Other Vesuvian Eruptions — Afragola

One of my obsessions as a working archaeologist is neatly summed up by Kent Flannery: "Archeology is the only science in which we kill our informants". I never forgot as I was excavating a site that tomorrow (or some soon tomorrow) there would be a technique invented that would have brought some additional information to light that we'll never know because I'm digging it today. Made me nuts: it's really hard to live in the moment if you're an archaeologist.

Campanian Plain, Italy. Photo by Kris de Curtis

But, I know I'm not alone in my obsession. Case in point? The archaeological site of Pompeii has been excavated for some 200+ years: don't you sometimes wonder what we could have learned from those excavations if they were done today? Pompeii wasn't the only eruption of Mt. Vesuvius that we know of. Scientists have discovered evidence of three high-intensity explosive eruptions over the past 22,000 years in addition to the one that destroyed Pompeii and Herculaneum: one 18,300 years BP, one 8,000 years BP, and one 3,800 BP.

A recent study of the Early Bronze Age community of Afragola, buried under ash fall about 3,800 years ago, has given researchers a glimpse into both life on an Early Bronze Age village and how Bronze Age farmers lived and survived with an active volcano in the background.

The Campanian plain is a large, flat area in southwestern Italy on the Gulf of Napoli, that contains the modern cities of Naples and Salerno, and the ancient buried cities of Pompeii and Herculaneum. There were at least twenty Bronze Age villages buried in the Vesuvius' eruption of 3760 ± 70 BP. One of the most intensively studied to date is Afragola. Most of the archaeological reports are in Italian, as you might figure--but recently, the Italian archaeologists published an English-language article in Earth and Planetary Science Letters giving us non-readers of Italian a peek into their investigations.

The unique record provided by the ash fall, which destroyed the village--later occupations of the site are ephemeral--but did not kill anyone, allowed the researchers to use applied techniques from volcanology and rock magnetism, getting a fascinating glimpse into life on the Campanian plain some 3,800 years ago.

Sources and Further Info

• Afragola, read more about what they've learned about Afragola
• Pompeii
• Di Vito, Mauro A., et al. In press The Afragola settlement near Vesuvius, Italy: The destruction and abandonment of a Bronze Age village revealed by archaeology, volcanology and rock-magnetism. Earth and Planetary Science Letters In press.