0:00:04 > 0:00:06'I'm Andrew Wallace-Hadrill
0:00:06 > 0:00:08'and, the past 30 years,
0:00:08 > 0:00:12'I've had the immense good fortune to be able to study remains
0:00:12 > 0:00:16'from two of the most famous and exciting archaeological areas
0:00:16 > 0:00:17'in the world.
0:00:19 > 0:00:20'The first is Pompeii.'
0:00:22 > 0:00:24Pompeii is a magical site.
0:00:25 > 0:00:30It's captured everyone's imagination for two and a half centuries.
0:00:30 > 0:00:35'The modern exploration of Pompeii started in 1748.'
0:00:35 > 0:00:41Now, nearly 2.5 million visitors come here every year.
0:00:41 > 0:00:46No wonder. It boasts the oldest amphitheatre in the ancient world.
0:00:46 > 0:00:47An ancient brothel.
0:00:52 > 0:00:54And these world-famous casts.
0:00:57 > 0:01:00Yet, just ten miles down the road,
0:01:00 > 0:01:03is a place destroyed by the same eruption
0:01:03 > 0:01:07that, for me, is, if anything, even more fascinating.
0:01:07 > 0:01:10It adds colour and close-up detail
0:01:10 > 0:01:11to what life was really like
0:01:11 > 0:01:13in Roman times.
0:01:14 > 0:01:17This is the city of Hercules -
0:01:17 > 0:01:19Herculaneum.
0:01:24 > 0:01:26Here we have the Main Street
0:01:26 > 0:01:30and here you can see the way that houses are built to two storeys.
0:01:30 > 0:01:33The top storey surviving unlike Pompeii.
0:01:33 > 0:01:36And there are the wooden shutters.
0:01:37 > 0:01:39We've discovered their furniture.
0:01:40 > 0:01:42It's a sort of ancient IKEA.
0:01:44 > 0:01:47And, even more important for a historian like me,
0:01:47 > 0:01:50wooden tablets containing the records
0:01:50 > 0:01:52of their legal disputes and squabbles.
0:01:55 > 0:01:56What they ate
0:01:56 > 0:01:58and even how they ate it.
0:02:00 > 0:02:02HE CHUCKLES
0:02:02 > 0:02:03And, most important of all,
0:02:03 > 0:02:07Herculaneum holds the largest sample of skeletons
0:02:07 > 0:02:11of a living population from anywhere in the ancient world.
0:02:11 > 0:02:14Amongst them are the first new human remains
0:02:14 > 0:02:16to be found in this area for 30 years.
0:02:17 > 0:02:21They provide detailed scientific evidence
0:02:21 > 0:02:25of how people lived in the years leading up to the eruption.
0:02:25 > 0:02:27And put all this stuff together,
0:02:27 > 0:02:28and you can just stretch out
0:02:28 > 0:02:32and touch the lives of an ancient population.
0:03:01 > 0:03:05In 79 AD, this volcano erupted.
0:03:09 > 0:03:11It was a disaster that would resonate
0:03:11 > 0:03:13from the ancient to the modern world.
0:03:18 > 0:03:21Here, in the crater of Mount Vesuvius,
0:03:21 > 0:03:22I find it hard to imagine
0:03:22 > 0:03:27why anyone would want to live in such a dangerous and scary place.
0:03:29 > 0:03:312,000 years ago,
0:03:31 > 0:03:34Vesuvius looked very different.
0:03:34 > 0:03:36Even the summit was covered in green.
0:03:36 > 0:03:40And the inhabitants of the Roman towns below had no idea
0:03:40 > 0:03:42of the dangers they faced.
0:03:43 > 0:03:46The most famous of these is, of course, Pompeii.
0:03:49 > 0:03:51Pompeii has become world-renowned
0:03:51 > 0:03:54for its casts of the volcano's victims.
0:04:01 > 0:04:04It was a brilliant discovery in 1863,
0:04:04 > 0:04:07when the Italian archaeologists developed a technique
0:04:07 > 0:04:09of making casts of the dead bodies.
0:04:09 > 0:04:14Because of the way the ash set around the body
0:04:14 > 0:04:15before it rotted away,
0:04:15 > 0:04:18it was possible to inject plaster of Paris
0:04:18 > 0:04:22and capture the precise form of someone in their death throes.
0:04:22 > 0:04:25And even details of their clothing.
0:04:27 > 0:04:29This caused international sensation
0:04:29 > 0:04:33and it's become something of a ghoulish spectacle.
0:04:33 > 0:04:37What's lost in this process is the skeleton itself.
0:04:37 > 0:04:42Because scientists can say so much from a skeleton about a person,
0:04:42 > 0:04:45it's frustrating we can no longer get at these people.
0:04:48 > 0:04:52The preservation of Pompeii's people as casts was made possible
0:04:52 > 0:04:56by the layer of ash and pumice ejected from Mount Vesuvius,
0:04:56 > 0:04:58which buried the town.
0:05:00 > 0:05:03In Pompeii, it fell three to five metres deep.
0:05:05 > 0:05:09By contrast, ten miles along the Bay of Naples at Herculaneum,
0:05:09 > 0:05:12the ashfall was much hotter
0:05:12 > 0:05:15and up to five times deeper.
0:05:15 > 0:05:17As it cooled, it formed rock,
0:05:17 > 0:05:19which enveloped the town
0:05:19 > 0:05:22and proved an archaeological godsend.
0:05:26 > 0:05:29This terrifying precipice is the product
0:05:29 > 0:05:32of just 24 hours of volcanic eruption.
0:05:33 > 0:05:39Herculaneum is covered in as many as 25 metres of solid rock.
0:05:39 > 0:05:42And it's the enormous depth
0:05:42 > 0:05:46that means Herculaneum is exceptionally well-preserved.
0:05:50 > 0:05:53Ancient Herculaneum was a port on the Bay of Naples.
0:05:54 > 0:05:56But the effect of the eruption
0:05:56 > 0:06:00has pushed the coast 400 metres out to sea.
0:06:02 > 0:06:03And there's something here
0:06:03 > 0:06:06that helps us get closer to the people of an ancient town
0:06:06 > 0:06:09more than any other place in the world.
0:06:10 > 0:06:15A vast sample of skeletons found not in a graveyard,
0:06:15 > 0:06:19but cut off, young and old, at the same moment.
0:06:19 > 0:06:22They're just as poignant as the casts,
0:06:22 > 0:06:26but they also give us something more important -
0:06:26 > 0:06:30in their bones is the blueprint of what they ate,
0:06:30 > 0:06:32how they lived
0:06:32 > 0:06:34and even the kind of work they did
0:06:34 > 0:06:36in the years leading up to the eruption.
0:06:41 > 0:06:43It was down here, by the ancient shore,
0:06:43 > 0:06:46that over 300 skeletons were found.
0:06:46 > 0:06:50Some of them out on the shore, but the majority under these vaults,
0:06:50 > 0:06:53clustered, up to 40 in each vault.
0:06:53 > 0:06:55The question is,
0:06:55 > 0:06:57what were they doing down here?
0:07:00 > 0:07:05The vast majority found under the vaults were women and children,
0:07:05 > 0:07:09while those found on the ancient beach were largely men.
0:07:09 > 0:07:12It was a strange separation.
