Antica-Spiaggia area.
Boat houses on Herculaneum beach, where 300 skeletons were found. These unfortunate victims were about to evacuate, but never escaped. (Matthias Holländer / Public domain )
The beach of Herculaneum was mainly a refuge by the sea
While Pompeii and Herculaneum were covered with pyroclastic material from the volcanic eruption, the director of the Herculaneum Archaeological Park, Francesco Sirano, said more artifacts and wooden and organic objects and objects were preserved.
This fact was exemplified in an article by The Telegraph this said the charred remains of nearly “300 people were discovered in a series of boat houses in which the last inhabitants died in the intense heat waiting to be rescued from the sea.”
He Herculean Society let us say that the city was smaller, but that it was much richer than Pompeii. And while Pompeii was a prosperous and highly industrialized city, Herculaneum served the powerful Roman elite “as a luxury refuge at sea,” comprising large, luxurious marble-clad houses.
Sirano told the Italian news agency ANSA that the Herculaneum Conservation Project ( HCP) began in 2001. But now the team of archaeologists has a renewed awareness of the complexity of the site, “expect more and solid visions”.
Skeletons of victims in Herculaneum who died due to the eruption of Vesuvius in 79 AD. ( waldorf27 / Adobe Stock)
Challenges of the restoration project of Herculà beach
The ANSA report says the planned excavations are expected to last two and a half years. Archaeologists aim to reach the level of the west side of the beach which will return to its original level of sand, as it was at the time of the eruption in 79 AD.
Ultimately, future visitors to the site will be able to relive these last moments in October 79 AD when the gods restored Roman society and punished them for their wealth and decay.
However, as the target beach is buried about four meters below current sea level, this project will be different from any previous excavation at Herculaneum. Excavators say they expect to face a number of unforeseen problems with water drainage. But its planned obstacles are not limited to the dangers of heavy-duty archeology and the displacement of hundreds of tons of sand. The entire restoration project must also comply with modern water regulations.
Top image: looking south from Naples along the coast to the façade of Herculaneum Beach which is now being restored. Source: Sergii Figurnyi / Adobe Stock
By Ashley Cowie