0:07:18 > 0:07:23Stacked high in boxes in this storeroom are 104 samples
0:07:23 > 0:07:25of the 340 skeletons recovered.
0:07:28 > 0:07:30Amongst them are the first new skeleton remains
0:07:30 > 0:07:33to be recovered from this area in 30 years.
0:07:38 > 0:07:42Leading the investigation are anthropologists Dr Luca Bondioli
0:07:42 > 0:07:44and Dr Luciano Fattore.
0:07:46 > 0:07:49The Herculaneum group, is it special,
0:07:49 > 0:07:52- is it normal among the groups you've worked with?- It's unique.
0:07:52 > 0:07:54It's not special, it's unique.
0:07:54 > 0:07:56There is no other collection all over the world
0:07:56 > 0:07:58that is so important and so unique,
0:07:58 > 0:08:03because it's not people coming from a graveyard or a necropolis.
0:08:03 > 0:08:07Those were alive people who died from a disaster.
0:08:07 > 0:08:09- And this is unique.- Uh-huh.
0:08:09 > 0:08:12So you a have fantastic snapshot,
0:08:12 > 0:08:15- a frozen moment of a real population.- Exactly.
0:08:15 > 0:08:18To correspond not perfectly, but it's a good sample,
0:08:18 > 0:08:24because we estimate that this is close to 10% of the population
0:08:24 > 0:08:26that was in Herculaneum.
0:08:29 > 0:08:31Most remarkable of all is this find -
0:08:31 > 0:08:34three exceptionally well-preserved skeletons
0:08:34 > 0:08:39discovered in a niche at the back of one of the vaults by Dr Fattore.
0:08:55 > 0:08:59This small group comprises two women, probably in their 40s,
0:08:59 > 0:09:01and a small child.
0:09:03 > 0:09:07Because these particular skeletons were hidden and so well-preserved,
0:09:07 > 0:09:11we can tell exactly what possessions they had with them.
0:09:12 > 0:09:16Incredibly, grape seeds were found in this child's ribcage.
0:09:16 > 0:09:19The remains of her last meal.
0:09:19 > 0:09:21And these tiny silver earrings
0:09:21 > 0:09:24were lying encrusted with ash
0:09:24 > 0:09:26on either side of her skull.
0:09:34 > 0:09:37The skeletons were a hugely important find.
0:09:41 > 0:09:46Using them, and all Herculaneum's other exceptionally well-preserved remains,
0:09:46 > 0:09:51I'm going to take you on a special tour of this extraordinary town.
0:09:55 > 0:09:59I'll show you how it adds even more to what we know from Pompeii.
0:10:01 > 0:10:03First, let's see where they ate,
0:10:03 > 0:10:05where they shopped and where they lived.
0:10:07 > 0:10:09Not just the people in swanky mansions,
0:10:09 > 0:10:12but in ordinary flats and bedsits too.
0:10:15 > 0:10:17Let's take this house, the house of the wooden screen,
0:10:17 > 0:10:20as an example of what you can see in Herculaneum
0:10:20 > 0:10:22which you don't see in Pompeii.
0:10:24 > 0:10:27In the middle here, the impluvium,
0:10:27 > 0:10:30where the rainwater comes in from the hole in the ceiling.
0:10:31 > 0:10:36There's a nice marble table on the axis which draws people's eyes in
0:10:36 > 0:10:42to the most important reception room in the house - the tablinum.
0:10:42 > 0:10:46But, as we come up here, HERE, here's the difference.
0:10:46 > 0:10:48This is what you don't find in Pompeii.
0:10:48 > 0:10:51This is a wooden screen found in position,
0:10:51 > 0:10:55it's preserved now in glass to protect it.
0:10:55 > 0:10:58A screen which could be drawn across
0:10:58 > 0:11:01to cut off this main reception room
0:11:01 > 0:11:05and if you come in, you can see how it changes it.
0:11:06 > 0:11:11Open it up and here I am, every visitor to the house can see me,
0:11:11 > 0:11:14I'm... It's easy for me to welcome visitors.
0:11:14 > 0:11:18I close it up, and then, it's become a private dining room.
0:11:21 > 0:11:24So that wooden screen is all about privacy in their own house,
0:11:24 > 0:11:28something you can see here because the wood survives.
0:11:32 > 0:11:34Suppose we were in Pompeii,
0:11:34 > 0:11:37here's a room which you would guess was a bedroom.
0:11:38 > 0:11:42You would guess it, but you wouldn't know for certain.
0:11:42 > 0:11:44But when you actually find the bed in it...
0:11:44 > 0:11:46Ha! Then, you know it's a bedroom.
0:11:47 > 0:11:50It may look a bit worse for wear,
0:11:50 > 0:11:54but in Herculaneum they found enough wooden furniture
0:11:54 > 0:11:56to fill an entire showroom.
0:12:02 > 0:12:04Luigi, mi puo aprire la porta?
0:12:04 > 0:12:06Possiamo vedere un po?
0:12:06 > 0:12:10'The man in charge of all this is Luigi Sirano.'
0:12:13 > 0:12:16This place is a real treasure trove.
0:12:16 > 0:12:19There's, there's something of everything you want for your house.
0:12:19 > 0:12:21It's a sort of ancient IKEA.
0:12:23 > 0:12:25Do you fancy a bed?
0:12:25 > 0:12:28Here is an entire ancient bed.
0:12:29 > 0:12:30You can see the frame,
0:12:30 > 0:12:35but also this very beautiful woodwork of the sides of the bed.
0:12:37 > 0:12:39What else do we have here?
0:12:39 > 0:12:43We have benches, linen chests.
0:12:43 > 0:12:47And here's a really famous object - the cradle.
0:12:47 > 0:12:51Found in a house with the baby lying in the cradle.
0:12:53 > 0:12:56'And a really big question for the Roman family was,
0:12:56 > 0:12:58'what gods do you worship
0:12:58 > 0:13:00'and where do you put them?'
0:13:00 > 0:13:05Oh, yes, over here, we have a household shrine.
0:13:09 > 0:13:12These doors are like the doors into a temple
0:13:12 > 0:13:15and inside, you keep your household gods.
0:13:15 > 0:13:21And that's a lovely insight into religion in the Roman household.
0:13:25 > 0:13:27I think I'd better put some gloves on here
0:13:27 > 0:13:30since I'm going to be handling household gods,
0:13:30 > 0:13:33I'd better treat them with respect.
0:13:33 > 0:13:36Now, what we've have got here is just a selection
0:13:36 > 0:13:39of the sort of gods you'd find in one these shrines.
0:13:39 > 0:13:41Here is the must-have God.
0:13:41 > 0:13:46This is a Lar, the dancing spirit of the hearth and household.
0:13:46 > 0:13:51You can see a little drinking horn that he's holding up.
0:13:53 > 0:13:56Many people, because we're in Herculaneum,
0:13:56 > 0:13:59wanted a Hercules and there's Hercules.
0:13:59 > 0:14:04You see his lion skin hanging from his hand and his beautiful six-pack
0:14:04 > 0:14:07and fine muscular body.
0:14:10 > 0:14:12And, of course, going with Hercules,
0:14:12 > 0:14:17Venus, and there is the naked Venus washing her hair.
0:14:21 > 0:14:25Even more than strength and sex, you need money.
0:14:25 > 0:14:29And Mercury is the great God of how to make a profit
0:14:29 > 0:14:31and there he is with a bag of money.
0:14:31 > 0:14:34He has little wings on his helmet.
0:14:34 > 0:14:38With any luck, he has wings on his heels too.
0:14:40 > 0:14:42And here we have the king of the gods,
0:14:42 > 0:14:47Jupiter himself, with his thunderbolt, that's a thunderbolt.
0:14:49 > 0:14:53I love the way his eyes seem to blaze at you.
0:14:53 > 0:14:54He is a scary God.
0:14:56 > 0:14:58And take good note -
0:14:58 > 0:15:01the king of the gods does not have a big prick,
0:15:01 > 0:15:05because, in antiquity, they did not think a big prick was a good thing.
0:15:05 > 0:15:06It's a sign of a barbarian.
0:15:08 > 0:15:13And here's an absolutely weird link with the modern world.
0:15:13 > 0:15:15A Madonna and Child.
0:15:15 > 0:15:18This splendid figure of a Goddess
0:15:18 > 0:15:20giving suckle to a baby.
0:15:20 > 0:15:22Of course, it's not the Madonna,
0:15:22 > 0:15:25this is not the Christ child.
0:15:25 > 0:15:28This is just an ancient scene.
0:15:28 > 0:15:32And that's a splendid large copy
0:15:32 > 0:15:34and here's another little copy
0:15:34 > 0:15:37which we found when we were excavating down in the sewers.
0:15:43 > 0:15:47And here, at the Sanctuary Of The Madonna, in Pompeii,
0:15:47 > 0:15:50we can see it's an image that's passed effortlessly
0:15:50 > 0:15:52from the ancient world to the modern.
0:15:56 > 0:16:00What's been missing in ancient Pompeii is its bright colour.
0:16:00 > 0:16:03We tend to see so much in black and white.
0:16:04 > 0:16:07Herculaneum though offers a whole new palette.
0:16:09 > 0:16:12Here's a find I'm particularly proud of because we made it
0:16:12 > 0:16:14in the course of our conservation project.
0:16:14 > 0:16:18And it's very important... You see, isn't she fantastic?
0:16:18 > 0:16:22And what's so fabulous about her is the colour.
0:16:22 > 0:16:27The moment the conservators realised that the head was there,
0:16:27 > 0:16:29still completely caked in ash,
0:16:29 > 0:16:32they said, "Please, no-one else touch it.
0:16:32 > 0:16:34"There may be traces of colour."
0:16:34 > 0:16:36And, by golly, there were traces of colour.
0:16:36 > 0:16:39They were so careful about removing the ash.
0:16:46 > 0:16:48Look round the eye -
0:16:48 > 0:16:50eyebrow,
0:16:50 > 0:16:51eyelashes
0:16:51 > 0:16:54and the iris and the pupil.
0:16:57 > 0:17:01It's extraordinary how a few touches of colour
0:17:01 > 0:17:03just bring this piece of marble to life.
0:17:05 > 0:17:08There's been a lot of talk about,
0:17:08 > 0:17:10did they really colour ancient statues?
0:17:10 > 0:17:14Because people think marble looks beautiful just as it is.
0:17:14 > 0:17:16And this shows you
0:17:16 > 0:17:21that just a few delicate strokes can make all the difference
0:17:21 > 0:17:25between a dead, white marble statue
0:17:25 > 0:17:27and this living image.
0:17:30 > 0:17:33And it wasn't just on marble that the colours survived.
0:17:33 > 0:17:35ALARM BEEPING
0:17:35 > 0:17:38The contents of these containers are so delicate
0:17:38 > 0:17:41they're kept constantly alarmed and refrigerated.
0:17:43 > 0:17:47They contain the timber from the only surviving wooden roof
0:17:47 > 0:17:51from the Roman world, found here, in Herculaneum.
0:17:51 > 0:17:55When they were unearthed, the paint still survived.
0:17:55 > 0:17:58Remnants of those bright colours still exist.
0:17:58 > 0:18:02You can see traces of the blue and turquoise pigment.
0:18:11 > 0:18:13They tell of brightly coloured
0:18:13 > 0:18:16and intricately patterned wooden ceilings.
0:18:18 > 0:18:22Chemical analysis has enabled us to reconstruct them in all their glory.
0:18:45 > 0:18:49Nowhere is this world of colour and detail preserved better
0:18:49 > 0:18:51than in the House Of Neptune And Amphitrite.
0:18:56 > 0:19:01Silvia and her team have spent eight months conserving this mosaic.
0:19:03 > 0:19:05The ancient artists who made the piece
0:19:05 > 0:19:10and the modern restorers here share a painstaking attention to detail.
0:19:10 > 0:19:15As Silvia brushed delicately away at the yellow pigment,
0:19:15 > 0:19:17she was astonished at what she found.
0:19:17 > 0:19:22The most important details were picked out with real gold.
0:19:24 > 0:19:29Yet, we know this house was pretty modest by Herculaneum standards.
0:19:34 > 0:19:40In the front of the house, there's a shop, a sort of ancient off-licence.
0:19:40 > 0:19:42And here it is,
0:19:42 > 0:19:46the remains of dozens of shops survived from antiquity,
0:19:46 > 0:19:50but Herculaneum offers a level of preservation
0:19:50 > 0:19:53we just don't see anywhere else, even in Pompeii.
0:19:53 > 0:19:55Particularly, its preserved wood.
0:19:57 > 0:19:59Look at what we've got here.
0:19:59 > 0:20:03We've got a screen that cuts off a little backroom for the shop.
0:20:03 > 0:20:05Up here, there's a little balcony,
0:20:05 > 0:20:09with amphorae, wine containers stored up on it.
0:20:09 > 0:20:12And then round here, here's this wonderful thing,
0:20:12 > 0:20:14a sort of wine rack.
0:20:14 > 0:20:18So you can put your wine amphorae there and you can probably
0:20:18 > 0:20:24tip them over and pour out a smaller container for sale to the customer.
0:20:24 > 0:20:30Not only that, but you've got an upper floor, a flat above the shop.
0:20:30 > 0:20:33You see over there, there's a rather nice decorated wall
0:20:33 > 0:20:37and in the corner, there's a bed. You can see its bronze leg.
0:20:41 > 0:20:46Years of studying Herculaneum with its humble shops backed up against
0:20:46 > 0:20:48opulent houses taught me that this
0:20:48 > 0:20:53place was the best surviving example of how a Roman town really worked.
0:20:57 > 0:21:01A place not of black and white contrasts between rich
0:21:01 > 0:21:05and poor, but a complex tapestry where people of different
0:21:05 > 0:21:09wealth and backgrounds were woven into an intricate mix.
0:21:14 > 0:21:17And it's Herculaneum's latrines, from ancient shops,
0:21:17 > 0:21:19apartments and small businesses,
0:21:19 > 0:21:24that have given the most tantalising window onto the lives of its people.
0:21:26 > 0:21:30And the contents are all down below, so to speak.
0:21:32 > 0:21:34What makes this block of houses
0:21:34 > 0:21:38so fascinating is not just the enormous amount of sewage
0:21:38 > 0:21:41found down in the sewer, which allows us
0:21:41 > 0:21:46to analyse in detail their diet, but that it's found in a social context.
0:21:46 > 0:21:52You can see it's a series of shops and perfectly ordinary flats.
0:21:52 > 0:21:56We're looking at the diet not of people at the top
0:21:56 > 0:22:00of the social spectrum, but way down.
0:22:00 > 0:22:03The contents of the sewer are being analysed.
0:22:03 > 0:22:05And what Herculaneum is giving us
0:22:05 > 0:22:11is a completely new insight into what less well-off Romans ate.
0:22:11 > 0:22:16It was once thought they survived on a simple diet of bread and olives.
0:22:16 > 0:22:19But just like everything else in Herculaneum,
0:22:19 > 0:22:22the reality is turning out to be much more rich
0:22:22 > 0:22:25and surprising than anyone could have expected.
0:22:29 > 0:22:33I've been working on the organic material from the Herculaneum
0:22:33 > 0:22:36sewer for almost ten years.
0:22:36 > 0:22:39I've been involved right from the beginning.
0:22:39 > 0:22:42I was fortunate enough not to have to excavate it.
0:22:42 > 0:22:46It's pretty cool because it's exactly what people were eating.
0:22:46 > 0:22:48It's probably as close as you can get.
0:22:48 > 0:22:52There's just a huge range, in terms of shellfish, fish,
0:22:52 > 0:22:54also fruits and vegetables.
0:22:54 > 0:22:59We've already found over 110 different food items in the sewer.
0:22:59 > 0:23:05Everything from bones to seeds to eggshells has been preserved.
0:23:05 > 0:23:08Some of it chucked down the drain into the sewer below.
0:23:08 > 0:23:14But no sewer would be complete without some of these.
0:23:14 > 0:23:18Here is a human coprolite, looking, I suppose,
0:23:18 > 0:23:23somewhat like a modern turd, a modern motion.
0:23:23 > 0:23:28And this is a broken section through one of the coprolites
0:23:28 > 0:23:32and the darker brown material is fish bones.
0:23:36 > 0:23:42What I'm doing here is carefully scraping away at the coprolite,
0:23:42 > 0:23:47trying to reveal a fish vertebrae.
0:23:47 > 0:23:50See the bone there
0:23:50 > 0:23:55and then the general mineralised material of the coprolite itself.
0:23:58 > 0:24:03We know the people who lived around the Bay of Naples loved their fish.
0:24:03 > 0:24:07They recorded the different species in this stunning mosaic.
0:24:12 > 0:24:16Modern Ercolano is still a fishing port with a thriving market.
0:24:16 > 0:24:19And I thought I'd see whether there's anything
0:24:19 > 0:24:23they ate before the eruption that's still popular today.
0:24:26 > 0:24:30Fish merchant Signora Lucia has graciously offered to help.
0:24:37 > 0:24:41There are 46 different species of fish in the sewer.
0:24:41 > 0:24:45We found many different types of sea breams.
0:24:51 > 0:24:53Anchovies, sardines...
0:24:53 > 0:24:55A lovely wriggling eel!
0:24:55 > 0:24:57Put it back!
0:24:57 > 0:25:00Three different types of eels.
0:25:00 > 0:25:03There's also a little bit of evidence for seabass,
0:25:03 > 0:25:06as well as what we would think of as more unusual species,
0:25:06 > 0:25:08such as sharks and rays.
0:25:12 > 0:25:15It's clear that from the harvest of the Mediterranean, the poorer
0:25:15 > 0:25:19people of Herculaneum were not only enjoying a diet rich in protein,
0:25:19 > 0:25:24but one more varied than that of the inhabitants today.
0:25:24 > 0:25:26Back at the lab,
0:25:26 > 0:25:30they've even managed to uncover how these people ate their fish
0:25:30 > 0:25:35from a rarely surviving part of its anatomy, the otolith.
0:25:35 > 0:25:39Otoliths are located in the ear of the fish, so in the head.
0:25:39 > 0:25:42The otoliths show signs of digestion,
0:25:42 > 0:25:44so smoothing around the edges,
0:25:44 > 0:25:47which means that they were probably consumed,
0:25:47 > 0:25:51passed through the human digestive tract intact, but since they're in the head of the fish,
0:25:51 > 0:25:55this means that people ate their fish whole a lot of the time.
0:25:55 > 0:25:57The Romans liked their fish crunchy!
0:26:00 > 0:26:04This tradition must surely have died out with the eruption.
0:26:10 > 0:26:11OK.
0:26:20 > 0:26:22When you look at fish,
0:26:22 > 0:26:25there's very little difference between what was there
0:26:25 > 0:26:28in the Mediterranean Antiquity and what you find on a fish stall now.
0:26:28 > 0:26:31Fruit and veg is a very different thing.
0:26:31 > 0:26:35Some is just the same as in Antiquity. Apples?
0:26:35 > 0:26:39Now, that's a good Ancient Roman apple, so to speak.
0:26:39 > 0:26:42Pears, also. The Romans were very fond of pears.
0:26:42 > 0:26:44But what about oranges?
0:26:44 > 0:26:49Oranges come probably from the Arab world in the Middle Ages.
0:26:49 > 0:26:52So oranges and lemons...
0:26:52 > 0:26:57Lemons, the joy of the Bay of Naples, don't exist in Antiquity.
0:26:59 > 0:27:01There's one fruit, however,
0:27:01 > 0:27:05that's sustained its popularity in Ercolano for nearly 2,000 years.
0:27:07 > 0:27:13O, signora, posso comprare i fichi? Si. O, grazie, grazie, signora.
0:27:13 > 0:27:17I'm so pleased with what I've just found here.
0:27:17 > 0:27:18This is Herculaneum figs.
0:27:18 > 0:27:21Herculaneum and Antiquity, famous for figs.
0:27:21 > 0:27:25And here we have the real figs of modern Herculaneum.
0:27:26 > 0:27:28Beautifully cooked.
0:27:28 > 0:27:30Mmm!
0:27:37 > 0:27:39Thank you.
0:27:39 > 0:27:41Signora, posso offrire? No.
0:27:44 > 0:27:47The food uncovered in the sewer can still be found in today's
0:27:47 > 0:27:50market in Ercolano.
0:27:50 > 0:27:54It tells us about the surprising range of nutrition in this
0:27:54 > 0:27:57ancient town.
0:27:57 > 0:28:02And now our skeletons are providing even more evidence.
0:28:02 > 0:28:05A scientific method called collagen testing,
0:28:05 > 0:28:08which determines the origin of protein in the bones,
0:28:08 > 0:28:13is being used for the first time to tell us who ate what here.
0:28:13 > 0:28:17The traditional view is that only the rich could afford meat
0:28:17 > 0:28:19and fish in the Ancient World.
0:28:19 > 0:28:24So we might expect a small minority of our skeletons who've
0:28:24 > 0:28:28enjoyed this diet while the rest ate only vegetable matter.
0:28:29 > 0:28:34Rather than this division, what Luca found was more surprising.
0:28:35 > 0:28:40In Herculaneum we have found a uniform distribution through
0:28:40 > 0:28:42all the possible kind of diets.
0:28:42 > 0:28:48From vegetarians to meat. Here we have one adult male.
0:28:48 > 0:28:52Here we have a young lady, should be around 20 years old.
0:28:52 > 0:28:55She was almost vegetarian.
0:28:55 > 0:29:01She ate almost no meat, while this adult male ate,
0:29:01 > 0:29:08we can estimate, close to 60% of his protein intake from seafood.
0:29:08 > 0:29:12So does that mean we've got really two different groups of the
0:29:12 > 0:29:16population, the lucky ones who have plenty of fish,
0:29:16 > 0:29:19- and the unlucky ones who just have a vegetarian diet?- No, no.
0:29:19 > 0:29:22He could have been the cook of the master.
0:29:22 > 0:29:26And he was the person who bought the food in the market.
0:29:26 > 0:29:27So we don't know.
0:29:27 > 0:29:32And she maybe was the daughter of the master and for some religious
0:29:32 > 0:29:36or any other kind of thing, she prefer not to eat meat.
0:29:36 > 0:29:38So it's difficult.
0:29:38 > 0:29:41They were very complex. It was a complex society.
0:29:42 > 0:29:45Back in the lab, it's not just the food that Erica
0:29:45 > 0:29:50and Mark have uncovered, but even the way it was prepared.
0:29:50 > 0:29:52Until recently,
0:29:52 > 0:29:56some assumed poor people didn't prepare their own food at home here.
0:29:56 > 0:30:01However, microscopic analysis has now revealed
0:30:01 > 0:30:04nine different undigested herbs and spices,
0:30:04 > 0:30:09including celery seeds, coriander and fennel.
0:30:09 > 0:30:13It seems that like their modern Italian counterparts,
0:30:13 > 0:30:16even the poorer people of Herculaneum practised
0:30:16 > 0:30:20a sophisticated level of cookery.
0:30:20 > 0:30:21And what's more,
0:30:21 > 0:30:25their tastes stretched far beyond the slopes of Mount Vesuvius.
0:30:28 > 0:30:33The black pepper's by far the most exotic food item, as it would have come all the way from India
0:30:33 > 0:30:36and I found two peppercorns at different
0:30:36 > 0:30:39locations in the sewer, which means that two different sets of
0:30:39 > 0:30:44people in different apartments would have been able to buy black pepper.
0:30:45 > 0:30:48It would be another one and a half millennia before the poor
0:30:48 > 0:30:52in Britain could afford the same taste.
0:30:52 > 0:30:55They clearly also cared a lot about food and flavour
0:30:55 > 0:30:57and what they were eating.
0:30:57 > 0:31:01The people in Herculaneum were definitely living to eat,
0:31:01 > 0:31:03not just eating to live.
0:31:05 > 0:31:08The analysis of the material from the sewer tells us
0:31:08 > 0:31:13the diet of Herculaneum's people was rich and varied.
0:31:13 > 0:31:17The fact that a sewer was built here at all tells us
0:31:17 > 0:31:19something else about this place.
0:31:28 > 0:31:32Some people imagine that a Roman town was a filthy, unhealthy
0:31:32 > 0:31:36place, rather like a medieval city, or even Victorian London.
0:31:36 > 0:31:40But the Romans had an obsession with hygiene.
0:31:40 > 0:31:43Their doctors said - you need to bathe regularly.
0:31:43 > 0:31:48And a town like Herculaneum has an abundant provision of public baths.
0:31:48 > 0:31:53Here, we're in the suburban baths. This is the cold dip.
0:31:53 > 0:31:58You can see that the water would come right up here.
0:31:58 > 0:32:03And you can get, what, a dozen, even more people here at the same time.
0:32:03 > 0:32:05And if you're worried that the water's going to get a bit
0:32:05 > 0:32:09dirty with all those people, never fear.
0:32:09 > 0:32:14Here's the plughole, to let it out. They can change the water regularly.
0:32:14 > 0:32:18We can't be sure if the entire population of Herculaneum was
0:32:18 > 0:32:20allowed to use the baths,
0:32:20 > 0:32:25but what we do know is that everyone had access to a clean water supply.
0:32:27 > 0:32:30Were Roman towns filthy, unhealthy places,
0:32:30 > 0:32:33as some people seem to think?
0:32:34 > 0:32:40Look around you and you see the Romans really care about hygiene.
0:32:40 > 0:32:45Their town is provided with running water, public fountains.
0:32:45 > 0:32:48Look at this one, it's even got this lovely figure of Venus.
0:32:48 > 0:32:52And what's she doing? She's washing her hair.
0:32:52 > 0:32:55Beautiful. She cares about the body, keeping clean.
0:32:55 > 0:32:57And it's not just a public fountain.
0:32:57 > 0:33:01Private houses have running water too.
0:33:01 > 0:33:04Here we've got part of the water distribution system of the town.
0:33:04 > 0:33:06Up on the top, there was a cistern.
0:33:06 > 0:33:10We've got lead pipes running up and that gives the pressure
0:33:10 > 0:33:13so that the water can go into individual houses.
0:33:13 > 0:33:16And there are pipes running right down the pavement, you can
0:33:16 > 0:33:21see three pipes running there, feeding off into individual houses.
0:33:22 > 0:33:27It's estimated that the population of Herculaneum was around 4,000.
0:33:27 > 0:33:29Small, even by Roman standards.
0:33:29 > 0:33:33And no greater than some British villages today.
0:33:34 > 0:33:38And yet, even in the quarter of the town excavated,
0:33:38 > 0:33:42they had three public baths, a primary
0:33:42 > 0:33:47and secondary sewer system, and over 80 latrines.
0:33:47 > 0:33:50They enjoyed a level of public amenities not matched
0:33:50 > 0:33:53until modern times.
0:33:53 > 0:33:57Not only do they provide all these facilities,
0:33:57 > 0:34:01but the magistrates are really keen to keep the place clean.
0:34:01 > 0:34:03And here, they've written up -
0:34:03 > 0:34:07here's the name of Marcus Rufelius Robbia and Orlus Tettius
0:34:07 > 0:34:11and they're given a pretty strict warning here -
0:34:11 > 0:34:15no dumping rubbish by the public fountain.
0:34:15 > 0:34:18And they then specify the punishment.
0:34:18 > 0:34:23If you're a free man, you get fined, and if you're a slave,
0:34:23 > 0:34:24you get flogged.
0:34:24 > 0:34:28And suddenly there opens up in front of us
0:34:28 > 0:34:32that vast gulf between the world of the free and the slave.
0:34:32 > 0:34:34The slave is punished by flogging
0:34:34 > 0:34:38and the flogging is a terrible thing, not just very painful,
0:34:38 > 0:34:42but it leaves a scar, a mark on you for life.
0:34:42 > 0:34:45You can never become a citizen if you've been flogged.
0:34:48 > 0:34:52And it's on this most infamous institution of the Ancient World,
0:34:52 > 0:34:57slavery, that Herculaneum offers the most surprising insight of all.
0:34:59 > 0:35:02This was a town of slaves and their owners.
0:35:02 > 0:35:07The most famous of those slave owners is commemorated right here.
0:35:13 > 0:35:17Marcus Nonius Balbus here was Herculaneum's biggest benefactor.
0:35:17 > 0:35:21He must have made a pile as a governor of a Roman province.
0:35:21 > 0:35:24And then he spent some of his money on his town.
0:35:24 > 0:35:30And the walls up above us were rebuilt by Marcus Nonius Balbus.
0:35:30 > 0:35:35Another sign of his enormous wealth was the sheer number of his slaves.
0:35:35 > 0:35:39When a Roman gave freedom to a slave, the slave took his name.
0:35:39 > 0:35:42And there are over 50 people in Herculaneum who carried
0:35:42 > 0:35:45the name of Marcus Nonius.
0:35:47 > 0:35:50It's a name that continued long after him.
0:35:50 > 0:35:54As this boundary marker between two home-owning ex-slaves shows.
0:35:57 > 0:36:03On this side is Iulia and it's her wall, private in perpetuity.
0:36:03 > 0:36:08And on this side is Marcus Nonius Dama, freed man of Marcus.
0:36:08 > 0:36:10His wall, private in perpetuity.
0:36:11 > 0:36:15And we can tell where he comes from because that name, Dama,
0:36:15 > 0:36:18is distinctive of Syria, as in Damascus.
0:36:18 > 0:36:22So he's come from the other side of the Mediterranean world.
0:36:24 > 0:36:28A tiny town like Herculaneum was attracting immigrants from Syria
0:36:28 > 0:36:31and beyond.
0:36:31 > 0:36:33Often, they came as slaves.
0:36:33 > 0:36:36But what this place and the Roman Empire offered them
0:36:36 > 0:36:40was the chance to buy into something unique in the Ancient World.
0:36:41 > 0:36:44What makes Roman slavery
0:36:44 > 0:36:47so different from any other slave society we know about is the
0:36:47 > 0:36:52way that a slave could be not just freed, but given full citizenship.
0:36:54 > 0:36:59It's this dynamic flow from slavery to citizenship that makes
0:36:59 > 0:37:01Roman society quite unique.
0:37:01 > 0:37:06And there's nowhere better than Herculaneum to see that.
0:37:11 > 0:37:15These marble tablets from Herculaneum are the only
0:37:15 > 0:37:18surviving documents like this from the Roman world.
0:37:18 > 0:37:23They list the freedmen and full citizens of the town.
0:37:23 > 0:37:28What they suggest is that up to 80% of the town's male citizens
0:37:28 > 0:37:34were ex-slaves, pointing to a huge degree of social mobility,
0:37:34 > 0:37:36even in the smallest of Roman towns.
0:37:39 > 0:37:44With over 300 skeletons, surely our anthropologists must have
0:37:44 > 0:37:48evidence to work out the social make up of our group.
0:37:49 > 0:37:54This female seems to bear all the hallmarks of a slave.
0:39:01 > 0:39:06But there's other unique evidence that can shed light
0:39:06 > 0:39:09on the social make-up of the town.
0:39:09 > 0:39:13What's special about Herculaneum is that the records survive that
0:39:13 > 0:39:17show that this was an upwardly mobile society where full
0:39:17 > 0:39:22citizenship was the prize and slaves were battling to secure it.
0:39:22 > 0:39:27This system had a dual purpose - to encourage slaves to work hard
0:39:27 > 0:39:31and then buying into the empire by granting them citizenship.
0:39:40 > 0:39:44Here in the storerooms of the Naples Museum are kept
0:39:44 > 0:39:49one of the most valuable insights into the Roman world.
0:39:49 > 0:39:55They are the wooden tablets on which people recorded their legal affairs.
0:39:56 > 0:40:01Originally, these tablets had a top layer of wax on which
0:40:01 > 0:40:04the legal wranglings of the people of Herculaneum were
0:40:04 > 0:40:06painstakingly transcribed.
0:40:06 > 0:40:10The heat of the eruption melted the wax, but we can still read
0:40:10 > 0:40:14the minute scratch marks made on the carbonised wood below.
0:40:14 > 0:40:18Fortunately, when it came to legal matters,
0:40:18 > 0:40:21the Romans didn't do things by halves.
0:40:22 > 0:40:27Luckily, the Romans were really nervous about forgery.
0:40:27 > 0:40:30So they wouldn't just have one copy of a document,
0:40:30 > 0:40:33they had three copies.
0:40:33 > 0:40:36You can see here some little holes,
0:40:36 > 0:40:40which is the string which ties together the three copies.
0:40:41 > 0:40:46And by looking at these different versions,
0:40:46 > 0:40:49you can puzzle together a fascinating story.
0:40:57 > 0:41:01A wonderful example of these documents
0:41:01 > 0:41:05comes from the House of the Bicentenary and there was found
0:41:05 > 0:41:10a dossier of dozens of documents recording a big legal battle.
0:41:10 > 0:41:16The argument was whether a girl called Petronia Iusta was
0:41:16 > 0:41:18free or a slave.
0:41:18 > 0:41:21And that depended on whether at the time of her birth,
0:41:21 > 0:41:24her mother was free or a slave.
0:41:24 > 0:41:29To resolve the problem, they call in members of the household,
0:41:29 > 0:41:33neighbours, who all give witness and all have contradictory versions.
0:41:35 > 0:41:39We don't know who won, but what it tells us is that in this case,
0:41:39 > 0:41:44it was possible for a slave girl to challenge her status in court.
0:41:46 > 0:41:50Another really important bundle of documents came from a house
0:41:50 > 0:41:54just two doors down from Petronia Iusta.
0:41:54 > 0:41:58It's really difficult just from looking at a Roman house to
0:41:58 > 0:42:00tell what the status of the owner was.
0:42:00 > 0:42:02Look at this house.
0:42:02 > 0:42:05Grand, lovely garden... This is very much a des res.
0:42:05 > 0:42:08Very nice bedrooms in the back round here.
0:42:08 > 0:42:13And then over here we've got a magnificent great reception room.
0:42:13 > 0:42:17You can hear it echoing...echoing... Wonderful!
0:42:17 > 0:42:20And this lovely mosaic on the floor.
0:42:20 > 0:42:24And everything makes you think this must be someone really smart,
0:42:24 > 0:42:27one of the elite of the town.
0:42:27 > 0:42:29As it happens, we know exactly who lived here
0:42:29 > 0:42:34because in a bedroom right up here was a bundle of documents
0:42:34 > 0:42:39and it's this character Venidius Ennychus and he's an ex-slave.
0:42:40 > 0:42:43He's obviously very much a favoured slave
0:42:43 > 0:42:46and he's given his freedom, that was quite common...
0:42:46 > 0:42:49But he's given his freedom underage.
0:42:49 > 0:42:51Terrific. Now I am a free man.
0:42:51 > 0:42:53But that wasn't enough for him
0:42:53 > 0:42:57because he wanted to be a full Roman citizen too.
0:42:57 > 0:42:59And it was really worth it.
0:42:59 > 0:43:04A citizen gets the vote, but he can also inherit property.
0:43:04 > 0:43:08Now, normally, you have to be 30 to become a full Roman citizen,
0:43:08 > 0:43:12if you start as a slave, but there's a special legal loophole
0:43:12 > 0:43:15and Venidius Ennicus uses it.
0:43:15 > 0:43:21If you get legally married and then have a child, declare the child
0:43:21 > 0:43:25before the local magistrate, they can give you a certificate
0:43:25 > 0:43:30that says you now merit Roman citizenship.
0:43:30 > 0:43:33Here we have an example of a bit written in ink
0:43:33 > 0:43:36and though black ink is a little hard to make
0:43:36 > 0:43:39out against charcoal, if I get the light right,
0:43:39 > 0:43:45I can see "L Venidius Ennicus", there's his name.
0:43:45 > 0:43:49And here we can see he's declaring the birth of a daughter
0:43:49 > 0:43:51before the magistrates.
0:44:03 > 0:44:08That a daughter was born to him by his wife Olivia Acte.
0:44:09 > 0:44:13We know he achieved his ambition and made it to full citizenship
0:44:13 > 0:44:18because we can find his name inscribed publicly in marble.
0:44:20 > 0:44:25But it was very important to him to keep the legal proof, just like his
0:44:25 > 0:44:30birth certificate and other personal documents locked away in his house.
0:44:32 > 0:44:36Living here at the foot of a peaceful Mount Vesuvius,
0:44:36 > 0:44:39Venidius Ennicus and Petronia Iusta
0:44:39 > 0:44:43had no idea their world was about to end.
0:44:51 > 0:44:55And the possessions found with the skeletons are a poignant
0:44:55 > 0:44:59reminder of what the people of Herculaneum chose to leave
0:44:59 > 0:45:02and what to take with them when the catastrophe came.
0:45:06 > 0:45:10A dazzling array of coins, gold and jewellery -
0:45:10 > 0:45:15craftsmanship as intricate as the society to which they belonged.
0:45:26 > 0:45:31A surgeon's instruments, perhaps for a doctor to attend to the wounded.
0:45:33 > 0:45:36Who this medic was remains a mystery.
0:45:38 > 0:45:43This skeleton was a mother, found clutching her child.
0:45:47 > 0:45:50And given the choice of what to take with him,
0:45:50 > 0:45:55this two-year-old was discovered with neither treasure nor toys.
0:45:55 > 0:45:58He was found embracing a pet dog.
0:46:01 > 0:46:05And then, the last skeletons to be found, the group of two women
0:46:05 > 0:46:08and the small child with the silver earrings.
0:46:58 > 0:47:0297% of the bodies found in Herculaneum
0:47:02 > 0:47:05were discovered here at the ancient shoreline.
0:47:05 > 0:47:08Unlike Pompeii, where they were spread across the summit.
0:47:10 > 0:47:13There must have been a reason they came here,
0:47:13 > 0:47:17and one that might perhaps tell us how they faced up to disaster.
0:47:19 > 0:47:21Look at the construction of this base.
0:47:21 > 0:47:27Solid Roman concrete with the strongest kind of vaulted roof.
0:47:27 > 0:47:33This sort of space would be ideal for taking refuge in an earthquake.
0:47:33 > 0:47:37And what our research has shown, is that in the years running up
0:47:37 > 0:47:40to the eruption there were constant earthquakes.
0:47:40 > 0:47:44They must have learnt to use these spaces as a place of refuge,
0:47:44 > 0:47:45a sort of bomb shelter.
0:47:47 > 0:47:52Then, as now, Italy is prone to devastating earthquakes.
0:47:52 > 0:47:56One shook Pompeii and Herculaneum in 63 AD.
0:47:57 > 0:48:02Its impact was such that it is recorded in a marble relief.
0:48:02 > 0:48:05You can see the Temple of Jupiter tipping lopsided,
0:48:05 > 0:48:08as it shakes under the force of the ground beneath it.
0:48:10 > 0:48:13In the run-up to the eruption of Mount Vesuvius,
0:48:13 > 0:48:16this seismic activity increased.
0:48:16 > 0:48:18Its effects are starkly
0:48:18 > 0:48:22apparent on the buildings along Herculaneum's ancient shoreline.
0:48:24 > 0:48:28The people of Herculaneum were used to earthquake activity
0:48:28 > 0:48:31almost continuously for decades before the eruption,
0:48:31 > 0:48:34not just THE big earthquake,
0:48:34 > 0:48:39but a process by which the crust of the Earth popped up and down.
0:48:39 > 0:48:42Over here we can see dramatic evidence of this.
0:48:42 > 0:48:45We have the suburban baths,
0:48:45 > 0:48:48and up there we can see how the windows of the baths
0:48:48 > 0:48:50are half-blocked in,
0:48:50 > 0:48:53right up there, because the sea is crashing against the wall,
0:48:53 > 0:48:57and down here the sand is piling against the bottom of the building.
0:49:00 > 0:49:03The seismic activity caused the sea level to rise
0:49:03 > 0:49:08and fall by as much as five metres - that's 16 feet -
0:49:08 > 0:49:10over a 20 year period.
0:49:10 > 0:49:13Here I'm standing on top of a massive wall,
0:49:13 > 0:49:14built to keep out the sea.
0:49:14 > 0:49:17Originally, the sea was way out there,
0:49:17 > 0:49:20and as it advanced and rose and came in,
0:49:20 > 0:49:23it came smashing against this house.
0:49:23 > 0:49:25This is the House of the Telephus Relief,
0:49:25 > 0:49:28and you can see here that they have had to block in a whole
0:49:28 > 0:49:32series of arches, and down below, we discovered,
0:49:32 > 0:49:36there is an entire level of the house that they have had to
0:49:36 > 0:49:39abandon entirely because of the rising sea.
0:49:42 > 0:49:45They chose to adapt to a perilous environment,
0:49:45 > 0:49:47rather than abandoning their town.
0:49:47 > 0:49:49Why?
0:49:49 > 0:49:51The Roman writer, Seneca,
0:49:51 > 0:49:54advising on the response to the disaster of '63,
0:49:54 > 0:49:56gives us one reason.
0:49:56 > 0:50:01He said, "There was no point fleeing this particular earthquake.
0:50:01 > 0:50:04"Earthquakes could happen anywhere."
0:50:04 > 0:50:06Tragically for the people here,
0:50:06 > 0:50:10Seneca understood neither the geology of earthquakes,
0:50:10 > 0:50:14nor the connection between what was going on under the ground
0:50:14 > 0:50:18and the volcanic potential of Mount Vesuvius.
0:50:18 > 0:50:22And there is another clue as to why people didn't leave.
0:50:22 > 0:50:24Here, in the Naples Museum,
0:50:24 > 0:50:27they're busy packing stuff up to go on exhibition, and we're
0:50:27 > 0:50:31just in time to capture this one, which is a bit of a favourite.
0:50:31 > 0:50:34Favourite because it is a picture of Vesuvius.
0:50:34 > 0:50:37It is over on its side
0:50:37 > 0:50:41but you can just about make out that here is the volcano.
0:50:41 > 0:50:46And by the volcano, is a figure of a god, the god of wine, Bacchus,
0:50:46 > 0:50:49and he is completely clad in grapes.
0:50:49 > 0:50:54That points to the enormous fertility of the slopes of Vesuvius.
0:50:54 > 0:50:56Here, you can even see vines
0:50:56 > 0:50:57growing in rows.
0:51:00 > 0:51:05Another interesting thing about this - Vesuvius has got
0:51:05 > 0:51:06a cone on top.
0:51:06 > 0:51:09It hasn't yet blown its top off.
0:51:09 > 0:51:11And that tells us two things.
0:51:11 > 0:51:16For the Romans, Vesuvius is a safe place, no eruptions,
0:51:16 > 0:51:19and it's an enormously fertile place.
0:51:19 > 0:51:22Why would anyone want to leave it?
0:51:25 > 0:51:31The people were then, and are now, deeply attached to the landscape.
0:51:34 > 0:51:40Signor Ambrosio runs a vineyard on the ash-rich slopes of Vesuvius
0:51:40 > 0:51:42and is very proud of his wine.
0:51:44 > 0:51:46The colour of love.
0:51:48 > 0:51:53The wine is called Lacryma Christi, literally the "Tears Of Christ".
0:51:53 > 0:51:55Its production was thought
0:51:55 > 0:51:57to date back to the 18th century,
0:51:57 > 0:52:00till Signor Ambrosio uncovered
0:52:00 > 0:52:03some extraordinary new evidence in his vineyard.
0:52:03 > 0:52:07Oh, you've made me a happy man!
0:52:07 > 0:52:09A Roman dolium.
0:52:09 > 0:52:11That's what I like to see.
0:52:11 > 0:52:13HE SPEAKS ITALIAN
0:52:22 > 0:52:25This is a trace... This is amazing!
0:52:26 > 0:52:31This is ancient Roman wine on the lip here, this is the must
0:52:31 > 0:52:34and actually, if I run my finger there, it's rough.
0:52:34 > 0:52:38And here it's smooth and slightly sticky.
0:52:39 > 0:52:43They have conducted DNA analysis of the must here,
0:52:43 > 0:52:47and it emerges that it is the same as the modern wine.
0:52:49 > 0:52:52And, with his wine, vineyard and land at stake,
0:52:52 > 0:52:57Signor Ambrosio has too much to lose by leaving Mount Vesuvius.
0:52:57 > 0:52:59Just like his Roman forefathers.
0:53:04 > 0:53:08Back in 79 AD, no-one in Herculaneum had any
0:53:08 > 0:53:11idea that it might erupt, let alone
0:53:11 > 0:53:15the scale of the catastrophe that was about to unfold.
0:53:25 > 0:53:30The disaster took many hours to play out, probably more than 12
0:53:30 > 0:53:35hours before the final lethal surge that killed people arrived.
0:53:35 > 0:53:37In the meantime,
0:53:37 > 0:53:41the population must have agonised about how to save themselves.
0:53:41 > 0:53:45Perhaps thinking of what they did in earthquakes in the past,
0:53:45 > 0:53:49many of them came down here to the ancient shore.
0:53:49 > 0:53:52Some were out on the beach, some inside these arches.
0:53:55 > 0:53:58The vast majority found in the arches were women
0:53:58 > 0:54:03or children, whilst those on the beach were nearly all male.
0:54:03 > 0:54:06Perhaps the timescale can explain this strange separation,
0:54:06 > 0:54:11and how these people organised themselves before disaster struck.
0:54:16 > 0:54:19Humans tend to react to crises differently,
0:54:19 > 0:54:25if the crisis is sudden or a very short time, or if the crisis is long.
0:54:25 > 0:54:31And when the crisis is sudden, the strongest survive.
0:54:31 > 0:54:32The males.
0:54:32 > 0:54:35Adult males - young.
0:54:35 > 0:54:37When the crisis is much longer,
0:54:37 > 0:54:40so there is more possibility to organise.
0:54:40 > 0:54:45The reason is protection for the weakest, so children and women.
0:54:45 > 0:54:46It depends how much time you have.
0:54:46 > 0:54:49If this is collapsing now, we rush away.
0:54:49 > 0:54:53If they tell us, "In 15 minutes, this ceiling will collapse,"
0:54:53 > 0:54:54we organise.
0:54:54 > 0:54:58For instance, it happened on the Titanic, where they had hours,
0:54:58 > 0:55:05so at the end more women and children survived than males.
0:55:05 > 0:55:08With Herculaneum you had even more hours,
0:55:08 > 0:55:12and are we seeing special treatment, are we seeing different
0:55:12 > 0:55:16treatment of women and children from males?
0:55:16 > 0:55:19They put the family inside the chamber,
0:55:19 > 0:55:22and the males were looking around, "What do we do, what's going on?"
0:55:22 > 0:55:26But it's rather nice, because you have got the Romans being real gentleman.
0:55:26 > 0:55:30They're saying, "Women and children, please, take refuge from this
0:55:30 > 0:55:33"disaster and we will be brave, we will stay outside."
0:55:36 > 0:55:38The fact that there were
0:55:38 > 0:55:42so many men out on the beach suggests an act of self-sacrifice.
0:55:43 > 0:55:47But by the final phase of eruption, escape was impossible.
0:55:48 > 0:55:52There ash was now falling at a rate of over a metre an hour,
0:55:52 > 0:55:54and would envelop our skeletons,
0:55:54 > 0:55:56capturing their last moments of life.
0:56:04 > 0:56:08A mother, embracing her baby.
0:56:08 > 0:56:10A boy clasping his pet dog.
0:56:12 > 0:56:16And two women cradling a girl with silver earrings.
0:56:19 > 0:56:22The arches offered protection from earthquakes,
0:56:22 > 0:56:25not from the wrath of Mount Vesuvius.
0:56:27 > 0:56:30Nothing could have prepared these people for what happened here.
0:56:32 > 0:56:37The skeletons are more than a grisly reminder of death and disaster.
0:56:38 > 0:56:43Like so much else in Herculaneum, they give us a vivid
0:56:43 > 0:56:47and sharply-focused picture of people's lives.
0:56:47 > 0:56:50And it is a surprising picture.
0:56:50 > 0:56:53From their homes, to what they ate,
0:56:53 > 0:56:56to how they ate it
0:56:56 > 0:56:58and the values they held dear,
0:56:58 > 0:57:03it is tempting to talk about the ordinary Roman,
0:57:03 > 0:57:06but it is difficult to pigeonhole Venidius Ennicus, Petronia Iusta
0:57:06 > 0:57:10or the skeletons from the arches in this way.
0:57:16 > 0:57:19We tend to think of the Roman world as one of brutal contrast
0:57:19 > 0:57:22between rich and poor, master and slave.
0:57:22 > 0:57:28Herculaneum shows us a more complex and a more fluid society.
0:57:28 > 0:57:31It gives us back the people in the middle,
0:57:31 > 0:57:34and far from being what we think of as "ordinary",
0:57:34 > 0:57:36they are quite extraordinary.
0:57:40 > 0:57:44This was a place where slaves could be flogged,
0:57:44 > 0:57:46but also a town where they
0:57:46 > 0:57:49could be freed, earn citizenship,
0:57:49 > 0:57:51own property and gain dignity.
0:57:54 > 0:57:56Where immigrants from across the Empire
0:57:56 > 0:58:02and beyond could strive in a land of opportunity to enjoy
0:58:02 > 0:58:06a quality of life unparalleled for Antiquity,
0:58:06 > 0:58:08and as full citizens,
0:58:08 > 0:58:12make themselves at home in this new Roman world.
0:58:12 > 0:58:17A world that would continue to flourish for another three centuries
0:58:17 > 0:58:19after the destruction of Herculaneum.
0:58:29 > 0:58:32Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd